Smokin

I've never shot a rifle or pistol at a person and hope I never have to. And I don't doubt that my accuracy would be drastically decreased if that person might be shooting back. But I would be very interested to see an in depth study like the above data on CC shootings. Just based on personal experience, I've been to multiple shooting ranges both civilian and military and have coincidentally been shooting next to police officers multiple times. Not a single time was I impressed with any of their shooting. I know that there are many cops that would shoot circles inside my groups, but I wonder how the hit rate of CC shooters would compare with the average. That said, more bullets is always better, which is why I'm still looking to figure out a folding M4 for my truck gun.

How about a win-win and just abolish both? Obviously that would also entail firing everyone that currently works for both organizations with a life-long ban of those individuals ever working for the federal government again. The country would be a better place. Send the Capts to a spring break destination of their choice for the entire month of March and watch retention skyrocket and have zero loss of learning.

XDS Mod 2 for normal carry, LCP for summer work out shorts carry. XDS is a good tradeoff between weight, bulk, capacity, accuracy, and firepower for me. LCP because a 380 with buffalo bore ammo is better than nothing if you wouldn't have otherwise carried. I am looking at a truck gun and that Ruger PC Charge is interesting. But I already have two of the previously pistol brace Form 1s that I'm looking to mod into a folding stock if any of the companies that make bufferless uppers or BCGs would ever have those things in stock.

Wrong. The US government does not tax my property. The county taxes my property based on land/home value. Very different than the Federal government. Additionally, they tax based on a percentage of current value. The Feds would tax on year to year appreciation in addition to the county tax. I'm also against the county property tax for the record, but that's another topic. I hope that you are being an honest broker in this debate as well. First, taxes have only increased in scope and percentage throughout history. When Federal income tax started, the brackets were 3% and 5%. If America accepts this new tax as legitimate, you and I will end up directly paying it in the future. This is only a trial balloon. Second, the Moore vs US case (as I understand it from reading the brief) is about a tax that virtually everyone pays if they have foreign investments that reinvests profits rather than pay distributions, so your >$100M comment is out to lunch. Perhaps the new Biden tax would only be on >$100M, but don't pretend that's the only attack on unrealized gains. Third, much like restrictions on free speech, taxes on anyone affect taxes on everyone. Saying that they only tax the wealthy is a class-warfare smoke screen. Much like 'companies need to pay their fair share of taxes' as if companies are individual people that have somehow skated out on not paying taxes. Raise the taxes on the rich for investing their wealth and they will have less wealth to invest. It will all rolling downhill.

Here's to hoping that Moore v US properly rules taxing unrealized gains as unconstitutional. If this door gets opened, Pandora's box would be almost unlimited. Your house value rose 5% last year? That's gains, so you now owe income tax on it on top of the property taxes you already pay. Not entirely unreasonable that the IRS could require declarations of any personal property of value (except classic Corvettes that double as classified storage) so they can assess if it has appreciated, even if that appreciation is just due to government caused inflation.

The words "well regulated" are interesting to think about given that words change meaning over time. Just take the term "decimated". Nearly everyone uses that word to indicated something along the lines of 'nearly annihilated', but that's not even close to what it originally meant. Used to mean killed 10% (notice the 'deci' in it). Similarly, 99.9999% of Americans would think "well regulated" means it is ruled by a lot of laws. But there are many reputable people that point to 1780's contemporary uses of the word regulated much more like the clock example stated earlier, meaning 'it works well'. That would entirely change the implications of gun laws today. https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/video/a-well-regulated-militia-history-of-the-second-amendment/ On the topic, it would be interesting to know how many crimes are solved with the serial number being a significant aid to the investigation. My guess would be near zero. Think about the scenario that it would actually help in; you'd have to have a murder scene where someone threw the gun away at the scene. And that person would have had to have bought the gun legally in order for the serial number to be associated with them. Seems unlikely. Finally, as technology continues to evolve, the manufacture of ghost guns will only get easier and nearly impossible to manage. Go buy a few thousand dollars worth of equipment and you can print or mill guns. In just the last 10 years, 3D printed guns have gone from curiosity pet projects that fail after shooting a couple rounds to being able to last hundreds of rounds. More than enough for a criminal. That's just the 3D printing, you get a mill that cuts out receivers from aluminum blocks (a set up you could easily do in your garage) and you could make guns better quality than many gun manufacturers. Technology will continue to evolve faster than 80 year old legislators and 85 year old presidents can keep up with.

Fair enough, maybe just not as common where I've lived or flown. I probably average seeing 2-4 a day as I'm near an Army base (sorry, "post") and I just can't think of a time that I've seen tanks on. Back to the topic, saw an article today (sorry, forget the source) that Israel canned a planned strike on Iran after Biden called and more open sources are saying an attack is being planned. Maybe we will get an overt strike after all.

Indeed. In their defense, I've seen hundreds if not thousands of Blackhawks flying around stateside/OCONUS/deployed and I don't think I've ever seen one with tanks. Obviously a gaping hole in the pre-deployment study plan, but without intel or someone telling them they have that capability, I don't think a fighter pilot would just guess that a Blackhawk has that ability.

I'm guessing the test answers on that test were: "Not Army, shoot" and "I'm not sure, shoot if it points at us"

It'll be an interesting and tough call for Israel. Do they gracefully accept the help they received and use the short term international good will to free up a hand to do more damage to Hamas or do they strike back at Iran in a significant and public way to show they won't accept this type of thing? Striking back may be popular and gratifying in Israel but might end up doing more harm than good in the long run. My bet is nothing happens for a while and then some Iranian leader has 'an accident' or one of Iran's centrifuge facilities suffers a mysterious explosion. Something that everyone knows was Israel but no one is really able or willing to prove thus decreasing the chance of escalation while showing that they won't sit by while a country launches a horde at them.

Zero. No such thing.

I haven't read up on it because I couldn't care less about Spirit, but if it is anything like the other mergers or acquisitions that the Biden admin has stopped, then it is 100% power politics to either help out influential donors or play to the unions. Just take a look at the canceled Japanese acquisition of US Steel. A mutually beneficial acquisition canceled because a competitor has access to the White House.

What good does it do for the AF to send a space dude to not one, but two significant Army schools? And why would the Army accept them in that school? Makes no sense to me.

Problem is: 1. Being able to tell the difference between the obvious need for politicians to play to their bases (thus saying things they have no intention of doing) 2. Understanding that even if the people at the top don't actually believe it, the middle and lower levels of government may actually enact what the top is saying 3. People tend to ignore what other people say about themselves and their intentions (just look at some of the left's defense of Hamas, an organization that would use a dull knife to cut the head off 95% of Americans if they could and then brag about it to their mom)

There was a pilot who ended up behind actual bars and then kicked out for falsely claiming BAH for his wife while he was in Korea. Don't remember the exact details, but something along the lines of she moved back to her parents house in a small town but claimed a NYC or SFO zip code.