Kenosha

 

Seen at Joe's Place.

Not gonna lie, I am happy that the young man survived, and it sounds like the choir boys he took down deserved it and will only be missed by those with twisted taste in friends or causes, but that doesn't mean I am celebrating. 

Joe's got other links, too, including a statement by the lawyer representing the young shooter. 

You know, if even the New York Times admits that the video of events shows that these were legit self-defense shootings, you gotta wonder why he was so heavily charged... well, no, actually, it doesn't. 

Joe has something for that, too. 

Meanwhile, in comments to this post at Old NFO's blog...

...Not to mention some co-workers who should know better...

Not illegal for a 17 year old to "possess" an AR15 in either WI or IL. 

And if his mom drove him to Kenosha, it was for his job as a lifeguard. He stuck around when he got off duty to help clean up graffiti. He only geared up later when things started to get sporty again -- and gave one or two interviews, in which he emphasized his trauma kit over the rifle. 

LawDog also has a few thoughts, here, and shares another video here. 

UPDATE: The original video was banned by YouTube for terms of service violation,

Here's another one:

Have You Kippled Lately?

Kipling Society homepage

Anent my second most recent post:
Poems - The Sons of Martha

The Sons of Martha

THE Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.

They say to mountains, " Be ye removèd" They say to the lesser floods " Be dry."
Under their rods are the rocks reprovèd - they are not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill tops shake to the summit - then is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.

 The rest of the poem, as well as notes on the text, sources, references, etc.,  at the link.

This one is a perennial favorite in some corners of the blogosphere: Poems - 'The Gods of the Copybook Headings'

Stop The Bleed, Part 2

The Defense Health Agency maintains a web site called Deployed Medicine here: Deployed Medicine --  which includes includes links to their app on both the Apple and Android Stores.

Free.

The Deployed Medicine  website includes several sections, including Tactical Combat Casualty Care , curated by (not surprisingly) The Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care. Understandably, these folks are on the cutting edge of trauma care, so this can be considered the source.That page includes manuals, videos, and reference documents.

Also, Greg Ellefritz has an excellent post up (The Best Tourniquets- A Research Review | Active Response Training) on the latest release from the CoTCCC, regarding recommended procedures, practices, and equipment for trauma care


This includes ratings of several tourniquets recommended for use in trauma care. Link to that is here: CoTCCC Recommended Devices & Adjuncts, click on the "View Book" button to read and/or download it as a .pdf.


Again, better to have it and not need it, than to need it and be waiting for the paramedics or a passing  Combat Lifesaver...

Stop The Bleed Month

May is Stop the Bleed Month. And May 23rd is National STOP THE BLEED Day.

(Yes, those seem to be "rival" web sites...)

Perhaps with that in mind, Tamara had a post yesterday (The largest window for error...) in which she linked to an article about gun safety vis à vis administrative gun handling, and said that, if you're going to carry a gun, you should have a "blow out kit" with you. (SayUncle linked, and, this being the Internet, predictably, derp ensured in comments.)

I've written about first aid and (especially) trauma care and training before, and on this very topic in The Clue Meter: Tourniquets Save Lives.

In that post I included some videos of how to apply a tourniquet, including one I reproduce here, how to apply a field expedient tourniquet:


As to which tourniquet to carry, the two standards seem to be the CAT (Gen 7+) and the SOF-T (Gen 4+); the advantages of one over the other seem be minor and due as much to personal preference of the professional you are speaking to, as well as to incremental improvements in one or the other. Similar tourniquets are likely to mimic the style or design, but use cheaper materials.

There is at least one "bargain" tourniquet that is essentially a long rubber band; in formal testing it was rated as better than nothing -- barely. (The sales pitch is cool, "Tighten until the diamonds are squares and the ovals are circles"; just doesn't seem to work as well in real application.)

Research:

• Efficacy of Pre-hospital Application of Tourniquets and Hemostatic Dressings to Control Traumatic External Hemorrhage. Opens a .pdf document from EMS.gov, a site at the National Institutes of Health.

GET TRAINING!

You need to take classes; even if you master applying a tourniquet by watching YouTube videos, there are other things you'll need to know. So where do you find such training? After all, you might not know a handy Ambulance Driver who happens to be conducting a class on the subject.

• BleedingControl.org has a Find A Class page.
• The Stop the Bleed Monthweb site does too: Find Training.
• As does the National STOP THE BLEED Day web site: Get Trained.
• FEMA also has some suggestions: Stop the Bleed | Homeland Security
• The Firearms Training Hub has a page listing Medical classes; among others, Dark Angel Medical has classes nationwide. Including one local to me next week...

If you're not comfortable buying  emergency medical/trauma care supplies off of Amazon -- and stories of counterfeit merchandise abound -- some reputable sources include:

• Chinook Medical Gear, Inc.
• Tactical Medical Solutions for Military and First Responders
• First Aid Kits | First Aid Supplies | MyMedic
• Adventure® Medical Kits

This is another item in the "Better to have it (and know how to use it!) but never need it, than to need it and not have it and/or not know how to use it" category.

Columbia County, OR, Sheriff; a Review of sorts

For those Not From Around Here, the state of Oregon is Shall Issue for concealed handgun licenses for residents, and says that counties "may issue licenses to residents of adjacent states", i.e., California, Idaho, Nevada, and Washington.

Most counties seem to take the position that this means "residents of states adjacent to them", which means that many counties that are inclined to be so generous, only do so for folks directly across the state line; this also means most counties say "there are no states adjacent to us, so we won't do it." For years Clatsop county, at the mouth of the Columbia River, was considered to be the best bet for a non-resident permit, to the point that they were inundated beyond their ability to handle the load (they said), and started restricting issue to residents of Washington counties on the Olympic peninsula; that is, counties that are adjacent (or close to) Clatsop County. (This is a shame, as Clatsop County is a convenient destination for a weekend getaway; Seaside is a rather typical tourist stop which happens to be on a beach that Lewis and Clark frolicked on, but Astoria has some legit attractions, like the Columbia River Maritime Museum.)

Several years ago, the Sheriff of Grant County, which is entirely surrounded by other Oregon counties, and which I am told is the poorest county in Oregon, struck upon a radical plan to raise funds for his department: He would take his concealed handgun licensing show on the road, visiting gun shows in adjacent states.

I believe he did one or two shows in California first, then did one in Washington, and by the third or fourth fun show he had raised enough money to purchase a portable digital fingerprinting system.

Other Sheriff's got into the act; I heard a claim (unsubstantiated) that the efforts were coordinated among the Sheriffs.

So last summer I got a calendar reminder that our OR permits would expire in 6 months. Our latest permits were issued by Columbia County, just west of Portland, east of Clatsop County, and across the Columbia River from Brigid's hometown. I reset the reminder to three months out...

While I had "use or lose" leave time, alas, various things prevented us making plans before the permits expired, so we wound up going one week late.

Here's the deal: Columbia County only issues non-resident permits to residents of Washington. You need your WA CPL. If you go during the week you make an appointment, online, for a half hour block. $60.00.
They process permits on some Saturdays, cash only, on a walk-in basis.

So I made our appointments for 2:00 and 2:30, we got a room in Seaside at the time share for a couple of days, drove over -- in the pouring rain -- showed up at 13:50...
...and we were both done including photographs by 14:00.

Now, a new permit requires fingerprinting, so I'm sure those appointments take longer, but I still regard that as pretty good.

Also, part of the reason we got delayed until after our OR permits expired was that Mrs. Drang had to renew her WA CPL first, and on our way there she realized she had left it sitting on the desk.

Lanie (I think I'm spelling her name correctly) said "no problem" and gave us an email address to send a scan of her CPL to, and said they would process it normally.

So, if you're from Washington State and want to get (or renew) an Oregon carry permit, we endorse the Concealed Handgun Licensing services of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.

Oh, dear

Warning: Science and math, presented with a rather heavy Ukrainian accent. Mind you, she does a good job of making some pretty esoteric science understandable to the layperson, but some might be intimidated by the very concepts. (One might be tempted to turn on closed captioning, due to her accent. It might help, but I think they used a speech-to-text app, and it gets thrown off by homophones which aren't valid, due to... her accent.)

So that's an hour and a half of in-depth discussion of solar activity, including helioseismicity, sun spots, the corona, poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields...

... the gist of which is that Dr. Zharkova says that not only is the current (imminent, actually) sun spot cycle (25) going to be even lighter than the previous one (24, just ended), but she says that we are headed into a 30+ year Grand Minimum. (A sun spot cycle is usually about 11 years long, by the way.)

Can you say "Maunder"?

No solar activity means amateur radio continues to have poor propagation on the High Frequency bands, but, like the old George Carlin routine, it also means a mini-ice age, so I wouldn't sweat the propagation. As KB6NU points out in the blog post where I learned of this presentation, satellites are a workable alternative. (Yes, hams can and do use satellites. Yes they have their own issues.)

But, hey, at least that rig will be generating some heat...

...assuming there's power.


1. Solar minimum - Wikipedia. Political correctness leads Wikipedia to deny any correlation between solar minima and terrestrial climate.
2. I took a look at the effects of the Maunder Minimum in Quickie Book Review, The Global Crisis.
3. Homepage | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

Oral Rehydration -- a PSA

Hopefully, news you can't, and never will need, to use.

So while we were at the emergency communications team meeting the other night discussing Go Kits and Bug Out Bags, one of the members offered some real world observations about first aid kits, to wit, based on the "historical re-enactment" his church did for the youth group -- he's LDS, so I'm assuming he was talking about a Pioneer Trek. (The reason I know about it is that I recalled Howard "Schlock Mercenary" Taylor commented once that he was told not to call it Oregon Trail LARPing...) He was observing that the first aid kit needed blister care supplies, because kids today will get blisters if they have to walk more than a mile, since they are not used to that, and they probably have stylish, not functional, socks. (And their shoes are probably suspect, too.)

Then he made an offhand remark about how simply drinking water is not enough, you need to replace electrolytes, as well.

And that made me remember reading in one of P.J. O'Rourke's books -- All The Trouble In The World, I think -- where he was talking to some American aid official (or maybe non- or semi-official) about famine and pestilence, and the guy reaches into his desk and says that the death rate in whichever part of Africa they were in could be slashed dramatically with "this" -- "this" being a 25 cent packet of oral re-hydration salts.

Oral rehydration therapy - Wikipedia

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is a type of fluid replacement used to prevent and treat dehydration, especially that due to diarrhea.^[1] It involves drinking water with modest amounts of sugar and salts, specifically sodium and potassium.^[1] Oral rehydration therapy can also be given by a nasogastric tube.^[1] Therapy should routinely include the use of zinc supplements.^[1] Use of oral rehydration therapy decreases the risk of death from diarrhea by about 93%.^[2]
...
The formula for the current WHO oral rehydration solution (also known as low-osmolar ORS or reduced-osmolarity ORS) is 2.6 grams (0.092 oz) salt (NaCl), 2.9 grams (0.10 oz) trisodium citrate dihydrate (C 6H 5Na 3O 7⋅2H 2O), 1.5 grams (0.053 oz) potassium chloride (KCl), 13.5 grams (0.48 oz) anhydrous glucose (C 6H 12O 6) per litre of fluid.

A basic oral rehydration therapy solution can also be prepared when packets of oral rehydration salts are not available. It can be made using 6 level teaspoons (25.2 grams) of sugar and 0.5 teaspoon (2.9 grams) of salt in 1 litre of water. The molar ratio of sugar to salt should be 1:1 and the solution should not be hyperosmolar. The Rehydration Project states, "Making the mixture a little diluted (with more than 1 litre of clean water) is not harmful."

The optimal fluid for preparing oral rehydration solution is clean water. However, if this is not available the usually available water should be used. Oral rehydration solution should not be withheld simply because the available water is potentially unsafe; rehydration takes precedence.

...Sports drinks are not optimal oral rehydration solutions, but they can be used if optimal choices are not available.

Not gonna lie, I don't know what all the ten dollar words in there mean. But, really, in the documentation or inventory of your first aid kit, or even just a 3"x5" index card in there, write down "6 tsp (2 Tbl) sugar and 0.5 tsp salt 1 quart water."

Or, you can get fancy. Found this one researching the subject:

• 1 quart water
• half tsp sea salt
• half tsp baking soda
• quarter tsp salt substitute (potassium chloride; can use cream of tartar instead)
• 8 tsp sugar

That supposedly replicates the WHO formulation, described in the Wikipedia quote above.

Or, you can buy them: Amazon.com: oral re-hydration packets. Some of these are flavored.

Now, Oral Re-Hydration Therapy such as Wikipedia is talking about is an in extremis thing, not "Been mowing the lawn in the hot sun, I need a glass of iced tea" (or whatever) in someone who is more or less healthy and well nourished. It's usually applied in cases of extreme life threatening illness, the sort that results in diarrhea, like cholera. But some folks just won't admit they're not Superman, in the course of my military career I saw more than a few people rushed to the hospital for what turned out to be dehydration.

And especially in a first aid kit that is expected to be used in true, disaster-type emergency, throwing a ten pack of these in, as well as making sure you have the recipes to make some if you need it, seems like a Good Idea.

I did not know that.

SO, reading this article -- MRE Shelf Life and Stockpiling MREs - AllOutdoor.com, I wound up at this page: USDA -- Food Product Dating.

Where I learned that the "pull dates" on food items have nothing to do with food safety or health. (With one exception, see emphasis added below):

Does Federal Law Require Dating?
Except for infant formula, product dating is not required by Federal regulations.

For meat, poultry, and egg products under the jurisdiction of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), dates may be voluntarily applied provided they are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading and in compliance with FSIS regulations. To comply, a calendar date must express both the month and day of the month. In the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the year must also be displayed. Additionally, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date such as "Best if Used By."

Are Dates for Food Safety or Quality?
Manufacturers provide dating to help consumers and retailers decide when food is of best quality. Except for infant formula, dates are not an indicator of the product’s safety and are not required by Federal law.

What Date-Labeling Phrases are Used? There are no uniform or universally accepted descriptions used on food labels for open dating in the United States. As a result, there are a wide variety of phrases used on labels to describe quality dates.

Examples of commonly used phrases:

• A "Best if Used By/Before" indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
• A "Sell-By" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date.
• A "Use-By" date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula as described below.

Although experience says that the bread mix you found in the back of the pantry from 5 years ago may no longer have fully (or any) active leavening...

So the other evening at the emergency communication team meeting we were talking about "Go Bags" and Bug Out Bags. I took my Go Kit -- which is to say, my bag for CERT or ARES/RACES work, not my "Get Out Of Town" bag.

I also took my car kit in, to show a couple of thing in it. Now, my car kit is mostly a cheap packable rain suit, such as you find at a big box store, hat and gloves, reflective vest... It also has a package of Datrex Lifeboat rations. (Might have been another brand.)

And it was pointed out to me that "These are almost expired."

The packaging is intact, these are safe to eat.

"But they're almost expired!"

s*i*g*h

WA: Court Rules For NRA in Legal Challenge to Ballot Title

As seen in The Clue Meter: WA: NRA Files Legal Challenge Against Misleading Ballot Title for Gun Control Initiative, a legal challenge was filed against a gun-grabbing ballot initiative here in Washington on the grounds that the title was illegally misleading.

This just in:
From NRA-ILA:

Yesterday, in a defeat for Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Initiative 1639 proponents, the Thurston County Superior Court sided in part with the NRA and found that certain parts of the ballot title were deceptive and misleading.  As a result, they ordered amendments to several key provisions of the initiative’s ballot title.  While the ballot title remains inadequate to inform voters of the real effects of the initiative, the outcome of yesterday’s hearings did result in clarifying changes that more accurately describe the sweeping provisions of the initiative’s text. With the title for Initiative 1639 now finalized, proponents of this 22-page initiative will have until July 6th to get 259,622 valid signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot. As previously reported, NRA filed a legal challenge in Thurston County Superior Court contesting the ballot title language as prepared by anti-gun Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson.  Yesterday, the court held a hearing on the legal challenges filed by NRA and other petitioners.   Some of the changes included: Changing “enhanced” background checks to “increased”.  Initiative 1639 would require state background checks on all purchases and transfers of commonly owned semi-automatic firearms. Added “allows fees” to the description.  The proposed initiative would allow the Department of Licensing to charge a $25 purchase fee (GUN TAX) on transfers of semi-automatic rifles. Clarified the description for the storage mandate provision.  If passed, Initiative 1639 would criminalize firearm owners that store firearms in a non-compliant manner if they are accessed by a prohibited person or minor. Initiative 1639, filed by Michael Bloomberg’s front group, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, is an egregious attack on Second Amendment freedoms and comes just months after they failed to enact their gun ban agenda in Olympia. Your NRA-ILA will continue to keep you updated on the status of the initiative, so please stay tuned to your email inbox and www.nraila.org .  Also, a couple more releases, after the jump...

WA: NRA Files Legal Challenge Against Misleading Ballot Title for Gun Control Initiative

This just in:
NRA-ILA | Washington: NRA Files Legal Challenge Against Misleading Ballot Title for Gun Control Initiative

Thursday, May 17, 2018 

Yesterday, NRA filed a legal challenge in the Thurston County Superior Court objecting to the misleading and inadequate ballot title for Initiative 1639, which seeks to further restrict the Second Amendment rights of Washington's law-abiding citizens.  The Thurston County Superior Court will review all legal challenges before the ballot title and summary can be finalized for the initiative.

Initiative 1639, filed by Michael Bloomberg’s front group, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, is an egregious attack on Second Amendment freedoms and comes just months after failing to enact their gun ban agenda in Olympia.  Proponents of this 22-page initiative will have until July 6^th to get 259,622 valid signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot.

Please spread the word to your family, friends, and fellow gun owners about this latest attack on self-defense rights in the Evergreen State!  Help protect Second Amendment rights in Washington and decline to sign this initiative petition.  

The proposed initiative, if passed, would do the following:

• Require a 10 Day Waiting Period for Commonly Owned Rifles.  All semi-automatic rifle purchases and transfers would be subjected to a waiting period of 10 business days.

• Establish a Government Registry of Firearms.  Current law states the Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) “may” keep copies of pistol purchase applications.  The proposed initiative would instead require the DOL to keep copies of these purchase applications, and would expand this government registry to include semi-automatic rifle purchases.

• Require Completion of a Training Course to Purchase Rifles.  This initiative would also require all purchasers of semi-automatic rifles to show they have completed a firearm safety training course within the last five years in order to proceed with the sale.

• Impose up to a $25 Purchase Fee (GUN TAX) for Semi-Automatic Rifles.  The Washington Department of Licensing would be allowed to charge up to a $25 fee for each semi-automatic rifle purchase.  

• Require Gun Owners to Lock Up their Firearms or Face Criminal Charges.  Individuals would be required to lock up their firearms or potentially face a criminal charge of “Community Endangerment Due to Unsafe Storage of a Firearm” if the firearm is accessed by a prohibited person or minor.  This intrusive proposal invades people’s homes and forces them to render their firearms useless in a self-defense situation by locking them up.

• Restricts Adults Aged 18-20 from Acquiring Modern Rifles.  Adults aged 18-20 would be prohibited from purchasing semi-automatic rifles and would not be allowed to receive them through a transfer or loan.  The proposed initiative would deny a segment of law-abiding adults from access to the most modern and effective firearms for self-defense, thus depriving them of their constitutional rights. 

• Require “Warnings” for Firearm Purchases.  All firearm purchases would come with a notification about the “inherent risks” of firearm ownership as an attempt to further stigmatize firearms.

Again, please spread the word for your family, friends and fellow gun owners about the latest attack on Second Amendment rights in Washington.  Your NRA-ILA will continue to keep you updated on the status of the initiative, so please stay tuned to your email inbox and www.nraila.org.

Eternal vigilance, etc.

Volcano Preparedness Month

Tomorrow (May 18^th, 2018) marks the 38^th Anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, in WA.

In case you weren't aware, that's kind of a big deal here in the Evergreen State, and in Emergency Preparedness, and in Vulcanology.

Therefore, May is Volcano Preparedness Month here.

(Every month is Volcano Preparedness Month on The Big Island: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory...)

One event commemorating VPM is that a group of scientists with the Cascades Volcano Observatory and the Washington State Emergency Management Division (EMD's Volcano page.) hosted a Reddit Ask me Anything session: We Are U.S. West Coast Volcano Experts. Ask us Anything!

This was fascinating, educational, and  entertaining.

Fun facts:

• Geologists do not use the term "overdue" when discussing the potential of a volcano to erupt. Volcanos do not maintain a schedule.
• The Yellowstone "super-volcano" is unlikely to erupt any time soon, and when it does, it will probably be more like Kilauea than Mount Saint Helens.
• Volcanologists become very territorial about their favorite volcanoes ("My volcano can take your volcano with one magma chamber tied behind it's back!" 
• The greatest danger from Mount Rainier is from lahars, which will strand Mrs Drang, the cats, and I on our own island. (seriously, the 98003 will become cut off from the surrounding terrain, that which isn't submerged...)
• The "'The floor is lava' game" gets very complicated when played by volcanologists.
• A volcano may cause the earth to shake, but earthquakes don't cause volcanoes to erupt. 
• Usually. If the volcano is right on top of a fault, maybe...
• Apparently, the only decent volcano movies are documentaries.  
• No, you can't drive your jeep over lava.
• No, you can't outrun a pyroclastic flow.
• No, you can't drill a hole and "relieve the pressure."
• Not even by detonating a nuke "down there."

For fellow residents of Washington State, the Department of Natural resources maintains an online hazards map: Washington Geologic Information Portal. Plug in an address and see how vulnerable that location is to various hazards from earthquake, volcano, tsunami, etc. (Like I said, fairly safe here in the 98-Double Ought-3, although for some hazards it's relatively safe...)

While researching this, I ran across an old article in The Stranger which may have some currency: Nine Questions for Sandi Doughton, Author of Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest - Slog - The Stranger.

• Now, if the Cascadia Subduction Zone cuts loose, we may still be on an island here in the 98-Double Ought-3, but I'm not sure it'll help...

"So, how did that class go, Drang?"

Well, I'm glad you asked... sort of.

So, two weeks ago I posted Training returns to WAC Shows!

So I secured the weekend off, since I work graveyard shift these days and being able to teach a class Sunday morning would require two days... fortunately, I have leave to burn (as in, "use it or lose it.") and no one else was requesting the days.

Unfortunately, while we had training materials, and a venue, and instructors, we had no students sign up.

Well, it was pretty short notice, too short to fully advertise. 

There's a show this weekend at the Puyallup Fairgrounds, but this is the month when it is bumped from the usual "Showplex" facility to the "Pavilion"--and that raises a critical question...

The NRA Home Firearms Safety class involves teaching people safe gun handling, including how to "unload and make safe" the major types of hand- and long guns.

This, obviously, requires manipulating firearms.

Therefore, one of the requirements to conduct the class is that you have a "safe direction", per Rule 1 (NRA Version). This means that the classroom must have at least one wall that is constructed of a material that will stop a bullet.

(Yes, NRA bans all live ammo from classroom training, even classes like Refuse To Be A Victim that do not involve actual firearms.

(So?)

We were unable to ascertain whether the Pavilion has a classroom facility that meets the requirement for a safe direction, therefore, no class this weekend.

March's Puyallup show is in the "Agriplex" which is barely big enough for the usual table-holders, does not have room for a separate class, and does not have a safe direction. (There is no show in March at the fairgrounds in Monroe.)

So it looks like the next class will probably be at Puyallup in April. Well, should be plenty of time to advertise, kinda wonder if we'll need to do one class both days...

Again:

• Cost:
• Admission to WAC Gunshows is free for WAC members
• $10.00 for non-members. (Refundable if you join at the show.)

• Target audience: 
• Those wishing to learn or review the basics of safe gun handling. 
• No minimum or maximum age, but the "final exam" involves safely demonstrating "unloading and showing clear"
• Depending on turnout, students who do not have the strength or dexterity to demonstrate safe gun handling may be allowed to "audit" the class, but no certificate will be issued. (I.e., those too young, arthritis or hand injuries, etc.)

WAC's Event Rules are at the link.

By the way: Part of dues, and of the non-members entry fee for the show, goes to the Building Fund, which is earmarked to be used to purchase a permanent home for the WAC offices and shows. There have been issues with finding a large enough piece of property that wasn't zoned against firearm-related activities.

I ass-you-me that, if we ever find a suitable property, that the gun shows at alternate facilities will not cease. (That is, if it's in the south end there will still be several shows a year at the Monroe fairgrounds.

(The idea of having a couple of shows a year in Eastern Washington has also been mooted, but I don't know how far those plans have gone, or even if they got to the planing stage. I think maybe one a quarter or so, in, say, Spokane, Pasco, and Ellensberg, might be beneficial. But I'm just blue-skying here.)

Training returns to WAC Shows!

This coming weekend, NRA Home Firearms Safety Classes return to the Washington Arms Collectors gunshows.

These had ceased due to the fallout of I594, about which I had a thing or two to say.  Current interpretation is that, as long the firearm does not leave the training venue, a "transfer" has not taken place, so it has been decided to start classes again.

• Date: Sunday, February 11^th
• Time: 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
• Location: Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA, in the "Log Cabin".
• Cost: 
• Admission to WAC Gunshows is free for WAC members
• $10.00 for non-members. (Refundable if you join at the show.)
• Target audience: 
• Those wishing to learn, or review the basics of safe gun handling. 
• No minimum or maximum age, but the "final exam" involves safely demonstrating "unloading and showing clear", so if the student does not have the strength and dexterity to do so, no certificate will be issued.

WAC's Event Rules are at the link.

Current plan is to have at least one HFS class a quarter; we'll probably start doing Refuse To Be A Victim classes, too.

"The Really Big One", explained

GOAL Post 2018-3

That time of the week again. 

There seems to be a glitch in the original text, in the third paragraph, dealing with new proposed legislation. It is present in the original text; if Joe posts a correction or errata I will fix it. There are also a couple of legislators whose districts are missing from the list of bills, ditto.

As usual, I have made minor edits to the text for punctuation or style, but have made no changes to the actual text.

I had a bit of an unintentional discharge while putting this one together,and accidentally launched what was barely even a draft, so if you get this blog through a feed service, you may have had two versions show up. Apologies.

***

FROM: GOAL WA (Joe Waldron)

TO: undisclosed recipients

SENT: Fri 1/19/2018 2:34 PM

SUBJECT: GOAL Post 2018-3

Legislative Update from Olympia19 January 2018

• LEGISLATIVE CALENDAR CORRECTION
• 1/15 SENATE GUN BILL HEARING
• NEW GUN BILLS FILED
• PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED
• ACTION ON GUN BILLS
• KIRO TV POLL
• NOT ALL DEMOCRATS ARE OUR ENEMIES

The correct date of the Fiscal committee cut-off is 6 February, not 5 February as reported last week.

The first big gun bill hearing was conducted by Senate Law & Justice on Monday, 15 January. There was a turnout of several hundred on both sides, with two overflow rooms filled with attendees (unfortunately the pro-gun lobby doesn’t have a billionaire sugar daddy who provides neat highly visible t-shirts – but most of us DO have gun-related ball caps, club badges, pins, etc.) It was an amazing display of ignorance about guns and gun laws by the pro-gun control side. But that doesn’t stop them and their billionaire allies from pushing for every restriction they can get through the system. The bills heard in public testimony included SBs 592 (trigger devices),6049 (magazine ban), 5444 (modern sporting rifle registration), 5463 (safe storage) and 6146 (preemption repeal). The entire hearing can be viewed on TVWashington at https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2018011154.

Several new gun bills were filed this week... and one I missed last week! SB 6173, by Sen. Takko (D-19) is the counterpart of HB 2329 and strengthens privacy protections for CPL holders (our esteemed Attorney General wants to open CPL information to the public, as it was prior to 1993). HB 2422, by Rep. Peterson (D-21) is similar to SB 1049 and bans high capacity magazines… with exceptions. HB 2529 by Rep. Lovick (D-44) imposes the same background check (re-check requirement on CPLs that have been seized as previous law does was seized firearms, HB 2666, by Rep. Macri (D-43) is the companion bill to SB 6146, repealing state preemption of firearms regulation. SB 6298, by Sen. Dhingra (D-45), would add any conviction for domestic violence harassment to the list of violations forfeiting firearm rights. It’s bad enough that for more than ten years now we have been denying a fundamental, enumerated right to people convicted of what are essentially minor crimes. This is even more egregious I on that most domestic harassment cases consist of largely “he said-she said” testimony, and in today’s climate, the court usually errs on the side of the woman.

Two public hearings on gun bills will be conducted next week. At 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 23 January, the Senate Law & Justice Committee will take testimony on SBs 6297 and 6298 (banning possession of firearms for those with a history of violence or who have been convicted of domestic harassment). At 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, 25 January, the House Judiciary Committee will take testimony on HBs 2519 (return of seized CPLs), 2293 (daycare firearm ban), 1387 (a/w registration), 2422 (hi-cap mag ban) and 2666 (preemption repeal). Again, a strong turn-out carries a message all its own. Better yet, if you can make it to Oly for the hearing, be sure to wear some clearly pro-gun item of clothing (not camouflage!) such as a ball cap, club membership badge, etc. (If you have prepared testimony, be sure to carry a spare copy with you and leave it with committee staff.)

SB 5992 (trigger devices) passed out of the Senate Law & Justice Committee on Tuesday and is now on the Senate floor calendar awaiting final passage from the Senate. They will likely vote on it next week.

A KIRO TV poll conducted earlier this week showed 66% of respondents do NOT support a ban on bump stocks. I went back a couple of days later to see if it had changed – and it HAD changed… it was pulled!

Not all Republicans are our friends, and not all Democrats are our enemies. The link below goes to a great article about two pro-gun Democrats (and yes, they are solidly pro-gun, as are a few others; I’ve worked closely with both of them for several years). http://tdn.com/news/local/takko-and-blake-could-scuttle-raft-of-gun-control-bills/article_f46063f4-f0e8-576a-928d-d32ba6060cfd.html

BILL NUMBER/SUBJECT/SPONSOR/STATUS/GOAL POSITION:

GOAL Post 2018-2

Week two. 
There was a rally in Olympia today, only about 150 or so showed up. The weather sucks, and getting to Oly from north of Tacoma has become something of a nightmare. So far as I know, though, there was no Open Cary jackassery, so we have that going for us... 
(Since I am now working Graveyard Shift, any such activity is awkward for me, at best...)

In addition to the efforts on the part of Seattle commies to infringe on the Second Amendment Rights of Washingtonians, they are also said to be considering passing a "sweetened beverage" tax; from the description, they looked at the one Seattle itself recently passed and said "Hold my non-fat half-caff latte and watch this!"
(Milk-based beverages are exempt, but under this proposal, diet and alcoholic beverages will not be...)

This after the first order of business, which was repealing the state law requiring a two thirds majority for any tax bills.

Meanwhile, Hizzoner The Governor really, really, REALLY wants to institute a carbon tax on Washingtonians. 

Like I said last week, batten down the hatches and fasten your seat belts...

***

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

TO: wa-ccw@yahoogroups.com
SENT: Fri 1/12/2018 3:13 PM

SUBJECT: GOAL Post 2018-2

GOAL Post 2018-2

Legislative Update from Olympia12 January 2018 

• GUN RIGHTS RALLY
• LEGISLATIVE CALENDAR
• NEW GUN BILLS FILED
• PUBLIC HEARING SCHEDULED

Somewhere between 125-150 gun rights supporters showed up at the rally conducted on the Capitol Campus earlier today.Several legislators spoke to the crowd, including Representatives Matt Shea (R-4), Brian Blake (D-19), Vicki Kraft (R-17), Morgan Irwin (R-31) and Senator Phil Fortunato (R-31). After the formal presentations ended, individual participants visited their legislators’ offices. A big thank you to the legislators who spoke and to all who made the trek to Olympia to show the flag..

The following cut-off dates are proposed for bills under consideration in the 2018 regular legislative session. As a general rule, if a bill fails to pass a hurdle, it is considered dead for the session. Exceptions can be made.

2 February: Bills must pass out of policy committee

5 February: Bills must pass out of chamber fiscal committee (only bills with major fiscal impact)

14 February: Bills must pass out of house of origin (House bills out of House, Senate bills out of Senate)

23 February: Bills must pass out of policy committee in second chamber

26 February: Bills with major fiscal impact must pass out of second chamber fiscal committee

2 March: Bills must pass out of second chamber (House bills out of Senate, Senate bills out of House), except for bills in a conference committee to iron out differences in House/Senate versions,budget bills and initiatives.

8 March: Sine die – close of regular legislative session.

HB 2363, by Rep. Pellicciotti (D-30), makes any attempt to use a drone to deliver a deadly weapon to an incarcerated individual a Class C felony.SB 6146, by Sen. Saldada (D-37), repeals RCW 9.41.290, our state preemption law, that prohibits local government from passing its own gun laws.I believe Washington was first in the nation with this, 35 years ago. 42 states now have preemption laws. If this passes, every county, city and town can pass their own gun control laws, a patchwork quilt of laws that will trip up gun owners traveling across the state.SB 6247, by Sen. Dhingra (D-45), prohibits firearm possession by individuals with a history of violence who are not deemed competent to stand trial.

The Senate Law & Justice Committee will conduct public hearings on SBs 5992 (trigger devices), 6049 (magazine restrictions), 5444 (modern sporting rifle registration), 5463 (safe storage) and 6146 (preemption repeal) on 15 January at 10 a.m. in Senate Hearing Room 4, John A. Cherberg Building.That is the only public hearing on gun bills scheduled this week.A strong turnout would help.

BILL NUMBER/SUBJECT/SPONSOR/STATUS/GOAL POSITION:

Read The Label

So, did you hear the one about the two women who set sail from Hawaii on a three hour week trip to Tahiti, and got rescued of Japan five months later?

Two women rescued after 5 months adrift in the Pacific - CNN

This being the 21st Century, the story started unraveling rather quickly.
Questions raised about sailors' story after months stranded at sea

The best analysis is found here: 19 REASONS THIS “SURVIVAL” STORY SMELLS FISHY – UNREASONABLY DANGEROUS ONION RINGS (h/t Insty.)

Aside from the fact that I may have to start reading the Unreasonable Dangerous Onion Rings blog just for the name, this is essentially a detailed fisking of the entire story. In this case, go ahead and read the comments. (Note: If you're going to click through to the Daily Mail's coverage, you might want to warn your spouse lest she look over your shoulder when you reach the part about how one of the principles in this story led a "Shades of Grey" lifestyle. AMHIK.)

Anyway.

What brought me here was that, out of curiosity, I looked up de-salinators on Amazon, because, 5 months at sea you'd obviously have to have one.

The search returned 29 hits, most of which are filters or purifiers, not de-salinators.

Removing bugs and contaminants from salt water doesn't do you much good if you still can't drink the water...

Anyway, two rules:

1. Always read the product description. 
2. Never read the comments. 

Exception to 2. above:

• Unless you still have questions about the product description.

The Second Amendment Dichotomy

It seems to me that the tragic events over the weekend in Sutherland, Texas, bring the two sides of the gun control "debate" into stark relief.

The gun controllers would have everyone believe that all gun owners everywhere are just like the murderous scumbag.

Pro-gun folks hold up the likes of Stephen Willeford and Johnnie Langendorff as role models and ideals.

(We'd like to believe they're typical of gun owners, but I prefer to go with "role models and ideals".)

The evidence shows we're closer to the truth than the gun banners.

Earworm, Have You Met Harvey? Edition

For my friends in Texas, those I've met, and those I've yet to meet.

Stay safe.

LIVE Satellite feed of Hurricane Harvey

In case the feed here goes down, it is at this link: Hurricane Harvey LIVE video from NASA Goes 16 satellite - YouTube


Edit to add: View of Hurricane Harvey from the International Space Station: