Someone Swatted David Hogg...

David Hogg and his house. Fox News/WSVN/AP.

Gun control advocate David Hogg had his house swarmed by police today in a situation that turned out to be a hoax. Fox News. Someone called 911 and said that a man with an AR-15 broke into his house and was holding Hogg and his family hostage. Hogg and his family were not home and safe and it is believed that the entire situation was an example of Swatting, where trolls call 911 on people. Swatting attempts are dangerous for everyone involved and people have died in cases in the past. 

My Comment:

I'm on the record as hating David Hogg. I don't think he is any use for anything other than a gun salesman. I hate his politics and find his arguments for gun control to be stupid at best. But even I think that sending a SWAT team to his house is over the line. 

If Hogg or his family had been home there is a chance that they could have died. The cops thought there was someone who was armed there and would have to respond. Though cops are trained to not shoot people in these kinds of situations, there is always a chance of something going wrong. That would have been genuinely horrible and even though I disagree with Hogg on almost everything, I don't want him to be killed by the police. 

Had Hogg been injured or killed, or one of his family members for that matter, he would have been a martyr for gun control. Obviously having people die for no reason is bad enough, but I don't want Hogg to have any sympathy for his cause. Even though nobody was hurt he is already playing the victim, and for once he's got a point. People that would otherwise not have sympathy for him may feel sorry for him and even agree with him. Making someone into a martyr is obviously not an action in support of gun rights. It turns moderates against the cause and makes it harder to criticize his actual arguments, which are poor at best. 

Of course we don't know who is responsible for this and it's very possible it wasn't someone who has any association with gun rights whatsoever. David Hogg famously tried to start a meme war with the internet and doing so painted a target on him. Since internet trolls invented Swating I wouldn't be surprised if that is what happened here. 

Indeed, trolls are all about stirring things up. They know that gun rights and gun control is a hot button issue and that they can anger everyone by doing something like this. Gun control advocates will rightly say that they were attacked and gun rights advocates don't want to be blamed for this. Trolls would know that the shrillest voices on both sides will be losing their minds over this and they also expect a reaction from David Hogg himself. 

Hogg's a bit of "lolcow", to use some internet speak. He's the kind of person a troll likes to pick on because he is both super serious about everything and thinks he's more important than he actually is. Add that in with his left wing politics and the fact that he's basically famous for nothing and you have a prime troll target. Especially since he called out the internet directly. 

Of course there is also another possibility. This could have been a gun control supporter as well. Hogg even could have called in the threat himself, though I can't imagine he'd be that stupid. But someone who supports gun control might want to drum up sympathy for the cause. I don't find that likely but it is possible. 

Finally, I would be pretty biased if I didn't admit that it is possible that a gun rights supporter did this. If they did they are extremely stupid and don't deserve to be associated with gun rights or even gun ownership. Pulling a "prank" that has a decent chance of getting someone killed is never ok, but doing it in the name of a cause who you are going to hurt? Absolutely despicable. If this was a gun rights supporter I want him found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

I sincerely hope this is the last time I ever have to write about David Hogg or the Parkland gun control kids. The sad thing is that Hogg's 15 minutes of fame is almost up. We have moved on to other things nationally and after he graduated we probably would have never heard from him again... 

Horrifying video from Guatemala shows people fleeing from the eruption.

The above video shows people fleeing from the Fuego volcano in Guatemala. The eruption of that volcano has killed 60 people. RT has a little background on the video, but there isn't a whole lot of information other than what you see.

I do know that these people were pretty lucky to survive this as that looked like a pyroclastic flow. Those kinds of eruptions are famous for killing people with hot ash and deadly gas so it is amazing that these people survived, at least long enough to get the video out.

Anyways, I just wanted to share the video. It popped up in my twitter feed and I thought I could share it. RT may be Russian propaganda but they occasionally post some interesting or compelling stuff.

Gun sales again break records for the third straight month.

Washington Free Beacon/Getty. 

The FBI reports that for the third straight month gun background checks have broken records. Washington Free Beacon. 2,002,992 background checks were performed last night, more than any other May on record. April and March also broke records. Background checks aren't an one to one record of gun sales as multiple guns can be sold in one setting, most states don't require checks on private sales and some states use the system to check for permits. The gun control push after the Parkland shooting in Florida appears to be driving sales. AR's and AK's have especially taken off. 

The FBI data can be found here.  

My Comment:

As gun control fades into the background a bit, it's clear that the sales are still going strong. Historically, gun sales tend to slump in Spring and Summer but that doesn't seem to be the case this year. People still want guns and are buying them up like hotcakes. 

It's very clear that the new gun control push is why people are buying weapons. I know from my own attempts at shopping that many of the guns sold are in states with new gun laws. I have seen that you can still get AR's but if you wanted one that is legal in states with magazine limits, for example, you are completely out of luck unless you want a top of the line expensive model. The backorders are for months. 

The great irony of gun control is that nothing drives sales better than a gun control push. People want to buy weapons so that if they do end up being banned they may be grandfathered in. And if they aren't then they can potentially defend themselves in the ensuing civil war... 

I mentioned that I was looking to purchase a gun myself. I ended up passing for the time being largely because everything that was both in my price range and caliber I wanted was pretty much sold out. I wasn't really looking for an AR, but PCC's are pretty out of stock as well. So I am guessing that if the gun companies could keep up with demand the sales would even be higher than they appear now. 

I also know that there are a lot of gun buyers out there as well. I have talked to a few people that picked up new pistol or rifle recently, though not all of them bought because of the new gun control push. Other concerns, like self defense or just wanting a range toy were major factors as well. 

So will this sales trend continue? It depends. With the school season over it's unlikely their will be any major school shootings anytime soon. This is very welcome, given how hard the media was pushing school shooting coverage, which is a major driver of the attacks. I do think that if the Democrats manage to take the house in November there will be a fire sale that will make the past three months look like a joke... 

Dangerous flaw in Army's M4A1 rifles

A soldier fires an M4A1 during training. Army Times. 

A dangerous flaw in the US Army's M4A1 rifles can cause the rifle to fire without pressing the trigger. Army Times. The malfunction occurs when the rifle's selector switch is set between semi and auto. The rifle will not fire but it will fire off a round when the selector switch is put back into semi or auto. The Army thinks that the flaw could extend beyond M4A1's and the original M4's and M16A4's as well. The rifles in question are part of the rifle improvement program that converted M4's to M4A1's, which gives the rifle a heavy barrel, ambidextrous safeties and full auto fire capability as opposed to burst fire. The Army released a new function check for all M4A1's, M4's and M16's.

1. Ensure weapon is clear by observing the chamber, the bolt face, and magazine well. The weapon should always be pointed in a safe direction.

2. Charge the weapon, place selector lever on the safe position and pull trigger. The hammer should not drop.

3. Move the selector lever to the semi position, then move the selector to a position between semi and auto, and squeeze the trigger. The hammer should drop when the trigger is squeezed. If the hammer does not drop when the trigger is squeezed, this is a failure. Record this information and continue to the next step.

4. If the hammer does not drop, move the selector in either direction. If the hammer drops without squeezing the trigger, this is a failure. Record this information.

5. Gather information recorded from failures at steps (3) and (4) and segregate the weapon for further investigation. Contact TACOM with the weapon serial number.

6. If the weapon passes steps (3) and (4), the function check is complete.

My Comment:
I've had some experience with guns and I can't think of a worse failure than a gun firing without pulling the trigger, short of an explosive failure. Though if you are following basic gun safety rules this malfunction should not be an especially dangerous one. Guns should be pointed down range at all times and you should never point a gun at something you aren't willing to destroy. In theory that should prevent any kind of unintentional shooting.

In combat though, this flaw could be extremely dangerous. Not having a round fire off when you expect could be the difference between life and death during a battle. And having it go off during conflict is much more dangerous than during a range situation. Either way it could have caused someone to die.

Thankfully, this malfunction seems fairly rare to have happen. Having the selector switch between full auto and semi auto isn't something that would happen that often. And it doesn't seem to effect all rifles. Still, having your gun go off without pulling the trigger is not something that you ever want to happen and it is good that the military caught this flaw now.

It seems like this flaw only effects M4's that have been upgraded to M4A1's. Those rifles were upgraded after battle experience in Afghanistan, but the flaw is because they decided to switch the rifle from burst fire to full auto. Why they did so is unknown to me but it seems like it has caused this issue. Hopefully the effected rifles will be fixed soon.

Of course, this malfunction will not effect civilian owned AR-15's as none of them have selector switches that can go between full and semi auto. All civilian AR's have is safe and semi, so owners of AR's have nothing to worry about.

US-North Korea summit is back on.

President Trump, Sec State Mike Pompeo, and North Korean General Kim Yong-chol. BBC.

The US-North Korea summit is back on and will happen on June 12th in Singapore. BBC. Trump announced the meeting after meeting with North Korea's General Kim Yon-chol, who is visiting America. Trump was delivered a hand written letter from Kim Jong Un. Trump said that officially ending the war in Korea, which ended in an armistice, is on the table, but noted that more summits or meetings may be necessary.

My Comment:

As expected, the summit is back on. I always expected this to be the case after President Trump surprise canceled it last month. I said back then that Trump was doing what he outlined in his book, Art of the Deal, where he would walk away if he wasn't getting a good deal. Well it looks like I was exactly right as now Trump is negotiating on a stronger position.   

However, President Trump seems to be tempering expectations a bit. He's making it pretty clear that the Singapore summit won't be the end all be all of this issue. I doubt he and Kim Jong Un will come out together with a grand de-nuclearization deal. But it will lay the ground work for such a deal and major concessions may be made on each side. 

The biggest deal that is likely to be made is the end of the Korean War. Since South Korea's president Moon Jae-in may be showing up as well, I think that is very likely if the meeting goes well. With Kim, Trump and Moon in the same place it would be the perfect opportunity to do so. And it is a necessary first step to making a real deal on de-nuclearization. 

So what will North Korea want in exchange for getting rid of their nukes? For one thing I think they will probably demand some kind of assurance that the United States won't invade. I think they can trust Donald Trump's word here but I worry that they are worried about whoever the next president is. A more aggressive, pro-intervention candidate, in the style of Hillary Clinton, could go back on Trump's word and pull a Libya on Kim Jong Un. How we counter that is unknown but I hope it is something we can deal with. 

I am guessing that North Korea will also want some economic help. Sanctions have crippled the country and they have had some serious natural disasters that have wrecked their economy. Lifting sanctions and perhaps even sending aid would go a long way to having the North Koreans come around. Doing so would basically be free for us and would mean the world for them. 

What could derail the summit? Human rights. North Korea has a horrible human rights record and if we start making demands on them about it, it could ruin everything. On the other hand we have to make some kind of token objection to it as it really is horrible in North Korea. That's about the only thing I could see running everything. 

I am extremely hopeful that this summit happens as it would finally solve one of the worst tinderboxes in the world. Doing so would probably be helpful for both our economy and the North Koreans and would greatly improve the life of North Korean civilians. It won't fix all of North Korea's problems, it will still be a police state with a cult of personality, but at least the people won't be starving. Let's all hope that it works out.