Smokin

Do you still have to pay that tax if you buy online and ship to an FFL? I've never paid any sales tax doing that, but then again, I've never lived in a commune like CA.

Terrible mass shooting in Australia (which must be fake news because guns are illegal there and they even did a confiscation). But an awesome display of courage for a dude that was able to jump one of the gunman and take his gun away even after apparently being shot twice in the process. The gunman then kinda stood there in disbelief and slowly backed away. More proof that most mass shooters are cowards and will stop when they're confronted with force.

Strange, I couldn't find a post from you saying WTF when it was changed under Biden. Did that Secretary of State also lose a bet?

I think that would be as much of a deterrence as a nerf gun. Even if they owned 100% of our debt (which they don't), I think they'd consider that a bargain.

As always, I'm sure there's more to the story is being reported. Hopefully they had bodycams on to clear this up. That being said, I'm not a fan of this new trend of law enforcement wearing facemasks. That's something thugs and third world countries do. If I'm approached in my vehicle (or worse, at my house) by guys wearing facemasks, my first reaction is not going to be thinking that everything is fine.

That is all horrific, but you missed my point. The system cannot do anything in and of itself; only the people within the system. So being disgruntled at the entire system because of some bad people doesn't make sense. You apparently got screwed by some people that had no business being in authority and have every right to be angry at them. My point is that there are good and bad people in every organization, the nature of the military just ends up giving those people the potential to have a larger impact on other people's lives than most civilian structures.

No organization will ever care about you, nor will it betray you, because it can't. The people in the system are what matters and you'll find good and bad people in every system. I had far more good than bad experiences in my AF time and I would absolutely do it all again, but I know that experiences will vary. I still think that there is a higher proportion of good dudes in the AF than in the airlines (I'm at a legacy) or in most other career fields. Timing and luck play a huge part of your AF career; I knew good guys that got repeatedly shafted and I knew guys that had a great career even though they were less deserving. But by far more common were good dudes that got some good deals and some bad deals. It sucks when your commander/boss happens to be one of the guys that shouldn't be there, but that happens everywhere, including at the airlines. The only difference is at the airlines it is often easier to distance yourself. If your career really was just one bad deal after another than either you were extremely unlucky (it happens, I knew a good guy like that) or it might be your attitude. Looking back at my career, I'm thankful for all my good deals. They made great friends, memories, and stories. But I'm also thankful for most of my bad deals because they helped shape my path to be where I am now.

I'd like to see that exact same interaction happen without a badge to hide behind and no TV cameras... That 'tough guy' would get whooped.

AKA, "the" engine. Having only one really simplifies which one you're talking about.

Just so we're not always beating up on cops' shooting skills here; skip to about halfway through. Dude was apparently wearing two plate vests and thought the motorcycle helmet would stop a bullet.

During my first requal in M9s, the instructor told everyone to point their guns at him and practice pulling the trigger to get the feel of it. My chin hit the floor. Had I been in his chain of command, I would have pulled every qualification he had.

The video is pretty disturbing, although it would be nice to know what happened in the 6-9 seconds before the video started. It appears to be an absurd amount of force being used. Do all the agents really need their guns drawn? Unless she was suspected of some violent crime, then these guys should be retrained in the proper use of force. Police, to include ICE, FBI, ATF, etc, need to understand that they are public servants, just like the military. Any policeman that is so scared that he feels like he needs to be the 5th guy to draw a gun on a small single female is in the wrong line of work. That being said, if she was actually the one instigating and either hit or positioned her vehicle to impede the operation (again, previous 6-9 seconds would be nice to see), then their actions would be a little more justified. I'm guessing that the truth is somewhere in the middle as it usually is. If ICE was entirely at fault, there would be dozens of lawyers lined up at her door. She probably either hit the van or was being aggressive with her vehicle and the ICE leadership likely realized that they used excessive force so they didn't pursue charges. But given the district that the events occurred in, it is entirely possible that the DA dropped the charges for political purposes even if she was 100% at fault.

A Glock was the first pistol I bought, but that one is still my only Glock (a pretty old model, maybe it'll start being worth something). They did push a significant innovation with their original introduction, which is good for the gun world. Hopefully this new model similarly pushes all the companies to improve.

If that's not a real designation, it should be. Think I made it to Oregon only few times, spent 98% of my time hunting. 'Oh, I have space for two pounds of meat, I'd better go shoot a dozen animals.' Designation should be official if you ever powered on the Commodore 64 and then left to go play tag for 15 minutes while it booted up.

More parents than you would think will take your side. I sat kids on multiple occasions across multiple sports because of an attitude and only one time did I have a parent say anything about it (and the coward didn't come to me, they went to the club admin who backed me). I set clear expectations at the start and 95% of kids met them. The few that didn't found little support from their parents. I benched one kid and he walked away crying over towards his dad. His dad took one look at him and said something like "what'd you expect?" and the kid stopped crying because he realized he wasn't going to get anywhere. He didn't have an attitude with me the rest of the time I coached him. Also gave out exactly zero participation trophies or medals.