Police Officer of the Year…

Posted on by April 22, 2017

NRA Honors Officer Jason F. Falconer as 2016 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year

FAIRFAX, Va. – The National Rifle Association honors Officer Jason F. Falconer of the Avon (Minnesota) Police Department as the 2016 NRA Law Enforcement Officer of the Year for his acts of valor and heroism in his quick, life-saving action during an attack at the Crossroads Mall in St. Cloud/Waite Park, Minnesota in September 2016. 

“I am humbled to join the 5 million members of the National Rifle Association in honoring Officer Falconer as the 2016 NRA Law Enforcement Officer of the Year for bravery, quick-thinking and heroism,” said NRA President Allan D. Cors. “Officer Falconer is the ultimate example of a law enforcement professional and responsibly armed citizen defending himself and protecting those around him from harm.” 

On the evening of September 17, 2016, Officer Falconer was off duty in plain clothes at the Crossroads Mall, co-located in the City of St. Cloud and City of Waite Park.

While shopping, Officer Falconer’s attention was drawn to two loud, sharp noises and saw some shoppers running and screaming. An individual dressed in a security uniform then walked up to him and asked him if he was Muslim. Officer Falconer answered no and as the individual turned Officer Falconer could see that he had a large knife in each hand. Without hesitation or regard for his personal safety, Officer Falconer immediately drew his concealed off-duty handgun, announced he was a police officer and ordered him to drop the knives. 

Unbeknownst to Officer Falconer, the subject had started a stabbing spree outside the mall. The suspect then entered the mall and continued his attack, stabbing 10 shoppers and punching many others in the head, back, neck and face.

Rather than dropping the knives, the knifeman turned and ran through the mall and into a crowded major department store with Officer Falconer in pursuit. For some reason the suspect abruptly turned, stopped and then laid down as instructed by Officer Falconer. Seeing that the knifeman had not dropped the knives, Officer Falconer continued ordering him to do so. Just as abruptly as the suspect had stopped, he jumped up and charged Officer Falconer with the knives.

Coming under immediate attack, Officer Falconer fired his pistol several times at the suspect while backing up to create distance between them. The knifeman fell after being struck, but did not drop the knives.

Witnesses confirm that Officer Falconer continued to issue commands to the attacker to stay down and drop the knives while identifying himself as an off-duty officer verbally and displaying his police badge, keeping the knifeman covered at gunpoint.

Just as the incident seemed to be over, the knifeman suddenly recovered and began moving between clothing racks, circling as Officer Falconer continued to order him to drop the knives and get down. The suspect charged, and Officer Falconer fired additional rounds at him head-on. The suspect turned and walked backwards towards the officer, acting as though the rounds could not strike him if he was not facing the officer.

Surveillance videos and witnesses confirmed that after several additional hits the knifeman fell to the floor on his stomach, whereupon he began crawling on his hands and knees towards Officer Falcone, still wielding a knife. The knifeman finally dropped completely to the floor, and Officer Falconer moved to a position to block the knifeman from the open area of the mall until responding police arrived.

Officer Falconer’s heroic actions while off-duty saved lives. His actions are a credit to his department and the community he serves, and are in keeping with the noble profession of our men and women in law enforcement.

The NRA will present the 2016 NRA Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award to Officer Falconer at the NRA Board of Directors Meeting during the 2017 NRA Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia later this month.

For more information about NRA’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award and its Law Enforcement Division, call (703) 267-1632 or e-mail [email protected].

Just one more example of needing more than 6-7 rounds to actually stop someone…

Congratulations to Officer Falconer!

h/t NRA Media

Isn’t THAT interesting…

Posted on by April 21, 2017

Seems like ‘somebody’ either cut a deal, or some money changed hands… IMHO…

London gun owners are asking questions of the Metropolitan Police after the force seemingly handed the addresses of 30,000 firearm and shotgun owners to a direct mail marketing agency for a commercial firm’s advertising campaign.

The first any of the affected people knew about the blunder was when the leaflet landed on their doormats in Tuesday’s post. Titled “Protect your firearms and shotguns with Smartwater”, the leaflet – which features Met Police logos – advises firearm and shotgun certificate holders to “buy a firearms protection pack at a reduced price” of ÂŁ8.95.

Full article, HERE. Sooo… How’s that going to work out, when those people start getting robbed???

And apparently both gun AND knife attacks are up in Merry Old England for 2016… Who’d a thunk it? Didn’t they supposedly ‘fix’ that? Gottlieb et al apparently got their hands on a report that says things aren’t quite as rosy over there as the media says it is.

TBT…

Posted on by April 20, 2017

Digging for something else in the closet, I found this…

I must have been washing in for a date on Friday or Saturday night! 🙂

My old ’66 Goat… Sigh… I miss that car! Gold with the black vinyl interior and black top, it was hotter’n hell in the summer, and taught me real quick NOT to wear shorts to drive it!!!

389 Tri-power, power steering/power brakes only, no air, M21 tranny/Hurst shifter, and ‘some’ engine work and headers. Not anywhere close to what Drjim did to his, HERE. All we did was a quickie balance and blueprint after the first time I floated the valves and chunked the plastic timing gear… Really, Pontiac? A #$@#*% PLASTIC timing gear in a hi performance engine??? Sigh…

I can buy one, similar to mine, with around 100,000 miles for mid-$60K… sigh…

Gotta sell a LOT more books!!! 🙂

Posted in TBT

Updates…

Posted on by April 19, 2017

Rev Paul’s blog is back up… Gotta love fights with hosting services…

http://mooseintheyard.blogspot.com/

On a sad note, Weaponsman has left this mortal coil…

HERE is the post giving the sad news. We are diminished.

Meh…

Posted on by April 18, 2017

Having one of ‘those’ days…

I’m fighting with, and losing the battle with the latest book right now. Seems that ‘something’ I’ve done is screwing up the uploading for the manuscript to get it in the proper format…

Days like this, I REALLY wish I could just hand the manuscript to a professional and they could deal with this crap!!!

Well, back to the paperback wars. I’m still shooting for the end of the month, God willing and the Creeks don’t rise!

If it’s nice weather, go outside and enjoy it! If not, go read the folks on the sidebar. I’ll try to get some real content up tomorrow, assuming I win the battle.

In the mean time, I’m just going to leave this one here…

This is gonna be interesting…

Posted on by April 17, 2017

Soooo… NRAAM in Atlanta is coming up in a couple of weeks…

And Bloomie and his idjits are planning on protesting President Trump’s appearance…

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Everytown for Gun Safety — funded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — on Monday decried Trump’s plans and warned:

“Our volunteers will be in Atlanta during the NRA’s annual meeting, just as we have been showing up at town halls and in statehouses across the country to stand up for the safety of our families and communities. We will not be silenced.”

Full article, HERE.

Now we know from past experience at Houston, Indy, and St. Louis that their ‘group’ tends to be less than 50 people, maybe a LOT less, if Houston was any indication. And Shannon Whatsherface has shown up with armed security (supposedly ex-NYPD from Bloomie’s staff), and at Louisville, they didn’t even show AT the NRAAM, instead claiming they were protesting elsewhere…

So are they really going to challenge both Atlanta PD and USSS? And try to force entry into the meeting/speech???

I just want to know who’s bringing the popcorn…

They’ve been irrelevant and/or committing verbal/media hari kari since pretty much day one. I just hope I can find out where they are and get video! This should really be ‘speshul’…

Random stuff…

Posted on by April 17, 2017

Sigh… Figures, the one day I don’t check before I go out the door, the damn scheduler doesn’t… Sorry folks!

 

In the throes of final editing on Rimworld- Into the Green, hoping to have it out by the end of the month, so that’s cutting into my blogging and reading/commenting time.

In other news, I missed this one on Tuesday. Apparently Rice’s outing of Flynn et al has Congress just a ‘tad’ upset.  Apparently there will be hearings coming! Article, HERE.

I think everyone survived Easter, but I’m pretty sure the parents had a LOT of fun trying to get the sugar/chocolate high kids down to sleep last night!!! 🙂

In other news, I know folks like to beat up on US Navy Carriers, their costs, and ‘lack’ of functionality/viability in this day and age…

But guess what… When push came to shove this last week, guess what asset(s) got sent to do the force projection.

The USS Carl Vinson and her Carrier Strike Group (CSG)! Full article, HERE from Global Security. Yes, they deployed a couple of BUFFs to Osan, and there are a couple of THAAD batteries in a couple of locations, but the carrier ratchets up the potential response available within less than 30 minutes, compared to anything else that is hours or more away.

Lastly, it appears the left is still in meltdown/denial, even with President Trump moving to the center, the left is now accusing him of flip-flopping on his campaign promises that they were wailing and gnashing their teeth over… Soooo… He’s moving from positions the protested, to positions that are closer to what they want, and it’s a BAD thing???

Can somebody ‘splain that to me???

 

Happy Easter!!!

Posted on by April 15, 2017

He is Risen!

Easter is the time of the Christian year when we, as Christians, remember the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

‘Easter’ is actually the conflation of two old pagan spring festivals. ‘Ostara’ that celebrated new life and the Arabian Sun festival of ‘Ishtar’. Early Christians took over the festivals and turned the pagan festivals of new life to mean the new life that Jesus gave the world when he rose from the dead. Roughly celebrated around the actual date of his crucifixion, the accounting is fairly simple, in that Jesus died at the time of the Jewish Passover festival.

Passover dates from about 4,000 years ago when Jewish people remember that God saved them from slavery in Egypt. Jesus was a Jew and so celebrated the Passover. Passover takes place in the first month of the Jewish New Year (14-15th of the month of Nisan). The Jewish calendar follows the cycle of the moon, so the date changes slightly year to year.

The early Jewish Christians believed Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday, so Easter Day became the first Sunday after Passover.

So, how did we end up with the Easter Bunny?

The first recorded mention of the custom was in Georg Franck von Franckenau’s De ovis paschalibus (About Easter Eggs) in 1682 referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter eggs for the children.

In his 1835 Deutsche Mythologie, Jacob Grimm states “The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara”.

In the past, Orthodox churches abstained from eggs during the fast of Lent. The only way to keep them from being wasted was to boil or roast them, and begin eating them to break the fast. They would probably have been decorated as part of the celebrations. Later, German Protestants retained the custom of eating colored eggs for Easter.

Many Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day typically dye their Easter eggs red, the color of blood, in recognition of the blood of the sacrificed Christ, while the Ukrainian art of decorating eggs for Easter, known as pysanky, dates to ancient, pre-Christian times.

The idea of an egg-giving hare went to the U.S. in the 18th century. Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area told their children about the “Osterhase” Hase means “hare”, not rabbit, and in Northwest European folklore the “Easter Bunny” indeed is a hare. According to the legend, only good children received gifts of colored eggs in the nests that they made in their caps before Easter.

Take a moment today to remember the real reason we celebrate, and what it means in our lives… And remember those who cannot practice their freedom of religion in other parts of the world.

Trigger time!!!

Posted on by April 14, 2017

Finally got to the range yesterday! Sadly it’s been way too long…

150 rounds through four guns, three Glocks (G17 is Gen 1, G19 is Gen 3, G26 is Gen 2) and an old BHP. Worked multiple drills, movement at different ranges, and we also ran some El Pres drills, except one of the targets (this one) was almost 10 yards from the other two…

Head shots from 15 yards with a G26 didn’t go real well, two misses left, one miss right. The above the shoulder were both with the G19, rushing head shots/double taps (again)…

The low shots were speed rocks that I didn’t get the barrel up enough on.

Bottom line, I NEED MORE !@$%&*@ PRACTICE…

But I knew that. My pistol skills aren’t that great to start with, and without practice they go straight south in a hurry…

After we’d all frustrated ourselves, we moved back to the 100 yard line to check zero on a truck gun and I dug out the SP-1 and wanted to get the 10-22 sighted in since we moved it to the Archangel Stock.

Sadly, the truck gun and 10-22 both still need sighting in, the wind was blowing/gusting hard enough that the same holds generated multiple shot placements… Ironically the old SP-1, iron sights and all, grouped the best. Sighted in for 55gr, there was a marked difference in the impact groups between 55gr and 62gr (62 was about 6 inches lower).

Still, a bad day on the range is better than most other things, as evidenced by the comment I heard, “Dirty guns and sore fingers make for a good day!”

 

There’s a new sheriff in town…

Posted on by April 13, 2017

And I’ve got the feeling that ISIS hiding out in Nangarhar, Afghanistan found that out yesterday…

And the meltdown has started… In the MSM, that is. HERE.

US Air Force photo. Test unit at Eglin AFB, FL

With the equivalent of 11 tons of TNT from  9.35 tons of compound H6, and a low altitude (less than 50 feet) air burst, it’s designed for soft targets, intimidation, and overpressure of things like tunnels.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs, was developed as a follow on to the GBU-82B weapon system, the official program was “Commando Vault”, but it was known as the “Daisy Cutter” in Vietnam and later in Afghanistan as an intimidation weapon. The white ‘probe’ off the nose of the weapon was the impact sensor that activated the bomb at a height of roughly 6 feet.

US Air Force photo, USAF Museum

Two hundred and twenty-five were constructed starting in 1970. I saw one dropped on Koh Tang island during the Mayaguez incident, by an MC-130 to clear a landing area on top of the island for the Marine forces. Sadly they didn’t use that spot, instead landed on the beach…

You can go HERE and see the B-roll from the MOAB test drop in 2003. Note how the C-130 ‘jumps’ when it gets rid of 21,000 pounds out the aft ramp! That has to be an interesting ride from the inside!!!

Contrary to what ‘most’ of the MSM is saying, actual reporting indicates the area where the MOAB was dropped is wild country, and where the Afghan Army has already been fighting ISIS, with few if any ‘civilians’ in the area.

Personally, I think this is a wake up call, not only for ISIS, coming on the heels of the TLAM strikes in Syria, but also a rather pointed warning to the DPRK’s Kim Jong Un that the US is no longer a paper tiger, but one with teeth that they are ready to use!

LL, over at Virtual Mirage, has a good precis of the North Korea situation, HERE. It’s worth reading as he does an excellent job of boiling it down into understandable terms.