Really trying (and failing) to find sympathy here…..(I need to note that I wasn’t there, and can only make a judgement on what I (think) I know…)

So the FBI decided that the time was ripe:

The leaders left the Refuge (really bad tactic), and therefore their only safe haven, to speak at a community meeting down the road…..
Once they left the Refuge, they were a target. Little or no support…. The Feds took advantage of their situation. Once they left the rest of their party, they were vulnerable.

Starting a gunfight when you are stopped at a place of the other sides choosing, surrounded by armed men….with no support from your comrades?….Letting the other side choose the time and place (and terrain)?
Bad idea. (We don’t know who shot first)
Never ends well. And it didn’t end well in this instance. Bad decisions led to bad outcomes. Perhaps it was Hubris….I dunno

But really, how could they think that this would end any differently, no matter what the circumstances that started it?

It either ended away from the Refuge, or it ends AT the refuge. Now or later.

Not taking sides here, but I don’t see how this can/could end any other way, except with gunfire and deaths.Bad tactics, from the start.

Taking a stand is one thing, Defying the Federal Government, without the support of the populace, is another.  This should have ended 4 days after it started, when the rest of the US population chose not to rally to them.
I really don’t see where the leaders of this “Movement” had planned this out very well.

One man is dead, and the folks that are supposedly leading this movement are in custody. For what?

When one breaks the law, one must be prepared to pay the price when caught.

I find it hard to feel sympathy for any of these folks.

Apparently the feds have gotten tired of waiting in Burns Oregon.

Rumor has it that shots were fired, the Feds have control of the compound and Ammon Bundy and others are in Custody. Casualties (unknown as to whose casualties they might be…) are in the hospital, hospital is on lockdown.

More as it develops.

ETA: The Feds have told the rest of the occupiers that they can go, and they should just go now, while they can.

See it HERE

But I bet that many folks won’t get it

Got a friends who is looking for her second carry gun.

She is looking for a DAO pistol, single stack.

I gave her my Sig P250 to try, but she is a curvy girl, and cannot easily conceal it. She likes the trigger, but it is too bulky for her

She likes the feel of the Glock 43, but it isn’t DAO.  She is kinda stuck on the longer trigger…..

She doesn’t want a tiny 9mm, but she does want a concealable 9mm….

Any suggestions?

.

I’m helping teach yet another NRA First Steps pistol course. Demand for this course has grown to the point where we are teaching once a month and the classes are full every time (the classroom at our range accommodates 27 max).

More and more people are getting serious about carrying, and this class is as it is called, the first step. Women, non-white people (in an an area that is probably 90% white) are taking this class. Lots of interest, we could run 3 classes a month, but there are only so many instructors….. Used to be a few years ago, we had issues getting enough interest for a once a month class that was half full, not so much today. Every time Barry talks, attendance jumps. Plus crime is rising everywhere, and people are realizing that the police just make a report after the fact….(or, as one of my students pointed out,if they aren’t drawing a line with chalk around your body)

We charge just a bit more than the NRA charges us for the class, (covers insurance and a few dollars per person for the range facilities) none of the instructors or coaches are paid, the pop and coffee is free and range time is at zero cost.

I enjoy this, and I owe a lot of folks who taught me 30-40 years ago, few of whom I am able to thank, cause they have passed. So this is my thanks to them……

Payin’ it forward, one person at a time.

Today is JMB day,….IMO, should be a National Holiday.

Yes, the Birthday of John Moses Browning.

‘Twas his genius  which created such firearms as the Model 19898, Model 19892 and 19894 lever actions….and the M-60 family of machineguns. And other designs.

And, of course, the Model 1911 pistol, that tilting barrel action which has essentially influenced the creation of nearly every non-blowback pistol on the market today.

There were many others, but these are the highlights.

That people who are terribly emotionally tied up in an argument, when it is pointed out to them the flaw in their argument or position, cannot accept their failure in logic.

“Yes, but….”

“A=B Yes? “

“Yeah”

“B=C, yes?”

“Yes”

“Therefore A=C,”

“NONONONONONO…..I think that….”

Aaaaand around we go again. Emotion is the enemy of logic for many people. Religion is the only thing that trumps that…..

Who think the Oscars are too white, and that blacks are ……underrepresented in the awards, shall we say….

Are going to vote Democratic this year…

and choose between Hillary Clinton (a white woman) and Bernie Sanders(a white man) and not complain about how they are underrepresented….?

I mean, double standards are fine, up to a point.

The Blue model is beginning to show the cracks….

First Baltimore and that poorly run police department (and the mayor who said, in effect, “Let the niggers riot”)..

Then we hear about the failure in Flint, Michigan. and the elevated lead level in the water (although I doubt that the lead levels in the kids are solely from a years worth of slightly acidic river water eroding pipes)….and the Hype by the Media is that no one can in any way use the water, even for bathing or washing……or even flushing. Instead, an example of how dependent these citizens are, is that the National Guard must DELIVER water door to door, because the residents apparently cannot even rouse themselves to go to distribution centers to get the FREE WATER…. The Democrats failed that city so badly that the State took over most operations in Flint….

And now, the TEACHERS in Detroit have become so disgusted with the conditions in the school building (Mold, Rats,leaky ceilings, rotting floors, lack of heat, etc) that they are staging a “Sick Out”.

What do these cities (and the Greater St Louis, and the Katrina era New Orleans and most “old” US cities) have in common?

Yep, run by Democrats for 30 or more years. Run into the ground. Political appointees with little proper backgrounds (Usually a degree in something like Political Science) making decisions that affect millions, both immediately and into the future…

Chicago, Milwaukee Cincinnati and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and many others are not far behind.

And now the cities are crumbling, and the wealth is going to the suburbs, or elsewhere, leaving only the poor to reap the results of the leadership failure.

Expect more reports of infrastructure failures and failures of leadership to come from these cities run by those who follow the DNC.