The Real Problem!

26 June 08

Military Rifle Cartridges, from a friend in the System:

"Let's look at when the 5.56mm (aka 223) was introduced to the US Military. It's the 1960s, and we have the draft. Recruits are mostly city/suburban kids who have little experience with guns. You're given thirteen weeks to train them, and they're whisked off to Vietnam.

Grudgingly conceding that most of these kids won't be able to deliver effective, aimed rifle fire, given the Army's fear-based, inept training philosophy, the Pentagon decides to issue them a light rifle, with an impotent, light-weight, 150m cartridge that doesn't penetrate anything. Letsnipers and M-60s do the real work. M-16s might suffice for keeping heads down, but little else.

Now, 1973 comes along, and the draft ends. Slowly, but surely, we get a small, but professional, Army. These guys are sharp to begin with, and training is much improved. It is still fear-based, but there is much more actual trigger-work/bullet-launching, and range technology has undergone a quantum advancement. The result is that today's soldiers and Marines really can, once again, deliver effective rifle fire. They are now eminently capable of using military rifles for their intended purpose: gunning-down individual, enemy soldiers, one at a time!

Currently, among these professional warriors, this 223 round, which is still impotent, is causing discontent. Imagine that! These eminently capable Operators are clamoring for a real rifle, and they can no longer be kept silent. They're demanding an rifle and cartridge that has substantial range and that actually shoots through things!

Why is the Pentagon stubbornly resisting? The phony cover-story is ' logistics and cost.' Funny, we seem to be able to get new jet-fighters, new tanks, new armored vehicles, new ships, but new rifles in a new caliber are just somehow unobtainable?

The real reason is that our current Army, wonderfully capable as it is, is still only one-fifth the size it needs to be! We barely have enough people to carry on the current, relatively minor conflicts in the Mideast. In the coming world-conflagration, the draft will have to be re-introduced, much to the chagrin of the Pentagon, and we'll be back where we started. The current Army will represent merely the core of a much larger Army

They're content to leave things as they are, because they lack faith in their own ability to adequately train a new flood of draftees with real rifles that have genuine, battle-winning capability.

No faith. No Audacity. No boldness. That is the real problem!"

Comment: ... and always has been!

/John

Victory!

26 June 08

After dodging this issued for 250 years, the Supremes finally confirmed today that the Second Amendment does indeed confer an individual right to all Americans. It is a great victory, and, by virtue of the leftist media's predictable downplay of it, we can be assured that they even know what a landmark this decision really is!

Here is a summary from one of our instructors, who is also a judge:

"... they declined to specify a 'standard of review' to be used in determining what restrictions are ultimately allowed. They simply said the existing DC law was unacceptable under any standard.

In one footnote, however, Scalia implied that the 'strict scrutiny' standard will apply, much as it does in cases involving other specifically enumerated rights. That will be wonderful, but absolute clarification will have to wait for a later case.

Dissenters argued for a standard, best described as a murky 'balancing test' that would have approved nearly any restriction.

Point being: if a future, leftist Court makes that decision, we could still get screwed! The devil is in the details, and many of the details won't be decided for years to come."

Comment: We can never relax, as tyrant-wannabes, who believe we Americans exist only to serve them, are always seeking public office. However, we all need to realize what a crushing defeat this decision is for leftists everywher e. Their wet-dreams of herding all their unarmed political opponents into concentration camps will have to wait!

/John