An online interview

Those of you who've enjoyed my books, particularly my first Western, may be interested in a lengthy online interview conducted by Scott Cole for the Castalia House blog.  You'll find it here.

Scott sent me a long list of questions, which I answered by e-mail as best I could.  He then expanded on some of the questions and added a few more, and we went to and fro for a few days fleshing out the interview.  I think the result gives some idea of how much research goes into one of my novels.  They aren't just thumb-sucked out of thin air;  even the science fiction ones are carefully studied, with 'hard science' used whenever possible (although, obviously, some non-scientific elements of space opera are there as well).

Click over to Castalia House's blog to read the whole interview.  I hope you enjoy it.

Peter

What do you do when people are hurt or killed because of a lie?

To illustrate the no-win situation in which police find themselves in these troubled times, the organizers of the riots in Charlotte, NC (and be in no doubt that they were organized - this was not just a 'spontaneous outburst'), claimed (and repeated ad nauseam) that the deceased man, Keith Scott, was carrying a book, not a gun.

Oh, really? Not according to WSOC TV in Charlotte. Here are still images of Mr. Scott's body from a video released by the station. The handgun is circled in red.

Furthermore, according to Blue Lives Matter:

Chief of Police Kerr Putney released a statement today saying a gun was found on scene, a book was not found on scene, and the officers warned Scott several times to drop the weapon before they fired on him. Chief Putney even stated that witnesses saw Scott with the gun.

What's more, it seems that Mr. Scott wasn't the icon of peaceful, non-criminal purity some are portraying him to have been.  Funny how no-one's paying any attention to that . . .

As I said earlier this morning, I continue to believe that a firearm may well not be the best answer to such mob violence.  However, with all that's coming out about this shooting, if I had no other choice, I'd feel a whole lot less reluctant to open fire on any rioters trying to drag me into the mess they've cooked up.  I'll be damned if I die for their lies.  Black Lives Matter was founded on the lie of "Hands up!  Don't shoot!"  Looks like nothing's changed, and they're still lying;  so to hell with them!  I wouldn't blame the police if they decided to target BLM organizers and give them an object lesson or two.  They deserve it.




Peter

Lessons from the Charlotte riots

So another riot breaks out in another city.  The proximate cause appears to be a black man who was shot by a (black) police officer;  but the race of the officer doesn't seem to matter to the rioters, because the Black Lives Matter crowd is all over this one.  Furthermore, the pattern of the riots appears organized, almost professional.  This isn't just an outbreak of anger and distrust.  This is organized chaos.  It's not spontaneous - it's directed, managed and deliberate.  (I think it's also guaranteed to get Donald Trump several thousand more votes . . . perhaps several tens of thousands.)

The events in Charlotte underscore what we've said about this sort of thing many times before in these pages.  Here's a brief video from yesterday evening's events, showing at least one shooting victim lying on the pavement.

Note the chaos.  If you're caught up in that, you can forget about rational thinking, logical planning and organized escape-and-evade tactics.  You won't have time, and there are too many potential threats on the scene to evade them all.  Violence is very likely to be offered to you and yours, and your only way out may be to offer (and, if necessary, put into effect) equal (and sometimes more than equal) violence to those threatening you.  That's reality.  That's the way it is.

There are some important lessons to be learned.  Firstly, a vehicle isn't going to help when the streets are clogged.  You can't drive over dozens of protestors.  If nothing else, their bodies will immobilize your vehicle, just as surely as if it became high-centered over a bump.  What's more, as soon as you're forced to slow down or stop, you're going to get dragged from your vehicle by angry rioters.  That may not be survivable.  Much rather use your vehicle to avoid getting into that mess in the first place . . . but you may not have a choice.  You may turn a corner in a city center to find the mob coming to meet you, with no time or space to avoid them.  If you're on an interstate highway, the on- and off-ramps may be blocked by rioters and/or vehicles with nowhere to go, leaving you stranded with a mob coming towards you, looting every vehicle they pass.  This is what I-85 looked like in Charlotte on Tuesday evening.

Rioters looted stalled trucks of their cargoes, taking what they wanted and torching the rest.  Hundreds of vehicles backed up behind the scene of the crime.  If yours was among them, what would you do?  Many of those present abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot.  That's all well and good, if they had the space and time to do so . . . but what if they didn't?  What if the rioters swarmed their vehicle before they could get out?  What if they, or a member of their party, had limited mobility and couldn't escape and evade fast enough?

In such a situation, resistance may be your only option.  Make sure you have a firearm handy, plus enough ammunition to defend yourself and your loved ones.  That may be difficult.  It's an unpalatable, raw, brutal fact that you may not be able to offer enough resistance to save yourself in such a situation.  If there are a couple of dozen rioters within feet of you, you probably can't shoot fast enough to get them all.  Distance is your friend.  Even if you use a firearm successfully to defend yourself, whilst that may solve Problem One (immediate survival), it's likely to land you neck-deep in Problem Two.  The aftermath of such a riot is likely to see political and social leaders screaming for a scapegoat.  If you shoot a few rioters, guess what?  You're probably it.

You're just about certain to be arrested and charged with all sorts of crimes, even if all you were doing is trying to save your life and the lives of your loved ones.  You may find it very difficult to defeat the charges in court, particularly if witnesses are scarce (or intimidated), and video footage of your activities (from nearby security cameras, hovering helicopters, etc.) is deliberately edited to portray your actions in the worst possible light.  Think that won't happen?  You're naive.

You need to have a plan, at the first sign of such troubles, to get away from the riots before they get out of control.  Make arrangements with family and friends, have bug-out bags and vehicles and plans in place (including sufficient fuel to get out of trouble without having to stop at a gas station, because they'll be magnets for looters).  Don't wait until it's too late.  Far better to get clear of potential trouble, then return if the trouble doesn't materialize, rather than wait until you're sure there's trouble, but not leave yourself enough space and time to get away from it.

That's likely to be difficult once riots become established.  A standard police tactic is to isolate the violence, establishing a perimeter to prevent it spreading.  Police will wait at that perimeter until they can see the unrest ebbing, then move inward once again to re-establish control.  That works for them, and helps to minimize casualties caused by them (and the political fallout from such casualties) . . . but it won't help you if you're trapped inside that perimeter.  The rioters will be all around you, and you won't be able to avoid them.  That's not a good place to be.  Get to the perimeter if at all possible, and seek police protection.  If you can't, you'll have no alternative but to hunker down in place and ride out the storm.

If you suspect you may find yourself in that situation, your location should be prepared in advance to resist that sort of problem.  Make sure rioters can't easily break in and get at you.  Use obstructions (plants, flower boxes, whatever) to make it difficult to approach windows;  put stout burglar bars on windows and security gates on doors, and fortify them if possible with whatever's available;  have weapons handy, and make sure that all adults and older children know how to use them.  Keep rioters outside, if possible at a distance, so they can't get their hands on you or your weapons.  If they do, your resistance is over, right there - and I don't have to tell you what your loved ones are likely to go through under such circumstances.

That's why the best possible solution is to get clear of the trouble and stay away from it until it's died down.  I've quoted John Farnam's advice several times before, most recently earlier this month.  It remains the best possible solution for law-abiding citizens.  Go read it, and heed it.  It may save your life.  Remember, a gun may solve some problems, but it can also get you into much worse situations.  It's a two-edged sword.

Nevertheless, if you have no alternative but to use lethal force to defend yourself, don't hesitate.  Your life, and/or the lives of your loved ones, is/are worth more than some rioter's.  Misplaced compassion under such circumstances is nothing more than terminal stupidity.  Never mind whether any other group's lives matter.  Your life matters, and the lives of your loved ones.  That's your #1 priority.

Peter

Speaking of near-death experiences in aircraft . . .

. . . to go with the one we shared this morning, how about this one?  A Greek AH-64 Apache attack helicopter flew into the Aegean Sea yesterday.  Amazingly, the crew survived.

I suspect the pilot tried to perform a maneuver without having enough airspeed or height to complete it.  That'll be expensive . . . and possibly career-ending as well.

Peter

"Why you should never post pictures of your boarding pass online"

That's the title of a cautionary article in the Telegraph.

When you’re jetting off on a hard-earned holiday you might be tempted to post a picture of your boarding pass online – but you could be giving identity thieves a free ticket into your personal details.

You don’t have to scour social media hard to find a bragging #boardingpass post – there are over 75,000 on Instagram – but an experiment by Australian airmiles whizz Steve Hui has revealed just how easily personal information can be gleaned from your flight details. In just a few simple steps, he was able to access a passenger’s full itinerary, frequent flyer logins, and even credit card details.

Hui took a boarding pass photo from Instagram, which was posted by an Australian Virgin Australia passenger on a code-share flight with Delta Airlines.

He used the passenger’s name and flight details – all of which were clearly visible on the boarding pass – to log into the ‘manage my booking’ section of Delta’s website. “I could view the passenger’s entire itinerary, and see when and where they were going to travel,” he told news.com.au. “Details also included their seat numbers, frequent flyer details and ticket numbers.”

Hui was also able to gain access to some of the passenger’s financial details. “It was easy to see a full breakdown of the fare paid, including the date of purchase and the last four digits of the credit card used. People could use that information to potentially cancel or change your flights, change your seat or cause other issues.”

You might think you’re safe from prying eyes if you cover up your name and flight number on boarding pass photos, but you’re wrong – Hui was also able to gain access to the passenger’s details by running the barcode through a simple online barcode reader. “I was able to retrieve all the passenger’s details without seeing the rest of the boarding card. The text provided full name, flight number, route, booking reference, ticket number, frequent flyer number and more.”

This isn’t the first time that flaws with boarding pass technology have been highlighted. In August, a Polish computer hacker used a mobile phone app to fake a QR code boarding pass and gain false entry to a number of airport business lounges.

. . .

It’s not the most controversial news to hit boarding passes either. In August 2015, an investigation revealed that airport duty free shops weren’t asking passengers to show their boarding passes for security reasons – they were using the information to claim back VAT of 20 per cent on goods sold to passengers flying outside the EU.

There's more at the link.

Since I don't use social media apart from this blog, I'd never have thought of posting a picture of my boarding pass, but I suppose in this share-everything-about-yourself world, there are those who do.  Just goes to show:  the more you share, the less privacy you have, and the more at risk you are of being defrauded or robbed.

Peter

Talk about a near-death experience!

I'm amazed no-one was killed or even seriously injured in this runway collision.  Pilot Thom Richard tells the story on Facebook.

On September 18, 2016, during the Gold final start we experienced an accident involving our F1 racer, ‘Hot Stuff’ and a fellow competitor’s airplane.

We were number four on the starting grid, which was the middle inside position with three aircraft on the front row, one to our right and three behind. Upon running the engine up in anticipation of the start, about 20 seconds before the green flag drop, the engine was not running well enough for flight, as you can hear from the audio, never mind racing. I made the decision to shut the engine down to signal the starters to halt the starting process. The flagman on my row put his hands in an ‘X’ over his head, as our procedures prescribe, and I opened my canopy to make it clear I was out of the race and so everyone could see me. The alternate airplane was signaled to taxi on to the runway to replace my entry. I felt confident the communications had reached the appropriate people and waited for personnel to push me off the runway.

However, much to my surprise, I saw the flagman run out on to the runway waving his hands over his head as if something was wrong. The aircraft to my right started rolling and a few seconds later the number six and eight aircraft flew by me on either side. All I could do at that point was hope the number seven (center) aircraft would clear me on the centerline to my right.

The impact was violent and loud. His left leading edge shaved off the top several inches from my vertical and skimmed the turtle-deck without touching until it impacted my right hand holding up the canopy, at well over sixty miles an hour. The left landing gear hit the top of the gull-wing center-section, blowing a hole in the top skin and impacted the rear face of the front spar so hard that it broke the landing gear clean off his airplane. The propeller sliced three evenly spaced gashes about mid span of my right wing, about a foot apart. The right landing gear sheared the wing off just short of the right wingtip. The impact spun me around nearly 180º, like a teacup ride at warp eight. The other aircraft came to rest several hundred feet in front of me with a folded gear, damaged wing and sheared propeller facing the other way as well. That pilot received no injuries.

There's more at the link.  Here's cockpit video of the collision. Watch it in full-screen mode for best results.

How he got out of that so lightly, I just don't know . . . and the pilot of the other plane is apparently also OK.  If they were cats, I'd say each just lost one of their nine lives!




Peter

Tannerite, bombs and terrorism

As most people already know, Tannerite, a binary explosive, appears to have been used in some of the bombs that exploded in New Jersey and/or New York last weekend.  That's unusual.  Tannerite was developed for use in exploding targets for shooters.  I've shot at it myself, with the expected results.  It's very popular at events such as Boomershoot and the Knob Creek Machine-gun Shoot.  Here's a video clip from the famous night-time shoot at Knob Creek, involving lots of machine-guns and targets of Tannerite and gasoline.

Boys and their toys indeed!  Frankly, I'm not particularly interested in shooting at exploding targets.  It can be fun, but I'd rather concentrate on marksmanship and improving my techniques and tactics.  YMMV, of course;  and the attendance at Knob Creek, Boomershoot and such events proves that for many, it's a fun pastime.

Despite being intended for use in exploding targets, if used in large quantities, Tannerite can be very dangerous.  To illustrate, here's an old barn being demolished with over 160 pounds of the stuff packed into a tote.  The shooter and his friends are obviously having a lot of fun with it, but that shouldn't obscure the risks of getting too close to a bang like that.

If confined in a pressure cooker, as was apparently done in the terrorist bombs last weekend, the explosive power of Tannerite is magnified, making it more dangerous.

Many responsible firearms owners have been warning for years that the casual, unrestricted, unsupervised use of Tannerite (such as in the barn explosion above, and in many other video clips on YouTube) was basically an open invitation to see it misused for at least criminal mischief, if not terrorism.  Those warnings appear to have come true.  I now expect to see pressure to at least restrict the availability of Tannerite and similar substances on security grounds, if not ban its sale altogether.  I'm not surprised by that.  It's a toy that can be deadly dangerous, and its use in a society threatened by terrorism is at least questionable.

There are bound to be shooters who regard this as an assault on their Second Amendment rights and freedoms.  I don't see it as such - after all, Tannerite's not an 'arm' in the meaning of the Amendment, as far as I know - but there are lots of shooters who like making loud bangs and lots of smoke and flame.  I expect there to be a lot of verbiage slung around about this over the next few months.  I can only hope that sanity will prevail - on all sides.  The reality of terrorism demands it.

Peter

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight . . ."

". . . it's the size of the fight in the dog", as Mark Twain so memorably said.  This puppy certainly has moxie to spare when it takes on three lion cubs!  (A tip o' the hat to Old NFO for sending me the link to this one.)

I hope it doesn't try to do the same thing when it (and the lions) are a bit older . . .




Peter

Does anyone need Glock magazines?

As part of my annual magazine checkup, I've found I have a number of Glock magazines that are surplus to my needs.  However, I'm short of some other magazines.  Therefore, I'm going to sell my excess mags, and use the money to buy what I need.

I have the following OEM units, all in good to excellent condition, priced at $15 each (with a 10% discount if you order 3 or more):

• Three (3) Glock 17 17-round 9mm. magazines, 3rd generation;
• One (1) Glock 19 10-round 9mm. magazine, 3rd generation;
• Five (5) Glock 22 15-round .40 magazines, 4th generation;
• Six (6) Glock 23 10-round .40 magazines, 3rd generation.

All are in good to excellent condition (some are unused).  Postage will be $7 for a Priority Mail flat-rate small box (within the USA), without insurance.  If you buy more magazines than will fit into the box, I'll eat the extra postage costs.

I'll also consider trading my Glock OEM magazines on a three-for-two basis for new third-party magazines for the Glock 19 such as ETS (my preference) or Magpul.  (They're obviously available from other sources besides the link - I just picked the cheapest price for them I could find with a quick search.)

All legal requirements will be observed;  in other words, I won't ship high-capacity magazines to states that forbid their importation, or send them outside the USA.  Sorry, but them's the rules.  I didn't make them, so please don't blame me for them.

(A note about 10-round magazines.  Many shooters simply stock up on the standard-capacity magazines for their firearm, without thinking about travel or relocating.  However, a number of states mandate a 10-round magazine capacity limit.  It's worth having a few in your stash, so that if you have to travel through or visit such states, you can be legal while doing so.  Don't take higher-capacity magazines with you, because it may be a criminal offense to import them into those states.  You don't need a felony conviction on your record!)

If you're interested, you can get in touch with me via e-mail (the address is in my blog profile - click on my name under the heading 'About Me' in the sidebar).  It may take half a day or more before I can respond, so please be patient.  First come, first served.  Thanks!

Peter

EDITED TO ADD:  All magazines have been sold, pending funds.

Low down and twisty

I've greatly enjoyed two video clips of low-level flight over the past couple of days. Watch them in full-screen mode for best results.

First, courtesy of Comrade Misfit, here's some F-22's playing on the Mach Loop in England.

Next, a couple of C-17 transports pretend they're fighters as they go through Rainbow Canyon in Nevada, used by the USAF and US Navy for low-level training. The pilots throw their big planes around as if they were a tenth of their actual size. I wonder whether any of them were former fighter or bomber pilots?

Boys and their toys indeed!

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #929

Today's award goes to MSNBC presenter Christopher Hayes, for this tweet concerning the terrorist incidents over the weekend in New Jersey and New York City:

Really?  Really?  Is Mr. Hayes seriously suggesting that guns are more deadly than bombs???

Mr. Hayes, I've been shot.  I have the scars to prove it.  I've also been far too close to explosives on more than one occasion, both terrorist bombs and military artillery, missiles, mortars and rockets.  I've had to assist the casualties caused by both guns and bombs, and clean up the remains of those who didn't make it.  I can assure you, bombs and other explosive devices are a darned sight more deadly, and more indiscriminate in their violence, than any firearm.  There's a reason why Josef Stalin referred to artillery as "The God of War".  Bombs are its equivalent when it comes to urban terrorism.

As PJ Media pointed out:

Only in the ideologically diseased mind of a progressive could getting blown up be perceived as "lucky." They're so knee-jerk in their irrational hatred of guns that they can't resist getting in a dig about just how scary they are, even when that dig is patently insane to any observer with an IQ over 17.

Arrant stupidity, personified!




Peter

When you live in the media's heads, maybe you don't need ads?

I'm greatly amused by this article in the Washington Examiner.

Hillary Clinton has spent several times what Donald Trump has spent to air television ads in key states. That will likely continue; in a new count by Advertising Age, the Clinton campaign and its allied super PACs have booked $145.3 million in ad time between now and Election Day, to $4.4 million for Trump and his groups.

The disparity has terrified some Republican strategists who fear Trump is being drowned in a tidal wave of Clinton ads. But what if it doesn't really matter?

Take Ohio. Clinton and her allies have been pummeling Trump on TV there, spending many millions more than he has. Yet Trump has climbed in the polls while she has fallen; two recent surveys had Trump ahead by 3 and 5 points, respectively.

"She's got all these offices and staff and ads," one Ohio GOP operative said recently. "But if the election were held today, Trump would win Ohio."

In Florida, Clinton has been on a spending spree, yet the New York Times' Trip Gabriel recently noted that "the tens of millions in TV ads run by Mrs. Clinton and her allies in the state have failed to give her a noticeable advantage." In the RealClearPolitics average of Florida polls, Trump is up by 1 point.

Some Florida political veterans are already saying Clinton is throwing money away on television. "To date, the Clinton campaign has spent $22.3 million on television [in Florida]," Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings said recently, according to an account in the Palm Beach Post. "You give [local Democrats] $22 million and I'll produce more votes for you than a damn television ad."

There's more at the link.  Zero Hedge provided this graph of future advertising airtime bookings by the two campaigns.

My immediate reaction is that Donald Trump is playing the media like a master.  He's got them so focused on him that everything he says or does is reported at once.  Sure, it's usually reported very negatively;  but does that matter?  After all, "There's no such thing as bad publicity", as the saying goes - and bad or not, Mr. Trump is certainly getting an awful lot of publicity!  There's also the factor that most of the public no longer believes or trusts the news media.  Their bias is so obvious that many readers/listeners have simply stopped paying any attention to their claims.  All they're hearing is "Trump... Trump... Trump" without bothering about the specifics of what's being alleged.  That has to amount to tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity for Mr. Trump's campaign.

I find it supremely ironic that the ridiculously biased, left-leaning, Clinton-supporting news media are actually empowering and enabling the Trump campaign to spend vastly less than their opponents on publicity, yet still get much more of it - and much more effectively - than any other candidate.  I bet Donald Trump is laughing all the way to the bank about that.  He may even laugh all the way to the Oval Office.

Peter

Good luck with that, guys . . .

Heh.

With so many [electric] cars getting ready to ship out to customers Elon Musk recently stated that he will need the world’s entire lithium supply annually in order to meet demand.

. . .

Musk’s biggest competitor, Warren Buffet’s BYD, has also echoed the challenges facing the industry. Buffet’s company also says they are going to require the entire world’s lithium supply to meet demand.

And even car manufacturers are getting into the game. Volkswagen just invested $9 billion into the development of a battery factory, and Ford, Toyota, GM, and Nissan aren’t far behind.

There's more at the link.

Good luck with that, guys.  What's it to be?  Duke it out with boxing gloves?  Pistols at dawn?  However this is decided, it should make business and commerce much more of a spectator sport!

Peter

Amazing fight choreography

I recently came across this excerpt from a Chinese TV series, 'All Men Are Brothers', based on the ancient novel 'Water Margin'.  It's some of the most extraordinary fight choreography I've ever seen.  Aficionados of the quarterstaff and Far Eastern stick fighting will find much of interest in it.  Watch it in full-screen mode for best results - and I apologize for the poor audio quality;  it appears to have been dubbed from Chinese into Thai, with both soundtracks still audible.

Fancy footwork indeed!

Peter

US cities are becoming much more dangerous places

I'm seeing a confluence of three different threats at present that are bad enough in themselves, but together threaten to make many US cities much more dangerous than in the past.  Some suburbs may become so dangerous as to turn into 'no-go areas' for all except those trapped there.

The first is, of course, terrorism.  Over the last forty-eight hours we've seen four separate attacks (and ignore the politically correct idiots who refuse to label them 'terrorism' - the reality is as obvious as the nose on your face).

• A series of bombs on a 'fun run' route in New Jersey;
• A bomb in a dumpster in New York City;
• A knife attack with multiple victims in Minnesota;  and -
• An explosion at a train station in New Jersey.

Despite all politically-correct proclamations to the contrary, it's very obvious that most such terrorist incidents have involved individuals with a Muslim background.  Some have been refugees from other countries with their own terrorism problems.  (For example, the Minnesota knifeman is reported to have been of Somali origin.  The Somali community in that state has experienced significant problems in terms of racism, economic difficulties, and radicalization of its youth - the latter exemplified by Saturday's attack.)  Minnesota is far from the only state with such concentrations of immigrants and refugees that may be susceptible to radicalization.  Using such communities as relatively secure bases, and with free access to vehicles, any potential terrorists can cross the country in a couple of days, carrying with them all they need to wreak havoc and carnage when they reach their targets.

The second threat is the so-called 'Ferguson effect'.  We've spoken of it in these pages several times before.  US police forces are basically withdrawing from high-conflict inner-city areas, because if they try to keep the peace there, they're assailed by civil rights activists and left-wing and progressive pressure groups.  They're in a no-win situation;  and rather than fight it, they've chosen to abandon the people in such areas to the predations of the lawless.  Frankly, if I were in their shoes, I'd probably have made the same choice.

This means that a great deal of low-level crime that would normally be dealt with by the police is now allowed to continue unchecked.  Those engaged in it become bolder, and their depredations increase.  The path from low-level misdemeanors to felony criminal offenses is now much easier to take, with fewer obstacles to deter those so inclined . . . and that means the citizens threatened by such escalations in crime are much more vulnerable.  At present the problem is largely confined to inner-city ghettoes, but every now and then it spills out into more 'respectable' areas in the form of flash mobs and demonstrations.  I expect such incidents to become more frequent, and more violent.

The problem is aggravated by protests organized by Black Lives Matter and similar organizations.  BLM has apparently obtained over $130 million in funding from liberal and progressive individuals and organizations.  I don't think those donations were provided to fund the widespread use of tiddlywinks as a stress reliever!  The left is clearly trying to use BLM as a political lever.  I think that's a very dangerous thing.  BLM is hardly noted for moderation.  Emboldened by such support and such lavish funding, I expect its activities to grow more widespread - and more violent.  That, in turn, is likely to lead to a backlash, not so much from police (whose leadership appears to be intimidated by political correctness in many cases), but from ordinary citizens.  Certainly, in the part of the country where I live, one hears many outraged comments about BLM's shenanigans, along with promises to take whatever steps are necessary to stop them being perpetrated in this area.  I know many share such opinions . . . and I don't think police, currently under attack (both verbal and - sometimes - physical) by BLM, are going to be overly inclined to stop them.  Escalation may be inevitable and unavoidable by now.

The third is growing criminal violence, in terms of both inter-gang conflict and attempts to make certain areas 'no-go zones' to both rival gangs and the authorities.  Much of the impetus for this comes from South America, where such conflicts and no-go zones have become commonplace in several countries.  I'll have more to say about that in a moment;  but to illustrate, in 2007 Vanity Fair published an excellent article titled 'City of Fear' about the Brazilian experience of such problems.  Here's an excerpt.

For seven days last May the city of São Paulo, Brazil, teetered on the edge of a feral zone where governments barely reach and countries lose their meaning. That zone is a wilderness inhabited already by large populations worldwide, but officially denied and rarely described. It is not a throwback to the Dark Ages, but an evolution toward something new—a companion to globalization, and an element in a fundamental reordering that may gradually render national boundaries obsolete. It is most obvious in the narco-lands of Colombia and Mexico, in the fractured swaths of Africa, in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, in much of Iraq. But it also exists beneath the surface in places where governments are believed to govern and countries still seem to be strong.

. . .

But then, suddenly, on the afternoon of Friday, May 12, 2006, São Paulo came under a violent and coordinated attack. The attackers moved on foot, and by car and motorbike. They were not rioters, revolutionaries, or the graduates of terrorist camps. They were anonymous young men and women, dressed in ordinary clothes, unidentifiable in advance, and indistinguishable afterward. Wielding pistols, automatic rifles, and firebombs, they emerged from within the city, struck fast, and vanished on the spot. Their acts were criminal, but the attackers did not loot, rob, or steal. They burned buses, banks, and public buildings, and went hard after the forces of order—gunning down the police in their neighborhood posts, in their homes, and on the streets. The police shot back and killed some people, but the others did not stop. They were like ghosts. On an animated plot of São Paulo their presence would have seemed like pinpoint flashes of light sparkling at random far and wide. The sparkling was slow, but word spread quickly, and traffic snarled as citizens tried to rush home. After they settled behind locked doors, they did not dare to venture out. Restaurants and shops were closed. The boulevards lay lit and abandoned. On television came news that the attacks were the work of a prison gang, half forgotten but widely known, called Primeiro Comando da Capital, or P.C.C., the First Command of the Capital. Across the state 73 prisons rose in synchronous rebellion. This caused less concern than one might expect, in part because prison riots are common in Brazil, and are routinely if sometimes brutally contained. But the attacks against the city were something else, and the government had no idea how to respond.

State authorities claimed that the situation was under control, but television showed that it was not. In fact, the authorities were barricaded inside their headquarters watching the same broadcast scenes. Some of the replays were set to music. The attacks continued in irregular waves, without discernible patterns. Through Friday night and across the weekend the police reeled backward, abandoning their posts, only to be ambushed in the open. The police in São Paulo are despised for corruption and brutality, but they do loosely stand for law and order, and it was shocking to see them in retreat. Over the first two days more than 40 police officers and prison guards were killed, and also one of the firemen responding to the flames. For every agent killed, several others were wounded. Passersby died, caught in the crossfire ... The city huddled through the third night. On Monday morning, after a period of calm, people summoned the courage to return to work, in the hope that the trouble was over. But at midday the attacks resumed, and people again fled for their homes, creating one of the greatest traffic jams in São Paulo’s great traffic-jam history.

Then, as abruptly as they had started, on Monday night the attacks suddenly stopped.

. . .

What is certain is that the assault was a demonstration of strength, an act of self-affirmation, and a measured blow against the rule of law. Some of the attacks were so brazen as to be nearly suicidal. The point being made was not that they could be carried out, but that they could be sustained.

There's more at the link.  It's a very long article, but well worth your time to read in full - because it's likely to happen here too.  Forewarned is forearmed.

The great danger, one that too many Americans don't yet recognize, is that people who've grown up with such gang violence and criminal terror are now present in this country in large numbers.  The activities of the MS-13 gang are relatively well-known, but it's only one gang.  There are many others, some of them even more violent.  Criminals from almost every country in South America have crossed our borders with impunity, and set up operations here.  Cartel hit-men have been active in Phoenix, Arizona and elsewhere.  Hispanic gangs - both home-grown, and infused by 'talent' from south of the border - are trying to drive out black residents from areas in Los Angeles they consider 'theirs'.  Conflict between hispanic and black communities in general, and criminal gangs in particular, has been growing for a long time.

I'm waiting for the 'example' of BLM (which has almost certainly been inspired by the success of gangs in South America at making certain areas of cities 'ungovernable' by the authorities) to motivate such gangs to do likewise in their areas.  It's a common progression all around the world.  I saw it in South Africa during the years of the struggle against apartheid, where gangs of one political persuasion or another would seek to make a particular township 'theirs' and exclude all other shades of opinion.  With certain suburbs now seemingly being downgraded by police, thanks to the 'Ferguson Effect', how long can it be before the same thing happens in some US cities?

So, to put it all together, we have:

• Terrorist attacks;
• The 'Ferguson Effect';  and
• The influence of criminal gangs and racial tensions in a number of our cities and suburbs.

Combine all those elements, and you have a recipe for a very violent and uncertain future.  I don't have a crystal ball, and I can't predict the future with any certainty, but I think those elements are going to feed each other to make US cities much more dangerous places.  I can see criminal gangs actually encouraging terrorism, provided it's directed against those they consider their enemies too, so that they can take advantage of the resulting confusion and panic.  I can also see international terrorists deliberately seeking alliances with gangs in order to make their work easier (indeed, there are already widespread reports that Hamas and Hezbollah are working with drug cartels in Mexico).

I have a very bad feeling about the confluence of events at present.  May I suggest that readers living in closer proximity to events such as those of the past weekend should take note, and plan accordingly?

Peter

So why not boycott the debates?

For the benefit of those who are new to this blog, let me repeat:  I'm politically neutral.  I vote for the person, not the party;  and in the current Presidential election campaign, I'm not a supporter of any particular candidate.  I share the concerns of many concerning Donald Trump's potential to make a good President, but I also concede that he's at least unlikely to be worse than any of his rivals for the office.  In many ways, his business experience is likely to prove an advantage.  What's more, he's never given up.  He's endured bankruptcy, slander, virulent opposition and much more, and kept his head.  When the dust settled, he was still on his feet, and he's always bounced back from failure.  A Presidential candidate could have a lot worse track record than that.

That said, I'm amazed that he plans to participate in the debates with his opponent when this sort of report comes out.

The men and women who run the supposedly “nonpartisan” Commission on Presidential Debates have put their money where their mouths are — and it all has gone to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The amount of money is small by the standards of a modern presidential campaign, but it is one-sided. A pair of Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University examined campaign finance reports and found that all of the $5,650 in contributions that commission members have made to presidential candidates during this election season have gone to Clinton.

Republican Donald Trump, who will meet Clinton in the first debate a week from Monday, received no donations from debate commission members.

There's more at the link.

Mr. Trump, if you know that every single one of those organizing the debates supports your opponent, you can't possibly expect fairness from them - or from your opponent, or from the press, who've made their own partisanship blindingly obvious.  That being the case, why stick your head into the lion's mouth?  Why debate at all?  Why not plan other functions, rallies or whatever on those nights, and make your case to the electorate in a forum that won't be riddled with bias, preconceptions and negativity?

Or am I missing something?

On the subject of Mr. Trump's support, I'm more and more wondering whether all the opinion polls aren't understating it dramatically, at least in some states.  Borepatch noted this morning that in Frederick County in Maryland, his support appears to be surprisingly strong.  I'm hearing the same thing from friends and acquaintances in a number of other states.

An unexpected, unlooked-for Trumpalanche, perhaps?  One does wonder . . .

Peter

Notes on maintaining firearm magazines

I'm beginning my annual checkup of all my pistol and rifle magazines, making sure they're in good working order and organized according to firearm, cartridge, etc.  As usual, I'm finding problems here and there, and I thought a few notes might help others in the same situation.


1.  Glock generations.  I have exclusively 3rd-generation Glock pistols.  That's by choice;  I've never forgotten the early recoil spring problems with 4th-generation Glocks, which made me decide not to buy them.  I know they're supposed to have fixed that by now, but still . . .  The problem arises in that 4th-generation Glocks (and all Glock magazines manufactured since then) have magazine catch indentations on both sides of the front of the magazine.  1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-generation Glock magazines had the indentation on only one side of the magazine.  This means that earlier-generation magazines may not work properly in a 4th-generation pistol, whereas 4th-generation magazines will work correctly in all generations of Glock pistols.

If you have a mix of 3rd- and 4th-generation Glock pistols, as many do, it might be worth visually distinguishing their magazines in some way (a different color floorplate, or marking them with different colors in some way).  That way, you're less likely to absent-mindedly reach for a 3rd-generation magazine and insert it into a 4th-generation pistol.  If you should really need that pistol, the last thing you want are feeding malfunctions when you're trying to save your life!  A better alternative (if you can afford it - I can't) is to sell your older magazines, or trade them in, to buy more 4th-generation models, so that all your magazines will function in all your pistols.


2.  Magazine wear.  This can show up in unexpected places.  A few minutes ago I was checking a Glock 17 magazine when I noticed the back plate was bulged outward for the bottom third of its length, almost as if it had a crease running down its center.  Puzzled, I unloaded it, removed the baseplate and spring, and visually inspected the inside.  Sure enough, the metal plate at the rear had bulged outward.  When I tried to insert it into a pistol to test it for function, it didn't want to go all the way in, because the bulge pressed against the rear of the magazine well;  and once in, it was difficult to extract.  Needless to say, that magazine went straight into the trash can!

I've never seen that particular weakness before, but there's always a first time.  There are others.  Plastic followers can wear until they protrude through the magazine's lips;  the lips themselves can pull apart under the pressure of a full load of ammunition with a strong spring behind the rounds;  plastic baseplates can weaken so that the grooves holding them onto the magazine body stretch, allowing them to come apart under tension.  (I've had that happen to me more than once during a shooting course, when magazines are repeatedly loaded and emptied, and often dropped onto hard ground.)

It's not worth trying to repair something like that.  If a weak point shows itself, it'll almost certainly reoccur, no matter what you do.  Get rid of that magazine, and replace it with a new one.


3.  Product improvements.  Frequently, during the life of a firearm, the manufacturer will introduce improved parts or components.  Magazines are no exception.  For example, Glock has three generations of magazines, plus several generations of followers.  The latter can cause confusion - see, for example, this forum thread discussing them.  It's probably a good idea to check the current version of follower in your magazines (i.e. the one sold in new magazines for your pistol in the appropriate cartridge/caliber).  If your followers are an older generation, there's usually a reason why they were changed to the new one - possibly feeding malfunctions, wear patterns, etc.  I make it a habit, every five years or so, to check on the current versions.  Last year I upgraded a large number of older Glock magazines to the latest follower versions, and installed new springs.  YMMV, of course.


4.  Visual differentiation.  If you have different pistols from the same manufacturer, their magazines may look very similar, varying only in their length.  For example, the Glock 17's magazine holds 17 rounds, while the Glock 19's holds 15 rounds;  but the G17 magazine will fit and function in the G19, whereas the G19 magazine will not fit and function in the G17.  If you own examples of both models, and pick up (say) a G17 pistol plus (by accident) a G19 spare magazine, that spare won't work in your carry gun.  That might be disastrous under the wrong circumstances.  Also, 9mm. Glock magazines look very similar to that company's .40 S&W magazines.  Without careful inspection, it's easy to confuse them.  The same applies to the Ruger SR, Smith & Wesson M&P and Springfield XD pistol families, among others.  Magazines for one cartridge may not feed another cartridge reliably.  You don't want to find that out the hard way at the wrong time.

I recommend visually distinguishing between such similar magazines by color-coding them.  This can be as simple as using a marker that will write on hard plastic or metal (I use this one to label mine).  A more visually obvious solution, IMHO, is to use different-colored baseplates.  They're available from various sources (for example, the Vickers Tactical baseplates from Tango Down - there are other vendors also).  If you really want to go to town, you can paint them, or buy a light-colored plastic baseplate and color it using something like Rit Dyemore.  How about Peacock Green or Racing Red or Royal Purple?  Unleash the artist in you!


5.  Don't try to save money by buying second-rate magazines.  A couple of years ago, I wrote:

Sometimes aftermarket products offer significant improvements over original equipment.  Unfortunately, their quality varies from excellent to execrable.  I suggest you read the firearms forums to see who's buying (or not buying, or complaining about) which manufacturer or brand.  In my own collection, for example, I have nothing at all from ProMag or Triple K, but lots of magazines, accessories and related parts from (among others) Magpul, Mec-Gar, TangoDown, Troy Industries and Wolff Gunsprings.  (No, the companies I've named aren't paying or sponsoring me to mention their names.)

Since then, I've added a few magazines from Elite Tactical Systems (for the AR-15 and Glock) and Lancer (for the AR-15) to my collection.  They've worked well for me so far.  However, I'm wary of magazines from any other manufacturer unless and until I've thoroughly tested them, and until I've seen the results of other people testing them just as thoroughly.  Magazines are critical components of your firearm.  Cheap is no substitute for reliable!


6.  Have enough magazines.  Primary firearms should have enough magazines that if one breaks, you won't feel the lack during everyday use until you can replace it.  Secondary firearms, less critical and/or less frequently used, may be able to get by with less;  but many well-known instructors recommend at least 5 magazines per pistol, and I agree.  If you have multiple copies of the same pistol, you might prefer to reduce that;  but I'm not sure that it isn't a good idea to stick to the 5-per-gun rule.  If magazine capacities are again legally restricted, you may not be able to get any more standard-capacity examples for your pistols.  Better to have enough in your stash now to see you through.  As Tamara has pithily observed:

Q: "How many magazines should you have?"

A: "More."

Word.

Peter

Time to take stock of your personal security

We saw three terrorist incidents yesterday:

• A bomb in a trash can in New Jersey;
• A bomb in a dumpster in New York City, plus a second device that didn't explode;
• And a knife attack in Minnesota.

If anyone thinks that the USA is still a safe, secure environment, he's living in cloud cuckoo land.  Welcome to reality.  Terrorism can strike anywhere, and will increasingly do so.  Those living in our larger cities, particularly those with large minority and 'refugee' populations, are most at risk.

The attacks yesterday demonstrate, once again, the need for basic security precautions that we all can take for ourselves.  The knife attack in Minnesota is a graphic illustration of the need to be able to defend oneself against such onslaughts.  Get a gun, get training in how to use it accurately and effectively, get a concealed carry permit, and carry it religiously.  If you can't get a concealed carry permit for any reason, you'll have to decide for yourself whether to carry a gun without one.  I'm not going to counsel anyone to break the law, for obvious reasons.  I'll just cite the old saying:  "I'd rather be judged by twelve than carried by six" - particularly if that was the only way I could defend my loved ones in case of need.  'Nuff said.

As for the bomb attacks, note how many windows were broken by the blast.  Flying glass causes many injuries in the wake of such explosions.  There's a simple, effective solution to the problem;  window film that holds the glass together if it fragments, preventing shards from flying off in all directions.  You can buy and install it yourself at relatively low cost (although it can be a tricky process, depending on your windows and local weather conditions;  professional installation may be advisable, albeit more expensive).  For more information, see the following manufacturer Web pages:

• Johnson Window Films
• 3M Films
• Madico

Window blast film was widely used in South Africa during the 'bad years' of the struggle against apartheid.  I saw several sites where it had held glass together during explosions, protecting those behind it from flying fragments.  I assure you, if I lived in a larger city near any area where such attacks were more of a risk, I'd put this stuff on all my windows in a heartbeat.  It works.  It's worth the money.  I know.  I've seen it in action.  For those of you in such a situation, I most earnestly urge you to consider it.  (As a bonus, if properly applied and secured at the edges, it makes it much more difficult for burglars to break a window and gain access to your property.  They're much more likely to turn away and look for an easier target.  It also offers protection against your glass breaking in severe weather conditions, such as a hurricane or tornado.)

Food for thought.

Peter

When the boot's on the other foot . . .

. . . it tends to change one's perspective!

A University of Houston grad student active in the local Black Lives Matter movement is suddenly all for police patrols in his neighborhood — after he was robbed at gunpoint outside his apartment.

Jerry Ford Jr., described as one the leaders of the BLM movement on campus, tells KTRK that he spotted the young man loitering outside his apartment one evening last week but thought little of it. But when he went to unlock the door, the man pulled a gun and stole Ford’s wallet and cell phone.

Ford lives at an apartment complex just a few blocks from the UH campus in an area that has seen a spate of robberies and thefts in recent weeks, including the burglary of dozens of vehicles. Because the housing is off-campus, it is not patrolled by University of Houston police officers. Ford says that needs to change.

There's more at the link.

Oh, the irony . . .




Peter

This needs to go viral

May I request that my readers spread the word about this video to other bloggers, friends, etc.?  It deserves the widest possible coverage.  Watch it and you'll understand.

Rope.

Peter

EDITED TO ADD: Some people have asked for more identifying information about the man in the video. I've provided that in the 11th comment to this post, complete with supporting links.