Go Fund Me for a Fallen Officer

Fundraiser by Tom Vaughn : Fallen Officer Lt. Aaron Allan

In case you didn't hear about it, the officer responded to a traffic accident, crawled inside the car to assist the trapped driver and the trapped driver SHOT AND KILLED HIM.

Lieutenant Allan left behind a wife and children. 

I am told that the Southport, IN, police department is very small, and the majority of officers are reservists, i.e., they serve without pay.

Oh. Em. Gee.

Looking at Candidate Statements for the position of King County Executive, I just realized that the one that makes the most sense is...

...Perennial candidate GoodSpaceGuy.

(Do they have these guys where you live? Always running for something?)

EDIT, and FOLLOW-UP:
Of all the people running for a Port of Seattle Commissioner position, only two made a statement about making the port pay for itself, instead of constant, annual or biennial increases in property taxes.

Most of the candidates for the open seats are commies who support raising taxes to guarantee a "living family wage" and/or a $15.00 minimum wage.

Unfortunately, Richard Pope and Ken Rogers are both running for the same position.

Jeeze, guys.

Oh, and raising my property taxes again, this time to support "Cultural and Arts Programs"...?

Mayoral Race:
Mark Greene is a Marine who made a point of slamming two of Seattle's "Radical Left" city councilbeings by name in his statement.

Good enough for me.

TriggrCon, Media/Industry day.

When we last we saw our intrepid blogger, he was stuck in traffic, heading home from Triggrcon Range Day.

In case you hadn't heard, the Seattle-Tacoma area has nasty traffic these days. Besides, all that free ammo can really take it out of a guy, you feel an obligation to not let it go to waste.

So, first things first: Today and tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday July 29th and 30th, TriggrCon is open to the public for "Enthusiast Days." Go to the website to register, for free.

Up front, I did confirm that the last pistol caliber carbine and sub machine gun I fired at Range Day was by Battle Arms Development, and made that correction in my previous post.

The show itself is being held at the Greater Tacoma Conference Center.

Which bans guns and knives on site, and has security pawing through your bags and checking you with a hand wand.

It was hardly a TSA-level search, and I suspect I could have gotten a pocket pistol in, in my bag, but it's still annoying that they couldn't find a venue that either had more reasonable policies, or was willing to make an exception.

Especially since you walk in and turn left, and Freedom Munitions was selling ammo by the case, and knives, and if you turn right the Triggrcon Proshop is selling guns.

While wandering over to the Proshop I stopped at the Sig Sauer station -- they have a trailer set up as a traveling display, I've sen it elsewhere -- and confirmed that Sig does have plans for a .22LR P320, it's just that no one knows when...

But first... Before you got to the security station, there were several tables set up out front, mostly of local operations.

Mostly... The first stop I made was at the booth/table/display for PHLster Holsters. I've been admiring their Flat Pack Tourniquet "device"
(Another pic-heavy post, after the break...)

Triggrcon, Range Day

TriggrCon is the Northwest Shooting Sports Expo, which has been described as a "Mini-SHOT Show."

Well, I have a had time making it to Vegas for SHOT Show, but I can sure make it to Tacoma for this...

Signing up for tickets for Mrs. Drang and I for the "Enthusiast Days", I went ahead and applied for a Media Pass, because, hey, New Media and all that. I wasn't sure I'd get it, but what the heck...?

Sometimes I feel like the guy that does the police blotter for the Resume Speed Shopping News and gets invited to a press conference with the Times and stuff.

Anyway. Thursday was Range Day. The invite said it was at an "undisclosed location" which changed "at the last minute." I dunno about that. From the route the bus driver was taking I was pretty sure I knew where we were going, especially when someone said "I heard we were going to a sheriff's range."

Yep.

So here's the layout:

It's a pretty good set up. We were last there probably10 years ago (!) or more, for a muzzleloader shoot, when the range complex was pretty new, and still mostly bare dirt and rock. The best part is that it is far enough out in unincorporated King County that development stops before it gets this far, and the commute is too much for anyone.

Also, it shares the grounds with the before-mentioned King County Sheriff's Office range, as well as the Seattle Skeet & Trap/Boeing Employee's Shotgun Club range. (A friend of mine who worked on building the new range complex told me that, one night during the construction work, they came out of the club house after  meeting and witnessed a cougar taking down an elk. It's waaaaay out there...)

Anyway. A close up of who was at the range:

Click to enlarge.

Mostly pictures after the break:

Two White House Petitions

National Reciprocity for the Nation's 17 Million Concealed Handgun Permit Holders! | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government

Right now at 8,901, and

Needs 91,909 signatures by August 17, 2017 to get a response from the White House

Also: Repeal the NFA | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government

267,451 signed. At this point, no idea whether it had enough signatures by the deadline, which was in February, to get any attention.

 

Of course, the SHARE act, if passed, will gut NFA '34 anyway.

 

As has been par for the course since this WhiteHouse.Gov petition thing has started, many or most of the things listed are silly, pointless, puerile, hyper-partisan. 

The Afghan Girls Robotics team was allowed to come to the USA to compete, but the petitions (two, at least) are still there.
Charlie Gard and his parents re coming to America in hopes that an experimental treatment will work. (Either way, see the National Health Death Panel in action! See the Americans give the National Health Death Panel the finger!)
"Make Trump take a MENSA-monitered IQ test"? smh

GOAL Post2017-Special-Final?

Missed this one. 

On the subject of Seattle agenda and Seattle taxes, the Constitution of the State of Washington specifically bans income taxes, including those levied by municipalities. 

They're going for it anyway.

They're mandating that landlords give tenants voter registration cards. No mention if ensuring that the tenants are eligible to vote. 

Plus, RUMINT has it that the progressive super-rich are putting together a ballot initiative of  "common sense gun laws" which will include a requirement to register all "assault weapons" including  "high capacity" magazines, with a surtax on each item registered.

***

FROM: GOAL WA goalwa@cox.net (Joe Waldron)

TO: Undisclosed recipients

SENT: Fri 7/21/2017 2:04 PM

SUBJECT: GOAL Post2017-Special-Final?

Legislative Update from Olympia21 July 2017

·        THIRD SPECIAL SESSION ENDS

·        NO ACTION ON GUNS

·        GRIDLOCK PREVAILS

·        SPECIAL ELECTION UNDERWAY

·        GOAL ENDORSEMENTS FOR SENATE

There was no action taken on gun issues throughout the three special sessions.

The third special session of the legislature came to a close last night without passing a capital construction budget. The governor says he will not call them back into session until they have resolution on a capital (state construction) budget.

What is at dispute is control of water in rural areas. A year-old state Supreme Court decision that allows counties to block well water drilling on private property, thus limiting development. Easy access to water is crucial for rural development. But the Seattle gang that controls Olympia wants rural to stay rural, so they can drive out on the weekend and see the pretty greenery.

Primary ballots have already been mailed for a handful of special elections to be held this fall. Control of the state Senate is at stake, and with it control of your wallets. If Democrats take just one (of

three) Republican senate seats up for grabs, Governor Inslee will have total Democrat control of the legislature next January, and this year’s failed tax proposals (state income tax, capital gains tax, etc.) will sail through next January.

Our focus in this special election is on the critical state senate seats, which will; determine who prevails in Olympia next legislative session. GOAL has endorsed the following candidates:

7^th Legislative District Senator Shelly Short (R)

31^st Legislative District Senator Phil Fortunato (R)

45^th Legislative District Jinyoung Englund (R)

The 45^th is probably the most competitive race and places both gun owners and taxpayers at greatest risk. If ever there was a time to get involved in politics, it is now. Make a donation (the cost of a box of bullets… or more; some of your time to volunteer – campaigns survive on volunteer support). Or you can sit back and kick taxes in to support whatever cockamamie programs Seattleites come up with next year to buy votes.

Hopefully this is the final GOAL Post for the year – for legislative matters, anyway.

BILL STATUS/GOAL POSITION: Nothing to report.

Rangemaster Combative Pistol, Take Two

See also: Rangemaster Combatives Pistol, Take One, which was posted a few weeks ago, when I really thought it would take me a day or two to finish this.

Here is the description of the course curriculum from the Rangemaster Web Site:

This is an intensive weekend course that covers all of the essential skills involved in fighting with a handgun. There is an all day session Saturday and Sunday, 9:00am to 6:00pm.  Topics covered in this course will include:

• Rapid presentation from concealed carry
• Effective gun handling techniques, designed to work under stress
• Rapid reloading techniques
• High speed accuracy at close ranges
• Precision shooting at mid-ranges
• Shooting effectively with one hand, with either hand
• Fixing malfunctions rapidly and reliably
• Proper defensive mindset, personal tactics, and more.

Expect to fire about 800-1,000 rounds of ammunition. This course is designed expressly for the armed citizen who carries a concealed handgun, or the plain clothes or off duty police officer.  You will need a good handgun, holster, belt, and magazine pouch, at least three magazines, a ball cap and concealment garment (vest, jacket, windbreaker, etc), eye and ear protection, and rain gear (we train rain or shine). A cooler with soft drinks and snacks is a very good idea.
You will need a quality handgun and gear. It is a good idea to bring a second gun just like your primary, in case something breaks on your primary gun. Please bring good quality ammunition. You will shoot better, your gun will function better, and you will learn faster. Leather or kydex holsters are fine—PLEASE NO flimsy nylon or cloth holsters.  Your primary instructor will be Tom Givens.

The class started out in the classroom, with the obligatory review of the facilities and of safety rules.

Tom gave a brief introduction to his experiences as a police officer in Memphis, Tennessee; generally ignored by the media is the fact that Memphis has, and has had for decades, a violent crime rate that rivals or exceeds those of Chicago and Detroit.

Tom says that, "not counting active duty military", he has trained over 40,000 people, and that of them he has confirmed that 66 of them have been in gunfights. Of those 66, three have lost the fight.

Tom gives the stats as "63-0-and 3", explaining that all three losses were actually forfeits, since all three violated what has become known as "Rule 1 of Gunfighting: Have a Gun."

We also reviewed the basics of "Defensive Shooting Technique".

Earworm 07/13/2017

"Down mit Kapitalism!"

Ooh, great selfie, bro...

Self-absorbed fascists in Hamburg

And here we thought the Occupy Wall Street cry bullies were pathetic...

Challenge Accepted!

Seattle: Boy, the WTO Riots were the worst, weren't they?
Hamburg: Hold mein bier and watch this...

— Drang (@DWDrang) July 7, 2017

In Congress, July 4, 1776

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. — The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free system of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

John Hancock

Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
Geo. Walton

Wm. Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Edward Rutledge
Thos. Heyward, Junr.
Thomas Lynch, Junr.
Arthur Middleton

Samuel Chase
Wm. Paca
Thos. Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Th. Jefferson
Benja. Harrison
Thos. Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Robt. Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benja. Franklin
John Morton
Geo. Clymer
Jas. Smith
Geo. Taylor
James Wilson
Geo. Ross
Caesar Rodney
Geo. Read
Tho. Mckean

Wm. Floyd
Phil. Livingston
Frans. Lewis
Lewis Morris
Richd. Stockton
Jno. Witherspoon
Fras. Hopkinson
John Hart
Abra. Clark

Josiah Bartlett
Wm. Whipple
Saml. Adams
John Adams
Robt. Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Step. Hopkins
William Ellery
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
Wm. Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Matthew Thornton

Earworms, Brexit 1776 Edition

(I sure wish I'd thought of calling it "Brexit 1776"...)

First, the sentimental:

Triumphant:

Defiant, rebellious: