NRAAM First Aid For Shooters

This year Kelly of Ambulance Driver Files along with help from Murphy's Law, EMS Artifact, and Jeff B, gave his most excellent First Aid for Shooters class. The class was followed by a presentation from LawDog, who gave a short (due to room booking limitations only we could have stood to sit and gain much more wisdom from him had there been time) but very informative talk on Critical Incident stress.

Here's Kelly demonstrating the right way to do CPR, and yes he has "Staying Alive" queued up in his iPhone and ready to play should the need arise.

Quality slides helped keep the presentation moving along, and his suggestions as to what works and what's derp in the first aid realm was very helpful:

Boys! Tourniquet! - We learned how to both self-apply tourniquets and apply them on other people to stop arterial bleeding:

Here's LawDog giving his talk:

If you have an opportunity to take this class, Do It.

Kelly and his assistants are great instructors and the vital info and hands-on practice under their expert eyes may one day save your life or the life of another.

As I had taken the class last year it was a great refresher and the additional first aid kit will be put to good use as well.

Hopefully LawDog's portion of the class can be enlarged as he was very much worth listening to and I expect we would learn much, much more had there been time.

The class was also a great opportunity to give The Most Interesting Man in The World the shirt I had mentioned that was a secret:

Yes it says "The Most Interesting Dinosaur In The World". Click to embiggen and read the rest of the shirt.

Detroit Policeman Does What?

While Drive By Shootings are know to occur in Detroit and environs, it is rather rare when one is committed by a Detroit Police Officer.

The Detroit News: Detroit officer suspended after shooting in Macomb

he Detroit officer is accused of firing five shots from a .40 caliber handgun after his wife became involved in a dispute with the homeowners, Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said in a press release.

The officer's wife provides in-home medical care to a female resident of the home, Lt. John Michalke said. The woman lives at the home with her husband.

"There was some sort of dispute between the (residents) and the female caregiver, and the caregiver went home and had a conversation with her husband," Michalke said. "He got in his car and drove over there and fired shots out of his vehicle into the front of the home."

Based on that description, there's no chance of a defense of self or others claim here. Deliberately traveling to engage in a confrontation and then firing shots at a dwelling from a moving vehicle is pretty darn hard to well-nigh impossible (think well-nigh impossible) to defend as justified.

It also may be that he used his service weapon for the shooting considering that the DPD carries .40 cal Smith and Wesson M&Ps.

Sigh. At least IMPD only drives their cars around drunk when they misbehave, DPD steps it up Detroit-style and shoots from them.

Remington R51 Redux

The R51 is back and is claimed to be better than ever, which given its lackluster showing last year, shouldn't be all that hard to believe.

It certainly felt better than ever and the fit and finish certainly looked better than last ywear.

They also had the new RM380 if you're in the market for a smaller .380 with a 2.9" barrel and all-metal construction weighing in at 12.1 ounces and a magazine holding 6 shots.

In a bright move, they're offering some with a Crimson Trace lasergrip already attached right from the get-go.

Cool Century Arms Swag

Yes, for many having thew words Century Arms and Cool in the same sentence would be regarded as an oxymoron.

However, they did have some cool swag indeed:

An AK ice cube maker.

In Russia, your drink freezes at sight of gun!

Radoms At NRAAM

What is likely the largest collection of Radom VIS pistols, including rare prototypes was on display at the show:

Consecutive serial numbered pistols made just prior to World War 2:

One of only five surviving Radom VIS prototypes:

Radom in addition to the VIS pistol also made K98s for the Polish Army:

The gentleman pictured is the owner of these many Radoms and is wearing the uniform of the Polish army from the pre-war and World War 2 period. Being Polish himself, he's traveled back and forth to Poland and over time has amassed quite a fantastic collection.

Activities Outside The NRAAM

There was quite a bit to see and do around Nashville during the occasional break from the Firearms Law Seminar, The First Aid for Shooters class and touring the show floor. In other words, little of the time was spent in places other than the convention center until it had closed for the nights.

So once the show ended we went a wandering.

Broadway had it's charms - many bars with loud music, often so loud you could not hear yourself think, and crowds aplenty.

There were also many strange sights on Broadway, such as this strange duo of a Horse and a Horse's ass, you guess which is which.

Unfortunately many establishments on Broadway had "no guns allowed" signs up:

So we didn't go into Legends and give them any of our money accordingly to obey the sign.

Many bars on the strip however did not have the signs up and you could go in and listen to live music so long as you didn't drink. So, I ended up consuming a lot of Diet Coke. Since it was Passover until Saturday night, beer was off the table for me anyways so it was no big deal.

Printer's Alley, located off of the main Broadway strip was a bit quieter place for some good food and the ability to sit at a table and actually hear yourself and whoever was with you.

Located in Printer's Alley was the awesome Fleet Street pub, a bar with a very very English theme:

I need one of those posters.

The fries with Stilton on them were quite awesome indeed, a combination I had never considered before, but they certainly went well together.

There was also on Saturday night a gathering of many of the bloggers and their SOs present, great people all, and much interesting conversation was had,

This gathering on Saturday night at the Sole Mio Italian restaurant beat the gathering on Friday night that was in a bar that was so loud you couldn't hear the person next to you. Also we had waited over an hour to be seated even after having our group listed and watching others being seated ahead of us so the excellent service at Sole Mio was a welcome change. It also beat it as Passover had just ended and there was bread on the table, pasta on the menu and I engaged in some serious carb loading.

After the dinner some of us stopped by one of the hotels where many of the bloggers were staying (unlike our flea-bag Econolodge with its spotty to non-existent wi-fi and spotty overall condition) and had some further excellent conversation. This was quite a bright bunch of bloggers indeed, as you can see from Old NFO's description of the group.

A great bunch of people and I can't wait to meet up with them again at the NRA's next annual meeting scheduled for Louisville, Kentucky in 2016 or sooner at other events.

IWI At NRAAM

Finding the IWI display at the NRA Annual Meeting proved a bit of a challenge. For some unfathomable reason, most likely an oversight, the IWI display was not listed in either the printed maps nor the NRAAM mobile app.

With perseverance and asking multiple others at the show we finally found it.

First there was a nice assortment of the new Galil Ace rifle and pistols, including a pistol ACE with an arm-brace attached.

The Galil Aces all felt solid and the fit and finish seemed excellent. Much nicer than any other AK variant that I saw on the floor. If you're looking for what will most assuredly be a rock-solid reliable AK-type action rifle, the Galil Ace is for you.

Of course there were Tavors on display.

Most impressive were the Tavors and Micro Tavors that had the happy-fun switch. Sadly I couldn't take any home with me as they're Law-enforcement only sales. There were also full auto Uzis on the same table.

Just holding one of the micro Tavors was happy-making.

Sadly we can't buy them, nor did the lights at the show go out permitting a clean getaway.

But, one of the reps told me a civilian-legal SBR Tavor design is in the works, albeit without the happy-fun switch. Yes, I can see a tax stamp transaction for an SBR-Tavor in my future. These small Tavors simply rocked.

So The Tenessean Takes A Gratuitous, Snide, And Unfounded Swipe At The NRA

So the Tenessean, an alleged newspaper, had the following headline to remark about this exceptionally successful and law abiding convention that has contributed tons of money to the city:

"Big conventions, like NRA, can draw sex trafficking".

And the factual basis for such a suggestive calumny of a headline showing any such activity going on at the NRA Annual Meeting is what, exactly?

Considering the police in Nashville have repeatedly remarked as to how law-abiding and well-behaved the attendees are, I find that suggestive headline rather unlikely.

A very nice way to insult a convention that has brought over 60,000+ law-abiding gun owners to your city, who have just contributed millions to the local economy.

After all, while this convention has a large law enforcement presence, it does not have a large Secret Service presence.

NRA AM: The HK P30SK

New and just revealed at the NRA AM from H&K is the P30SK.

All the features of the P30 in a smaller and more compact package.

The HK rep stated these should be hitting the stores in June.

All the P30 variants - with or without switch safeties, double action and LEM will be available.

The P30SK felt great in the hand, a nice compact variant that is very nice indeed.

Also, the HK rep let me know that the VP40 version of the VP9 will be coming out soon with the VPSK series to follow.

NRA AM: The Glock 43

Here at the show, I got to get a good look at the new Glock 43. Glock is definitely promoting the pistol here at the show and there's a lot of interest with a good crowd around them checking them out.

Fits the hand nicely, it is very noticeably thinner than the standard Glocks. 

So much thinner that it feels almost un-Glock-like. It fits the hand quite nicely and is just slightly bigger than my Kahr PM9 in both grip and length with a six shot capacity. The tang on the gun is nice and long for its size and let's you get a high grip on it.

Since I already have the PM9 which is a bit smaller and more concealable with 6 or 7 round magazines I don't see any need for a Glock 43 at this point.

For someone looking for a gun in the pocket category, with the appropriate pocket holster the 43 should do quite nicely. It should also do well as a thin and concealable pistol for more conventional carry.

NRA Nashville

Lots of blogging to follow, as since the wifi at our hotel doesn't work it hasn't been very conducive to bogging the events of the past few days,

The NRA Firearms Law seminar was great and highly informative.

Ambulance Driver's and Lawdogs class this morning was fantastic and a great refresher.

About to hit the convention floor with lots more blogging to follow.

Nashville Arrival

Made it to Nashville in good time.

While Muprhy's Law spent an inordinate amount of time complaining about my driving on his blog, but when he was driving it was similar 

and looked and sounded quite like this

But we made it in any case and met up with Mo and Dave, had some great BBQ, and then met up with. JayG and had a great evening listening to some live music.

On The Way To The NRA AM

Making decent time towards Nashville on the way to the NRAAM.  

We've been driving through lots of thunderstorms but overall no complaints as we're crossing into Kentucky from Ohio now.

Wow, Obama Didn't Just Give Away The Store In The Iran Deal, He Got Rolled.

That framework Obama was proclaiming as the key to peace in our time?

Not so fast: Iran news report: Tehran will start using fastest centrifuges on day deal takes effect

In complete violation of the US published framework trumpeted by Obama (apparently the version of the framework in Farsi says something different), Iran is going to immediately start using very advanced centrifuges that would let it make a bob quite quickly.

Times of Israel:

Iran will begin using its latest generation IR-8 centrifuges as soon as its nuclear deal with the world powers goes into effect, Iran’s foreign minister and nuclear chief told members of parliament on Tuesday, according to Iran’s semi-official FARS news agency.

The most feckless US administration in regards to foreign policy, ever.

That the Iranians are confident enough to publicly announce this move means one of a few possibilities:
a) That they know Obama is so desperate for any deal that they can violate the terms with impunity from the get-go without sanction; or
b) Obama's administration negotiated a deal with insanely ambiguous and incomplete terms that will let the Iranians view it to permit them to do what has been announced by Obama that they cannot do under the deal; or
c) Obama has lied about the terms from the start and knew the deal was either unenforceable or even worse than that which was publicly announced so he could trumpet a false triumph of diplomacy.

The Persians invented chess. Obama can't even play a game of checkers on the international diplomatic scene.

UofM Caves To Anti-American Sniper Protesters

The Detroit Free Press: U-M cancels 'American Sniper' screening after complaints.

A planned screening of the Iraq war drama "American Sniper" at the University of Michigan has been canceled after complaints by students about portrayals of Arabs and the Middle East in the film.

The Michigan Daily reports the Center for Campus Involvement announced the decision Tuesday.

Sophomore Lamees Mekkaoui started a petition earlier in the day after learning that a showing of the film was planned for Friday. Mekkaoui says she identifies as Arab and Middle Eastern and feels the film "condones a lot of anti-Middle Eastern and North African propaganda."

So much for UofM being an institution of higher learning and free exchange of ideas and all that. All it takes is some protesters of leftist persuasion and they fold like a cheap suit.

This isn't the first film they've shut down and prevented from being screened, they banned the film Honor Diaries from being screened last year that showed the mistreatment of women in Islam-dominated countries.

Update: Apparently UofM got the message that they were being made to look like censorious politically-correct idiots so they will now show the film. Simultaneously, they are offering a screening of Paddington so all the anti-American progressive special snowflakes can watch a film that's more appropriate for their infantile intellectual level.

Carpet Isn't Kosher For Passover

First, get your minds out of the gutter.

Ok, now that you're refocused, back to the topic at hand. Jett, it seems has just developed a taste for carpet.

In the most conspicuous place possible, he chewed out a five inch by six inch chunk of carpet and the under-layer, stripping that area all the way to the concrete floor.

Sheesh. I'm not sure if he was inspired by Belle to try and dig his way out or what.

Not sure how we fix this hole, it's not like we can just throw a rug over it right at the edge of the hallway like that. Not to mention we need to stop him from getting the urge to rip through even more of it elsewhere.

It's a darn good thing he's both cute and good at playing the contrite pooch.

Sen Dianne Feinstein Wants To Put The Toothpaste Back Into The Tube

Ars Technica: Senator calls for The Anarchist Cookbook to be “removed from the Internet”

Apparently she wants to add banning books to her drive for banning guns. She seems to enjoy making Sisyphean attempts to restrict American's various liberties.

She also seems to lack the understanding that books are even easier to buy, copy and disseminate than guns. Indeed, they're even harder to suppress, especially once they're in electronic form and even sold on on Amazon.com for crying out loud.

Whatever you do don't tell her there are even more impressive books available on Amazon and the internet to apparently teach you how to make things go boom.

Happy Passover!

Friday night was the start of Passover.

We went to a friend's house for a seder and had a very good time. Leah did a most impressive job singing the four questions in Hebrew and reading them in English as well.

This morning we had the traditional breakfast meal for Passover in our house: matzah brye.

The easiest explanation for matzah brye is that it is French Toast made out of matzah rather than bread, and it's a tasty treat to start the day.

First take about one sheet of matzah person person and have your minions break it into small pieces in a bowl.





















Next, add warm water to the bowl and cover the matzah. 















Then in a separate bowl crack in an egg per person, beat the eggs and add a dash of cinnamon and couple teaspoons of sugar and a bit of salt.

Drain the matzah and then pour the egg mixture over the matzah and mix it together as you heat a frying pan with butter.

Once the pan is hot pour in the matzah and egg mixture.
 

Flip over when it is golden brown underneath, cook the other side and serve.

And that's how you make matzah brye.  Generally, it is best with maple syrup but other toppings are also acceptable.

Happy Passover, and a Happy Easter to my Christian friends and readers out there.

Solitary: An Amazing Combat Pilot Memoir

If you want a read about military aviation that you will not be able to put down, then

Solitary: The Crash, Captivity and Comeback of an Ace Fighter Pilot is the book for you.

Solitary, by Giora Romm, Israel;'s first jet ace with five kills in the Six Day War is more than a flying story.

It's also a tale of survival and a superlative return to duty after he was shot down and badly injured during the War of Attrition and was a captive of the Egyptians for months, where he spent months in solitary confinement, and then he came home in a prisoner exchange and recovered to fly again.

Romm went on to command 115 squadron in the Yom Kippur War. The 115 Squadron flew Skyhawks and Romm was a Mirage and Nesher pilot. He took command of the squadron the day before the war began and his first flight in the Skyhawk was a combat mission against the attacking Egyptians. He continued to lead the squadron throughout the war.

His book focuses mainly on his experiences in captivity, but gives lots of insight into his life and flying both before and after he was shot down. It's an amazing true story that is practically impossible to put down.

Romm retired from the Israeli Air Force as a Major General and went on to head Israel's Civil Aviation Authority, retiring from that post in 2014.

Highly Recommended.

Some Good News Out Of Detroit

A good story about an American manufacturing business taking hold in Detroit, and an excellent beer, which is always a good combination.

The Detroit News: Deal brewing between Detroit Bikes, Fat Tire ale

The Detroit Bike Co seems poised to manufacture a special run of bikes for the New Belgium Brewing Co, which is famous for their excellent and tasty Fat Tire amber ale. A good deal all around, and nice to see a positive story of business success coming out of Detroit.

Why are Anti-Gun-Owner Activists So Violent?

The Detroit News: Teen in high school app threat case faces sentencing

Jacob Michael Young is about to be sentenced for making terrorist threats online that led to Sheriff deputies being dispatched to his school and education being disrupted for lots of students.

Mr. Young, a high school senior made the following threat, using social media, naturally:

Young came up with a plan to write up anonymous posts complete with photos of someone holding a rifle threatening a Columbine-type event at the school, and advised students to stay home for their own safety.

Note that the defense has

cited Young’s reputation of being anti-gun, anti-violence and anti-bullying as additional reasons for consideration

as a reason why he should get a diversionary sentence under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act.

This contrasts nicely with his rather nasty threat of imminent violence using a firearm in an unlawful and bullying manner, now doesn't it?

He probably should get HYTA diversion as he is a stupid kid who did something stupid, and likely without intent to carry through on his threat.

But, he should have certainly have to pay restitution for the sheriff department's and school's expenses in responding to the threat as well as careful monitoring and anger management, not to mention a class in social media etiquette.

Always Request Confirmation

Yet another tale of fun from court.

I have a client that is in bad shape medically and ran afoul of the law, resulting in a misdemeanor for being stupid, in a circumstance that doesn't bear going into for the purposes of this story.

How bad shape medically you may ask? Well, thanks for asking. So bad that she's on heavy medications, cannot function or walk without the medications and has quite a few side affects from same. Said medications would lead one to be in serious penal jeopardy if you were taking or possessing them on a recreational basis. She, by way of contrast, has prescriptions, attending doctors, an extensive medical history, and is tested on a regular basis to make sure her blood count for all this stuff is correct, and she does not use recreational drugs.

Unfortunately, we're in front of a judge who seems to have a thing against people being prescribed certain pain killers.

So at a pre-sentencing hearing the judge orders her to take a pee test right at the court's probation office, which she does. This is instead of just moving this case along with the already plead plea deal of a deferred sentence, probation and then having it removed off of her record as she has no prior criminal conduct or record.

She's been doing these test regularly anyways not just for her doctor but for the probation department as a condition of her bond and they have a full list of all her meds and the tests tend to come back unsurprisingly as positive for all the stuff she's taking.

This time however, the test taker claims that the test results showed she took methamphetamine.

This doesn't make sense, especially as no other test has ever detected it, she had recently been checked by her doctor and no meth was found, and she's already on an prescribed amphetamine so why would she go for the fake stuff when she can have the real thing?

Guess what boys and girls? The pee test does have a high likelihood of triggering on amphetamine metabolites and erroneously reporting them as methamphetamine metabolites.

The judge gets pissed and orders a bond revocation hearing. This is after I've already left court by the way. The client is now being railroaded with the next stop ending at a jail.

The more I look into this the curiouser it becomes.

I check with the probation office and ask if they confirmed the test. They don't know but they're convinced that since the test showed meth, so its meth, regardless of her prescribed meds.

A Toxicologist I talk to about this laughs out loud when I run the facts by him. Without a proper confirmation test being done at a lab, the test is junk as it is an initial screening test only and yes, it can indeed show the client's prescription amphetamine use as methamphetamine.

So the court is about to throw someone in jail based on a unsubstantiated and unreliable (in this circumstance) test.

I start having to draft a motion for the hearing and move to retain the Toxicologist, who does not come cheap, to prepare to defend my client and keep the client out of jail.

I then talk to the assigned probation officer and ask if the test is confirmed yet. She states that it was not confirmed. I ask if it is going to be confirmed and she says no. I point out that without a lab doing a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry test to confirm the presence of methamphetamine and rule out the likelihood that the false positive was caused by the metabolites from the Defendant’s medications, the baseline pee test is unreliable.

She considers that, then agrees and states she will recommend to the judge that the bond hearing be pulled and we go back to the normal track of things.

Today, the court clerk confirmed the hearing is off and we're back on track towards the deal as pleaded.

So yay me, I now know far more about drug testing than I ever have before. More importantly, I managed to stop the railroad and kept my client out of jail for a violation that the client did not commit.

Woke Up This Morning....

Mother Nature didn't get the message.

Seriously now, enough.

Go Home Mother Nature, You're Drunk

It's the end of March, it looked like we were making steady progress towards spring and what do we get today?

Snow.

Just enough to be annoying, but snow all the same.

Media Set On Cruz Control

As Instapundit says, the media is just Democratic party operates with bylines, and it becomes more blatant and apparent in the run-up to 2016.

Adding to the fun, the media is prying and commenting on places with Cruz that they didn't dare go concerning Obama.

Take NPR for example. As can be seen form the transcript, NPR is interviewing Jeff Toobin of The New Yorker to discuss Cruz.

Of course they paint Cruz as an extremist, and a scary one at that. Interestingly, they go into his father's experiences and nature in the interview and how that affects Cruz. They also cover Cruz's schooling and early career as a darn smart attorney and advocate.

Note how the media conspicuously did not report on Obama's parent's political leanings.

Heck, we now now more about Cruz's parentage and schooling than we do About Obama, all these years on since he became president, and this is just two days after Cruz declared he was running.

Oh, That Liberal Media

While it's nice to see the media waking up to it's watch-dog role from it's lap-dog status as of late in regards to federal politics, it's unsurprising that this seems limited to attacking Republican candidates while oversight of Obama and the email-lady continues to get the blind eye or the quick report and move-along treatment.

Currently, it appears the Media has gotten the memo to attack the latest Republican to make a splash - Ted Cruz.

For example, we get this missive from The Detroit Free Press' Brian Dickerson - In opening round, Cruz courts pants-on-fire vote

Ted Cruz began his formal quest for the presidency this week the same way he became one of the most recognizable Republicans on Capitol Hill: by lying his head off.

Speaking to a captive audience in the bosom of Christian fundamentalism, Cruz doubled down on a series of assertions non-partisan fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked:

That the Obama administration seeks to "ban our ammunition."

That the Affordable Care Act has cost "millions" of Americans their health care coverage.

And that the ACA's employer mandates have forced millions more into part-time work.

None of these talking points withstands much scrutiny, as the non-partisan factcheck.org website explained in a post wearily dismissing Cruz's declaration as a medley of "dubious claims we have heard before, and a few we haven't."

Interestingly, going to the "non-partisan" websites from which Dickerson draws his conclusions reveals some very partisan slight of hand.

Let's take "ban our ammunition" for instance. factcheck rates it not-truthy because they state the administration only recently tried to ban one type of ammunition (M855). This conveniently ignores the already in place Obama ban on March 5, 2014 of 5.45.x39 7N6. Factcheck then rates the Cruz statement as untrue because it wasn't all ammunition being banned at once, get it?

Factcheck then decides as the arbiter of truth that the fact that millions did indeed lose their healthcare isn't the whole story with a mendacious explanation that:

Cruz isn’t the first to make this claim, which stems from President Obama’s ill-fated promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” That was clearly proven false when, in the fall of 2013, several million people received cancellation notices for individual market plans that no longer met the law’s benefit requirements.

But to claim simply that millions lost their health insurance is misleading. Those individual market plans were discontinued, but policyholders weren’t denied coverage. Many upgraded to compliant plans (albeit at a higher cost, for some).

Factcheck then punts on the part time work issue claiming there's a lack of data or that only a few hundred thousand have been affected or Factcheck hopefully claims it might be caused by the economy, cause Obamacare has had no impact on the economy.

Hardly a resounding smack-down of Cruz's statements as Dickerson pretends it to be, now isn't it?

In other words, contra Factcheck, Cruz was truthful and Dickerson and Factcheck are furiously spinning facts in their adjunct role as Democrat party supporters and distorter.

ISIS' Goebbels Living It Up In Dearborn

The Detroit Free Press: Judge orders Dearborn cleric popular with ISIS to talk

One of the big mysteries is who is paying this felon - convicted of 42 counts of fraud - to spread Islamist propaganda? Well, he's not talking, at least not yet.

Yes, the most inspirational cleric providing aid and comfort to Islamic terrorists is comfortably living in Dearborn and lying to the court.

The Obama Administration is fundamentally unserious about dealing with Islamic Terrorism and ISIS, heck they can't even say the I word, so dealing with a propagandist for the same is likely beyond their ken, and this will not end well.

NRA 2015 Annual Meeting In Nashville

The NRA's 2015 Annual Meeting is coming up fast, April 10-12 in Nashville, Tennessee.

To pre-register and get your attendee badge ahead of time go here and sign up.

Yes, you can carry at the NRA's annual meeting at the Music City Center in Nashville if you have a valid CPL recognized by Tennessee.

As stated by the NRA:

During the 2015 NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits, lawfully carried firearms will be permitted in the Music City Center with the proper license in accordance with Tennessee law. Bridgestone Arena prohibits the possession of firearms. When carrying your firearm, remember to follow all federal, state and local laws.

Be sure to check out the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security page on Handgun Permits to get the law to ensure you comply with Tennessee's rules while you're visiting Nashville and don't carry in the very few no-carry zones that they have listed.

While civic centers in Tennessee are typically off limits to carry under TCA 39-17-1311, an exception under 39-17-1311(b)(J)(iii) exists for gun and knife shows and this is indeed a gun show of gun shows.

Looking forward to seeing many of my fellow bloggers there, as well as attending the NRA's Firearms Law Seminar, which is well worth the price of admission. Besides, Instapundit will be the luncheon speaker, Mas Ayoob will be lecturing, and David Hardy will be in attendance.

Should be a great time, and we should be able to organize some blogger get-togethers during that weekend.

An Escape From The Great Escape Room

Tonight we got together with three other other couples and headed to The Great Escape Room in Royal Oak.

What is it? Well, you're locked in a room and you have one hour to find clues hidden throughout the room and then solve the puzzles to be able to unlock the exit.

Only 25% of player groups manage to escape and yes, our group was among that hallowed few.

My initial solution for solving the puzzle by torturing the room guide until he gave up the goods was quickly vetoed, and so we began to play the game.

We all started by looking for clues, and many were fiendishly well hidden. So well hidden that quite a few escaped us on the initial search.

Then we started trying to solve the inter-related puzzles.

Tash and I solved the first puzzle very quickly and it led to a piece to help solve another puzzle.

Everyone contributed and as we had a very smart bunch with us, we managed to escape. We were also the first group not to need a helper hint from the room guide for a certain puzzle that had apparently stumped everyone else who had done the game when he was a guide.

Then we posed for the mandatory successful escape team silly picture:

Logic, mathematics, general knowledge, brilliant deductions, persistence, patience and camaraderie were needed to solve the puzzles and escape the room.

It was a lot of fun, and I'd highly recommend giving it a try.

To see it in action, here's a clip from the Big Bang Theory for an example of how the Escape Room game is played:

There were no zombies in ours, and we had a Sherlock Holmes theme with some pretty difficult puzzles.

After the game, all of us went to Lilly's Seafood Restaurant for some adult beverages to celebrate (all of them brewed on the premises) and some excellent fish dishes to sate our hunger and feed the little grey cells.

A great night with some great people.

USAF Exercises With Romanian MIG-21s

An interesting article over at Foxtrot Alpha about The USAF's 480th Fighter Squadron with F-16CJs participating in Exercise Dacian Warhawk and engaging in dissimilar ACM against Romanian MIG-21 Lancers.

The Romanians have certainly gotten their money's worth out of their MIG-21s. A write-up of the upgrades performed by Israel in 2002 on 102 of Romania's MIGs, giving the MIGs all-weather capability and upgraded avionics and weapons systems can be found at Defense Update.

The upgrades included 25 aircraft configured as an air interceptor variant and 85 configured as a ground attack variant. According to the Foxtrot Alpha article, 36 of the 108 remain flying.

Not bad for fifty-year-old aircraft still flying today. Romania is moving to replace their MIG-21s with F-16AM MLU Vipers coming from Portugal. The MIG-21 will still continue to fly in other nation's air forces including India and Croatia.

Perhaps the Romanians will surplus out their MIG-21s and hopefully they'll wind up on the market in the US for sale. A MIG-21 Lancer would be quite an upgrade for Murphy's Law.

Now, Stop Doing That!

Click On Detroit: TSA finds 2 firearms in carry-on luggage at Detroit Metro Airport

Two firearms were found in separate instances Thursday morning by the Transportation Security Administration at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

The first was found about 5 a.m. in the carry-on luggage of a 41-year-old woman flying to Fort Lauderdale. She was carrying a loaded 9 mm Glock. TSA immediately notified local law enforcement, who arrested the passenger on a local charge.

The second firearm was found in the carry-on bag of a 56-year-old man flying to Dallas. He was carrying a loaded .38 caliber revolver.

Four firearms have been found in carry-on luggage at DTW this year. There were 32 firearms detected at DTW in 2014.

Both people likely had no evil intent, but they're both likely facing some serious charges for stupidly forgetting to take their firearms out of their carry-ons, or being dumb enough to somehow think you can fly with a firearm in your carry-on luggage. You really can't.

The stupid tax on these people is going to be high.

If That's How Obama Measures Sucess, I'd Hate to See What He Calls A Failure

Unless, of course, weakening America's standing in the world and handing the Middle East over to Islamic Fundamentalists and Iran was the successful aim.

The Detroit Free Press: Reports: U.S. forces evacuating Yemen air base after losing track of $500 million in weapons recently given to Yemen.

Remember this? Obama Tonight: Yemen and Somalia Are Models of Success.

Expect Somalia to fall even farther apart in short order.

From the Junior Varsity taking over swaths of Iraq to now losing Yemen to Al Qaeda and Iran, Obama's sure been busy losing. Not sure if we should attribute this string of failures to malice, or stupidity, or both.

No Special Favors - Macomb County Prosecutor Gets Same Citation As Anyone Else For A Minor CPL Violation

It's good to see that justice is administered evenhandedly even when the wrong-doer is a prosecutor himself.

The Detroit News: Assistant prosecutor cited for leaving gun at school

As can be seen from the link, he left a firearm in his jacket behind in a school, which is both a serious faux pas, and how he got caught carrying concealed in the school in violation of MCL 28.425(o).

Since schools in Michigan are no carry zones, he got the same citation anyone else would have earned for the first violation of carrying concealed in a no-carry zone, a fine of $500 and presumably (though not reported in the article) a suspension of his CPL for six months.

Now, setting aside the fact that you should always remain in possession of your firearm and not leave it anywhere an unauthorized person could get access to it which is not an acceptable thing to do, was there any real harm in a law-abiding person carrying a concealed firearm in a school had it not been inadvertently left there? Heck, had he not left his jacket behind would anyone had ever known that he had carried into the school in the first place?

The no-carry-zones need to be removed from the CPL law as they are both unnecessary for public safety and indeed imperil the public and individuals subject to these exclusions. But, while they are in effect, it is good to see that at least in Macomb County the law is administered impartially and without regard for the status of the law-breaker.

Kudos to the Macomb County Sheriff's Office and the Macomb Prosecutor's office for playing this one straight.

Kudos also go to the assistant prosecutor in question who didn't try to pull any "Do you know who I am?" games, and who manned up and admitted his mistake in leaving the firearm at the school and endeavored not to do it again in open court.

Most Transparent Administration, Evah.

The Detroit News: U.S. sets new record for denying, censoring fed files

The Obama administration set a new record again for more often than ever censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn’t find documents, and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.

It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.

In addition, the administration, in another burst of transparency, is going to exempt the White House Office of Administration form FOIA requests. Of course, the administration blames Bush for the Obama administration making this formalized ruling. This blame is because, you know Bush did it first and all that so it's cool for Obama to formalize the denial of responses to FOIA for the Office of Administration.

That Puritan Strain Of Enviromentalism....

The fear that someone, somewhere might be having fun in our natural environment and therefore must be stopped.

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a name that in and of itself is practically an oxymoron, is filing a lawsuit to stop people swimming with Manatees in Crystal River, Florida.

Fox News: Lawsuit aims to ban swimming with manatees in Florida

There are already plenty of protections for Manatees in the Crystal River, including a roped-off no-entry area reserved just for them.

There's also a lack of any real data concerning problems with swimmer-manatee interactions as currently held. If anything, such interactions help the manatees by making people want to save and conserve them.

Manatees are in far greater danger from boat propellers than human swimmers and this lawsuit seems more to generate headlines and increase federal bureaucratic overreach than anything else.

The current rules seem to have worked as in 2007 it was recommended that the manatees be no longer considered endangered as their population is doing quite well there. Also a fair chunk of money from the tours go to manatee conservation, so cutting that off would reduce funding for their protection, which would likely lead to a demand for more federal funding and federal bureaucrats to administer that funding (hmmm....).

Having actually snorkeled in Crystal River with Manatees I can attest to the care of the tour operators to comply with the rules concerning swimming with Manatees.

First World Protests

Someone tell me that this was a gag or troll attempt please.

USA Today: Protesters stage anti-robot rally at SXSW

"I say robot, you say no-bot!"

The chant reverberated through the air near the entrance to the SXSW tech and entertainment festival here.

About two dozen protesters, led by a computer engineer, echoed that sentiment in their movement against artificial intelligence.

"This is is about morality in computing," said Adam Mason, 23, who organized the protest.

Signs at the scene reflected the mood. "Stop the Robots." "Humans are the future."

If this was a parody of the innumerable SJW protests and assorted silliness that has been going on, then well played indeed.

If not, well, then it looks like the SJW-tpes and professional protesters and hand-wringers have found a new silicone-based bandwagon to jump on.

At least it's a cause that should give them some mileage. After all, the current developments in artificial intelligence have already created greater intelligence in computers than these protesters have naturally.

Is ATF Moving Away From The Proposal To Ban M855?

Over at RightMI, in post based on a misread of a Michigan statute that they thought would make people in Michigan become felons if they possessed M855 after ATF declared it AP ammunition (It won't- It darn likely will. Based on a discussion with someone whom I respect and hold in high regard, who provded me with some solid explanatory legal analysis, it appears that there is indeed an avenue of attack and a clear risk to Michigan residents possessing M855 should the ATF declare it to be AP ammunition. I doth blog corrected and appreciate the additional information and analysis provided), comes the important news that it appears that ATF is going to pause in pushing forward its "framework" that would have banned M855.

ATF's Press Release.

Apparently the flood of comments, and people contacting their representatives got their attention:

Notice to those Commenting on the Armor Piercing Ammunition Exemption Framework

Thank you for your interest in ATF's proposed framework for determining whether certain projectiles are “primarily intended for sporting purposes” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(17)(C). The informal comment period will close on Monday, March 16, 2015. ATF has already received more than 80,000 comments, which will be made publicly available as soon as practicable.

Although ATF endeavored to create a proposal that reflected a good faith interpretation of the law and balanced the interests of law enforcement, industry, and sportsmen, the vast majority of the comments received to date are critical of the framework, and include issues that deserve further study. Accordingly, ATF will not at this time seek to issue a final framework. After the close of the comment period, ATF will process the comments received, further evaluate the issues raised therein, and provide additional open and transparent process (for example, through additional proposals and opportunities for comment) before proceeding with any framework.

It doesn't mean they won't try to bring the framework proposal forward again once they've processed all 80,000 comments, but at least there is no imminent immediate ban on M855.

Expect them to try again, and again make your reasoned comments and contacts to your representative in opposition to such bans when they try again.

To those of you who submitted comments to ATF and to your Representatives - Good job folks, you did it.