No Recognizance Bond in Western Illinois

He fled to Chicago after he tried to kill his roommate – allegedly – but was returned to McDonough County. Alleged WIU shooter returns to Macomb, makes first court appearance

Bond remained at $1 million for Poplous, who was being held at the McDonough County Jail. A motion to reduce his bond was scheduled for Oct. 6.

The charges include some of the laws that the Left loves.

Poplous was accused of two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm and another count of aggravated discharge of a firearm in a school.

School shootings are supposed to be worse than the regular kind. Bets on whether there are protests saying he shouldn’t be held in jail over this? Bail is unfair, or something.

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Building Firearms Is Not Rocket Science

And Impro Guns tries to document the ones found by law enforcement.

First up, Impro Guns has an in-the-wild sighting of an FGC-9. In Spain no one can hear you print.

FGC-9 is a homemade firearm, where most of the parts are printed on a cheap 3-D printer. The barrel and bolt and a few other parts are not, of course, but made from readily available materials.

It stands for F*#K Gun Control 9mm. It uses standard Glock magazines, though I believe you can 3-D print those as well. There is a 3-D print for a mandrel to enable rifling via electro-machining, and I there were plans to produce a mandrel to aid in winding your own magazine springs, though I don’t know if that was ever finalized or not.

For those who like a more old-school approach, that site also has a story on Illegal PPK copies made in Vietnam.

If you follow the links all the way to the original story, you find that the guy who was building them claims to have taught himself how by watching YouTube videos. (Technology is wonderful!)

And finally an SMG and a revolver from Anapolis, Brazil.

Click thru for an image at each of the links above. They all look like reasonably high-quality firearms, though of course looks can be deceiving.

If The Left Hates Gun Sales…

Then why do they do everything they can to make people want to buy guns? Gun Sales Spike Continues; Anti-Gunners Lament Increased Ownership

This draws on a couple articles, and it is worth your time.

Here’s an example of the Left’s lament.

Reacting to the surge, the anti-gun Everytown for Gun Safety suggests “thousands of guns” may have fallen into the wrong hands because the NICS system is overwhelmed.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, the [Justice Department] warned President Trump that the background check system was going to be overwhelmed — but rather than addressing it, Trump added fuel to the fire by making it even easier to buy guns,” Rob Wilcox, deputy director of policy and strategy at Everytown, complained.

“Suggests” which translates to “we have no evidence but want to cause as much fear as we can.”

We should pass the total number of firearms sold last year by the end of this month. Before we even get to Black Friday and the main retail season.

Student Reflections on a Trip to a Gun Range

These are usually interesting essays. Student Range Visit Reflection #11: I Am Still Struggling to Come to Terms with Enjoying My Experience

And you really should be reading Professor Yamane’s writing, not just his students’ writing.

Students in my Sociology of Guns Seminar are required to visit a gun range with their classmates early in the semester and to write a reflection essay based on the experience.

I’ve been remiss in my efforts to highlight these, but aside from the tremendous amount of news and insanity, Professor Yamane seems have convinced more of his students to permit him to publish their essays. The link above is to the latest essay. The others are listed below.

Find the first here, the second here, the third here, the fourth here, the fifth here, the sixth here, the seventh here, the eighth here, the ninth here, and the tenth here.

Each essay is fairly brief.

Trends in Gun Ownership

Women and minorities are recognizing that the .gov is not offering protection, and they are taking rational actions as a result. DC area joins nationwide trend of first-time gun ownership

This is mostly an article about the increased demand for basic training in safe firearm handling and the increased demand for concealed carry classes, but there was an interesting bit a national news.

The NSSF, a trade association that represents gun makers, said that 40% of those who purchased a gun were first-time owners based on estimates from gun shop owners they spoke with in June.

In an August follow-up to the June survey, retailers told the foundation that 40% of those new gun owners were women. NSSF also said that 58% of firearm purchases were among African American men and women — the largest increase of any demographic group.

Nearly 5 million Americans were estimated to have purchased their first gun in 2020, according to the foundation.

I can’t find the reference right now, but I seem to remember reading that in a typical year, there are 1 million new gun owners. Could it be that the images from Seattle and Portland, of cops being ordered to do nothing in the face of violence is having an impact? If so, it isn’t the impact the Democrats were hoping for.

This will of course receive no coverage by the national media, because it doesn’t support the narrative of gun-owners being old, white men.

The Anniversary of the Blog

Have things changed much in 16 years? TFS Magnum – Archives: Straight Shooting about Gun Laws

The end of the so-called Assault Weapons Ban has seen more spin coming out of the left, than you can shake a stick at.

In addition to the end of the “assault weapons ban,” which of course banned no weapons, 16 years ago Ra^ther-gate was pretty much in full swing. The Media had lined up to attack Bush (it was just before an election, after all) and were throwing everything they could into it. Including falsified documents.

Reflections on a Visit to a Gun Range

Professor David Yamane has gotten permission to publish several of the essays from his Sociology of Guns seminar. They are mostly from people who had never fired or even held a gun in their lives. The person who had fired a gun still had somewhat limited experience.

1. Student Range Visit Reflection: Fear to Fun
2. Student Range Visit Reflection: Fear of the Unknown
3. Student Range Visit Reflection #3: A Strange Mixture of Emotions
4. Student Range Visit Reflection #4: Becoming More Comfortable Around Firearms

They are interesting, as it shows how some calm instruction, and talk of safety, can go a long way to combat the misinformation that is floating around out there. At least to me. Each one is fairly short.

Professor Yamane Teaches The Basics of Gun Safety

So Professor David Yamane is once again teaching his seminar on The Sociology of Guns. But due to COVID restrictions, he has had to produce a few videos. I’m not sure if it is a loss for his students or not, but it is a gain for us. Sociology of Guns Student Field Trip to the Range, Year 6

The students in the seminar are mostly people who have never shot, or even held, a firearm. So these are the basics. But it is nice to have the basics available, clearly articulated, for reference. I have taught people to shoot starting from the point where they have never held a gun and are scared to do so. (That’s why .22 LR and .22 short are such great calibers.)

And you should be reading Professor Yamane’s writing. at Gun Curious and at Gun Culture 2.0. And he has links where you can Buy him a coffee.

The three videos are below.

The four rules of gun safety are presented as Pre-Range Visit Gun Safety Information

The basics of what kinds of guns there are, and how they differ is in the following video. Basic Firearms Information Video for Sociology of Guns Students

The trip to the range is not meant to be a training exercise. It is more just an icebreaker, but people do better with a little training on grip, stance and sight alignment. Basic Shooting Instruction Video

I would add one more video or two on the workings of the semiautomatic firearm. They are after the break

Professor David Yamane of Gun Curious

David Yamane is a university professor and a gun owner. You don’t have to agree with him on everything to realize that both of you value the 2nd Amendment. Teaching the Sociology of Guns, Year 6 Syllabus

The course starts with a trip to a local range, a safety lecture, and those students who wish to, can actually fire a gun. They write their reactions, and occasionally in past years he has gotten permission from some of them to publish those essays on the website. He includes links to those past courses, and the related material.

Here’s a glimpse of part of the syllabus.

6. Police Use of Force
7. Gun Injury and Suicide, with guests Michael Soldini and Rob Pincus of Walk the Talk America
8. Homicide
9. Political Views on Guns, with guest Lara C. Smith of the Liberal Gun Club

He also of course, covers history of guns in American culture, including what the concealed carry revolution did. He covers diversity in the gun culture, something really not covered by the media, and other things.

You should be reading both of Professor Yamane’s blogs: his Gun Curious blog, and his Gun Culture 2.0 blog. His article, “How a Card Carrying Liberal Professor Became a Card Carrying Liberal Armed American” is really worth the time, even if the video is 36 minutes. He explains how this transformation came about, and he manages to be entertaining.

Blacks Are Largest Part of Gun Buying Public

Which is a good thing. Black Americans Now Account For The Highest Increase In Gun Sales Of Any Demographic.

“The highest overall firearm sales increase comes from Black men and women, who show a 58.2% increase in purchases during the first six months of 2020 versus the same period last year,” wrote Jim Curcuruto, National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) director of Research and Market Development, in his report according to AOL News. “Bottom line is that there has never been a sustained surge in firearm sales quite like what we are in the midst of.”

Law abiding people exercising their rights under the Constitution.

So how will the the media portray gun-owners as old, white men? Easy, they will ignore the facts.

Gun Sales Continue Their Record Pace

Gee, I can’t imagine why. The FBI’s July Gun Data Shows Another Month of Record Background Checks.

3.6 million instant background checks were performed in July.

It’s also the third-greatest number recorded since the FBI began keeping track back in 1998, surpassed by the record 3.9 million conducted in June and the 3.7 million done in March.

The year-to-date rate is 43% higher than last year, which was a record-setting year.

Smith & Wesson Brands (NASDAQ:SWBI) reported fiscal 2020 fourth-quarter results in June and noted sales surged 32% from the year-ago period. Sturm, Ruger’s (NYSE:RGR) second-quarter earnings last week revealed a 36% jump in firearms sales leading it to declare a special dividend of $5 per share on top of its regular quarterly dividend of $0.42 per share.

Stocks I wish i had purchased…

How Old Do You Need to Be?

To defend yourself, that is? 15-Year-Old Guns Down Two Taliban Militants With AK-47 After Her Parents Were Slain.

A Taliban hit-squad killed her mother and her father.

“Qamar Gul, who was inside the house, took an AK-47 gun the family had and first shot dead the two Taliban fighters who killed her parents, and then injured a few others,” police official Habiburahman Malekzada told the AFP

The fighters, after being scared off by an appropriately armed teen-aged girl, came back en mass, but the villagers had banded together – the Afghanistan militia – and repelled them.

The Left will tell you that rifles should be “safely locked away” from 15-year-olds. In which case she might be dead.

Black Guns Matter Has the Media Clutching Pearls

Because GUNS! Or something. Black Guns Matter Group Is Teaching Black Americans How To Use Firearms.

This story, either word for word, or with slight alterations, has been in my news feeds for about a week. Maybe less. I was studiously ignoring it, because it seems like a non-story to me. “Law-abiding citizens obey the law! More at 11” This is news? But the media has convinced me. They wouldn’t be spending this much time on it except for the cognitive dissonance they are experiencing.

[Black Guns Matter Founder, Maj] Toure said he started the Black Guns Matter in 2016 to help Black Americans navigate gun ownership laws and protect themselves.

“We saw so much ignorance going on,” Toure said. “Guys that lived in rough neighborhoods may have been missing some information in order to carry a firearm on their person. So what we in essence did was we created the space to let people know what was their process and what process it was of getting a firearm, lawfully carrying it on their person if they chose to, while being safe and responsible.”

Now who could NOT be in favor of law-abiding citizens following the law, and learning how to be safe? I think the Left, who can’t quite come out and say that they hate this, hates this. The only people who are disturbed at the thought of law-abiding African-Americans exercising their rights under the 2nd Amendment racists. And just like all the Karens who’ve been called out for the racism, the Left is being forced to look at some of their own assumptions in light of reality.

White Guy Shoots Hispanic Cop. Where’s Media Reaction?

Only lives matter if they are not cops. And not Hispanic. STARING DOWN ‘THE JUDGE’.

Barely 48 hours after being shot in the line of duty, Miguel Grimaldo was at home resting comfortably.

His wife was doing anything but.

“She was more shocked than I was,” he said. “Looking at my scars made her get nauseous. She was thinking about how it could have been so much worse.”

The guy who did the shooting? William Belk. And for the title of the article…

It’s believed that the suspect used a handgun called “The Judge,” which can fire .45-caliber bullets and .410 shotgun shells, and it was loaded with .410 buckshot when Grimaldo was fired upon.

So where is the media outrage at a white guy shooting a brown guy? [Sound of Crickets Chirping. (Hat tip The Other McCain.)

Prosecutors and Reporters Don’t Like Self-defense

Especially if they are in California. DA Declines to File Charges in Blue Lake Gas Station Killing.

Still, the DA does admit that self-defense is legal in that part of California. And I guess to be fair, they didn’t sit on the decision for months.

“The employee has stated he acted in self-defense,” the press release states. “No witness statements or other evidence contradict that assertion.”

But what is odd, is the DA also decided not to prosecute any of the gun laws, the Left is always saying we need more of. Charges of felon in possession of a firearm as well as possession of stolen property (the firearm was previously stolen) are both being dropped.

Now I’m not saying I agree or disagree, but what are the odds that Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming says “we need more gun control” the next time she is up for election?

Almost 4 Million Background Checks in June

Witnessing the complete lack of police protection for people and businesses in the face of rioting, has evoked a completely understandable reaction in the population of the law-abiding. June sets new record for gun background checks.

June set a new record for the number of NICS firearm background checks conducted around the country with almost four million.

What do you expect people to do? Plan their funerals?

[William Hayes is the chief instructor at ATP Gun Shop and Range in Summerville] says there is a wide spectrum of people looking to buy firearms.

He says a lot of people, black and white, are looking for protection from what he refers to as the radical ends of the left and right. He also says business owners are concerned after watching the riots in downtown Charleston back in May and the alleged lack of intervention from police to stop vandalism.

People are also taking classes, which is a good thing. You need to learn about safety. Hayes says his class schedule is booked until the fall.

Defund the Police Descends on St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri is not a happy place. Crazy People Are Dangerous.

“Defund the police” is their demand, because the protesters are Democrats and Democrats hate police.

The mayor of St. Louis is a Democrat named Lyda Krewson, who apparently didn’t get the memo. She doesn’t hate police enough:

So the protesters decided to march on the mayor’s home. In the process they passed the Busch-Faust mansion, owned by Mark and Patricia McCloskey. Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey decided that they should stand guard and they did.

If you’re a rich white guy living in a mansion in a Democrat-run city like St. Louis, better keep your AR-15 handy, because . . . Well, you can finish that sentence.

Another Texas School to Add Armed Staff

I think maybe I should move to Texas… Mount Pleasant board approves plan to allow employees to carry guns.

A spokeswoman for the school said the board approved using the Guardian Plan, which is a state-approved plan which solely provides hand-picked armed employees the ability to defend themselves in the event of an active shooter.

Don’t mess with Texas. (Hat tip to Keep and Bear Arms.)

The Statement That Will Get Brown Fired from Chicago PD

Well, and Police Superintendent Brown will be the scapegoat for the horrible crime numbers in Chicago.

So Chicago had a bad weekend. After 110 Shot In Chicago, The Top Cop Blames Gangs, Guns, Drugs And ‘Not Enough Time Spent In Jail’. And actually, Brown doesn’t blame guns, which is why Chicago will fire him. Differences of opinion are NOT allowed!

During his news conference, Brown also rejected a notion popular with University of Chicago criminologists who work closely with the police department. He said the violence cannot be blamed on easy access to guns.

“I’m from Texas,” Brown said, noting that state’s high number of firearms. “Houston, San Antonio and Dallas have lower murder rates.”

The guns don’t exert mind control. They don’t act of their own accord. People have to pick them up and act, and those people are responsible. But that is not cannon in the City of Chicago.

For the complete weekend insanity, see HeyJackass! – Father’s Day Weekend.

The Deacons for Defense and Justice

Usually you only see stories about the Deacons for Defense and Justice during February, which is African-American History Month. It is rare even then, because their story contradicts some of the MLK legend of non-violence. In Bogalusa, the Deacons fought violence with violence.

The cops in the South were often aligned with (or members of) the Klan. So eventually, people decided that they needed to defend themselves.

During a mob scene, where the whites were trying to stop a black woman from getting medical care, the Deacons intervened.

The warning shot did not deter the mob, and by then, according to newspaper accounts, a white man identified as 26-year-old Alton Crowe of Pearl River began pounding Johnson in his face with his fists. Austan fired a second time, this time with the bullet landing in the chest of Crowe, the married father of five children, who, Austan thought, was trying to enter the vehicle.

The two Deacons were arrested but not prosecuted. Self-defense is a thing, after all. And once the Klan realized that they too could be shot, things changed a bit.

“Once they realized that we were serious about shooting, it became basically a standoff between us and them,” [Deacon Henry Austan] said.

“It was not like the old days where you could just drive in the neighborhood and everybody start hiding from you and you drag whoever you want out,” he said. “It was not like anymore, and they realized that.”

He added: “When there’s some opposition, it’s not any fun anymore.”

The myth contradiction? Well once when the Klan was ready to attack a Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) group, a spokesperson for the Deacons stepped up, and told the Klan-affiliated-sheriff, that they were prepared to meet violence with violence. The attack never took place.

I suppose that the media is bringing this up now in hopes of justifying the “Dismantle the Police” or something similar. Still there is one more important lesson that can be learned from the Deacons…

“We were effective. Not heroic, effective,” Austan said, thinking back on his time with the Deacons. “That’s what we were. We came into existence when the situation demanded it. We went out of existence when we were no longer needed.”

How many organizations disband when they meet their goals? Almost none. They move the goalposts and keep on going.