Sebastian – Page 515 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Full Auto Explained

Thanks to John Richardson for this video, showing why the hysteria about full-auto fire is mostly just that:

Of course, the only thing this convinces our opponents of, is that semi-automatic firearms ought to be equally banned. Keep in mind this guy knows what he’s doing with a full-auto as well. An amateur is going to spray more wildly, and waste a lot more ammunition.

If I had to go against a gun wielding madman, I’d almost want him to waste all his ammunition firing on full-auto. Unless the guy brought a belt-fed machine gun and a while lot of ammo, he’s going to be empty with not much to show for it pretty quickly, and there’s only so much you can carry. Worst fear? Shotgun wielding madman. You’re probably not getting up from that, if hit.

Correcting the Historical Record

While I remain appalled that Michelle Bachmann is being taken seriously, Clayton Cramer offers a defense of some of her history claims that are worth reading. Watching the media, talking heads, and Bachmann go back and forth is kind of like watching drunk people fight.

Call the Maintenance Guy

The free ice cream machine is once again not serving freely. Back to interview preparation mode. I have a third round phone interview with a prospective employer tomorrow evening. Second round interview was a bear. This company is notoriously difficult to get into, and it’s not an interview you can just waltz in and impress them. They will likely not be impressed because the guy interviewing you is likely an order of magnitude better than you are.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time on this one employer, and it’s a long shot to get the job, but it’s a career making job. If I did get in, there’s essentially no where else I couldn’t go in this field. It’s also a chance to be around top people in the field. Generally speaking, I want to be the dumbest guy in the workplace, because that means I have things I can learn from the smarter folks. I’ve been places I’m the smartest guy, and that might be a bit self-satisfying in a way, but it’s a dead end for learning anything.

My only fear is, with all I’ve put into getting this job, if it doesn’t pan out, I only have one other prospect I really like, another I kind of like, but aren’t real sure about, and a third that would only be a paycheck to pay the mortgage while I look for something better. All three of my other prospects I have not heard from in a while, though I’m discovering that doesn’t necessarily convey a lack of interest. Everyone seems to be moving at glacial speed on hiring these days.

Down the Memory Hole

Looks like American Defensive Enterprises are taking their embarrassing videos offline. I guess some attention from the big guns was more than they wanted to deal with. Sorry if you didn’t have a chance to see them first.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader David, and Bitter, we have a few more links:

Here’s one of their instructors. Here’s another. You can see yet another one here.

Where Do These People Find Me?

That’s a whole lot of crazy right there. You could bottle that as crazy concentrate right now. No need for a vacuum evaporator, or any special processing. Blog long enough, eventually you’ll think you’ve heard it all, and then someone will come along and prove you wrong.

ADE’s Qualifications: Turkish Oil Wrestling, Biochemistry, and Alluring Moustaches

After posting the last bit about this American Defense Enterprises video appearing over at Tam’s, I decided to do a little digging through ADE’s videos on their YouTube channel. I have become enlightened to some of the qualifications of their staff:

Did you catch the Turkish Oil Wrestling bit? I would certainly never want to train with anyone who didn’t have experience with cage match, or who did not draw me in with the allure of his mustache. Also check out their promotional DVD, where we are introduced to yet another instructor, who notes, “My other day job is as a research scientist. I have a PhD in biochemistry.” It’s vitally important than when you find yourself stalked by a gang of angry ninjas, you be capable of knowing just what the bullets are going to do to his telomeres.

There are many people who are NRA certified instructors who have day jobs. I don’t want to disparage those many folks who do a great job of providing basic pistol instruction, but who don’t do it full time professionally. But when you’re claiming to offer advanced tactical training, up to the level received by special forces, most of which, by the way, is completely inapplicable to civilian self-defense, you better be able to back it up. This is more evidence ADE are selling snake oil.

UPDATE: Problem with scheduling posts… John Richardson beat me to it. Go check out what he found as well.

A Whole Lot of Stupid

Tam has a promotional video up from ADE training academy that has to be seen to be believed. Go watch, and be horrified. I’m wondering who these outfits are marketing to. Is the market for training of counterstrike kiddies turned gun owner growing faster than the common wisdom of the shooting community can reach them? Tam notes:

It is only a matter of time until some chiropodist at a weekend SWAT fantasy camp gets his kidneys blown out his navel by the Bushhamster of the stranger behind him in the stack preparing to practice breaching and clearing, and somebody likeÂ 20/20Â orÂ 60 MinutesÂ is going to have a frickin’ field day with it.

Scary thought. Papa Delta Brave has more.

Will This Shut The Gun Control Crowd Up?

Crimes in Virginia bars drops in the wake of liberalizing concealed carry in restaurants, says the Richmond Times-Dispatch. How many times does this have to happen before our opponents concede their ridiculous hysteria over this, and other concealed carry related topics is completely overblown? But they won’t. It would destroy their fragile world view, where law-abiding people with guns is a great danger. No, they will take the single case mentioned here:

One of the few unambiguous cases of a concealed-gun permit holder breaking the law occurred on July 28, 2010 â€” 27 days after the law became active â€” at a deli inÂ York County. In that case, a patron who had been drinking heavily with a gun concealed in his pocket allegedly sexually harassed a femaleÂ waitressÂ and, at one point, placed his hand over his hidden gun soÂ the waitressÂ could see its outline.

After making a commentÂ the waitressÂ construed as a threat, the man left but was stopped a short time later by police. They recovered a .380-caliber pistol from his pants pocket and chargedÂ himÂ with driving under the influence, brandishing a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon.

To which they’ll respond: “See, we told you!”Â They’ve turned into hucksters; people peddling random news stories as proof there’s an aggregate problem, no matter what the actual statistics seem to bear out. The truth is, if the media is covering it, that suggests it’s not a common occurrence to begin with. They will keep up the chicken little routine, and keep being proven wrong again, again, and again. They will keep trying to make those of us who are responsible people responsible for the actions of the irresponsible. This is who they are.

How To Get Fiber to Your Rural Neighborhood

Apparently stealing the phone cables for the scrap copper might work pretty well. This article speaks of Alabama leading the nation in people stealing copper wire off poles.

A commenter notes that with no market for scrap fiber, it might be another justification for AT&T to finally bite the bullet and invest in fiber to the home. I occasionally like to plug the keywords “electrocution” and “copper” into Google News to see if copper thieves have gotten any smarter about also trying to steal live electrical wire. The answer has continually beenÂ no.

That’s pretty funny. I had a co-worker from the former Soviet Union, who noted after the collapse of the Soviet government, it wasn’t uncommon for whole areas to wake up to no phone or electricity, because someone had come in the middle of the night and stolen all the copper wire to the neighborhood. Glad to see Obama is bringing us all the same joys of societal decay.

Self-Defense in the UK

Kevin Baker helps clear up a number of misconceptions, and it gets to something I’ve been talking about with Bitter as the riots raged on. Britons do not have access to handguns and semi-automatic firearms, but they do have access, and not terribly difficult access, to shotguns. I would not feel badly armed with a traditional English side-by-side and plenty of buckshot, even in a riot. The problem isn’t that British society has been disarmed by some evil, malevolent force; it chose to disarm itself, and that is the greater problem. You could bring the very same self-defense laws for England and Wales here to the Untied States, and not much would change; juries are still going to acquit people who defend themselves, no matter what the law says.

I’ve been interested to see whether this causes any kind of sea change in British attitudes toward self-defense and weapons generally. I don’t expect the British to ever have the same type of outlook toward this subject as Americans, but a key thing to watch is whether the police are inundated with applications for shotgun certificates and Â firearms certificates. If that’s the case, that will be good evidence that these riots were a wake-up call to the British people, and attitudes may be changing.