It prohibits a person from teaching, training, or demonstrating to anyone else the use, application, or making of a firearm, explosive, or incendiary device capable of causing injury or death that will be used in or in furtherance of a civil disorder. It also bans a person from assembling with others for such training, instruction or practice.

There are, of course, exemptions for “legitimate law enforcement activity or lawful activity by Norwich University or any other educational institution where military science is taught. it also doesn’t apply to self-defense instruction or practice without the intent of causing a civil disorder; firearms instruction that is intended to teach the safe handling and use of firearms; and any lawful sports or activities like hunting, target shooting and firearms collection.”

Here’s the problem – there are no objective standards when it comes to these sorts of things. All .gov, or it’s busybody fellow travelers, have to do is determine that your activity falls under their prohibitive rubric and…presto…your weekend with your buddies preparing for the zombie apocalypse magically becomes an ‘insurgent training facility’. Watch your head as you duck into the squad car.

We see this sort of threat in the new licensing/registration schemes being promotes as ‘commonsense’ and ‘reasonable’ gun control ‘safety’ laws – establish a requirement and then make the fulfilling of that requirement impossible. For example: to get a firearms permit they may require you to have an approved (keyword) safety training course under your belt. And then they simply deem that no available safety course meets the standard. Since no safety course meets the standard, the permit requirement cannot be met…but thats not a denial of your rights…after all, we’re not saying you can’t have a gun, you just need the approved course certification. And its not our fault theres no qualifying course available.

So, whenever a law like this comes up always ask yourself – how would Hitler use this law to his advantage. Because if there’s even a 1% chance this law can be used heavy-handedly to strip someone of their rights, then its a law that needs to never hit the books. When your right to something is conditional upon another qualifier being met, be extremely cautious….the odds are good that qualifier will then be made unobtainable. A good example is the ‘instant background check’ for gun purchases. Shut the system down for ‘maintenance’ and no one (generally) gets their thundertoy. Or require a license but the license office is only open on the 32nd of each month. Or require that a potential purchase get a signed letter from his local police who may decide that, sorry, we only fill those forms out once a month…see ya in thirty days.

“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.” – Atlas Shrugged

Ugh…long week.

One of the more notable events this week was the Chinese taking an aerial tour of Montana, and our missile fields, with a rather large balloon.

The interesting thing about the Chinese is that they think long-term. In this country, and many Western ones, we make policy and plans that are, perhaps, one or two political terms in the future. For example, we have a four-year term for president, so a lot of plans are on a four or eight year timetable. The Chinese don’t limit themselves like that. They plan for fifty years, or more, out there.

This is most evident in their Belt And Road Initiative to create streamlined lines of travel for commerce (and, no doubt, military equipment) across a good chunk of Asia and into Europe.

Africa is a special case to the Chinese. They’ve been investing heavily in infrastructure projects…building massive airports in tiny countries that never see a 747 but will see plenty of Chinese military transports. Large swaths of land are leased or purchased by China for their ‘food security’ program. It’s only a matter of time before, at some point, they decide to ‘take Africa private’ and simply nudge out the local governments and install their own

Long before that happens, though, China will flex it’s biggest muscle – its economic one. When your economy is dependent on Chinese goods and Chinese debt purchases, you’ve gone from being equals to being beholding to a patron.

Of course, things might be different with the whole Russian situation these days. The Russians and the Chinese had a big dustup about 60 years ago in a case of ‘my Communism is better than your Communism’ and it looked like the two of them might start lobbing canned sunshine at each other.

The Russians kicking of a war in Europe would, no doubt, put a crimp in those Chinese plans for economic domination although I’ve no doubt they have various contingency plans to make such an event work for them.

And, of course, lets not forget these are the same folks that let loose a virus that killed a buncha people and they have yet to have their feet held to the fire about it.

So that ballon episode? Thats just a visible part of China’s plan to get its Peking ducks in a row for when it decides to really start applying the pressure to the international, and American, community.

How does the saying go? Pigs get fat but hogs get slaughtered? Or something along those lines. The gist of it being that greedy or selfish behavior can be overlooked until you get a little too greedy or a little too selfish.

Case in point: the police chief of a three-man police department who police letterheaded 90 machineguns for department use….and tried for a minigun.

A small Iowa town of 800 residents likely has no need for a police force armed with 90 machine guns to keep the peace.

That, at least, is the view of federal prosecutors, who on Wednesday announced the indictment of Adair Chief of Police Bradley Wendt on charges of making false statements to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to obtain numerous machine guns over a four-year period on behalf of the Adair Police Department, which during Wendt’s tenure has never had more than three officers.

I admire his entrepreneurial spirit, and his taste in giggle-switch-equipped firearms. But there’s only so much you can do before the Eye of Sauron homes in on your otherwise benign collecting activities. And, of course, using your position to procure thundertoys to rent out at a profit…well, that’s a bit on the ‘abuse of power’ side.

Machineguns are fun, no two ways about it. I think about the line in “When we were soldiers” where the colonel tells the sergeant that he needs to get himself an M16. The grizzled old sergeant says “I reckon the time comes I need one, there’ll be plenty of them laying around.” Same with machineguns. Nine times out of ten, theyre probably unnecessary for the task at hand. But that tenth time….boy, nothing else will do. If you’ve got the, literally, tens of thousands of dollars for an MP5 or Uzi….have at it. But for a survivalists needs, I’d rather take the money and buy gear more likely to be of use in a crisis.

However, when the zombie rise and I come across some zombified state trooper with a full-auto M4…..well, he won’t be needing it anymore, and it’d be a shame to let it lay there to rust.