Self-Defense on Trial with Rittenhouse: The People Won
[Ed: This was first published November 19 on The Arbalest Quarrel. Reposted by permission & minimally edited for DRGO.]
A couple of days prior to the jury’s decision in the Rittenhouse case, the New York Times posted an editorial, titled, “The Truth About Kyle Rittenhouse’s Gun,” by Times Opinion Columnist, Farhad Manjoo. In part, the Manjoo said this,
“I’ve spent the past couple of weeks riveted by the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teenager who shot and killed two people and injured a third during a night of Black Lives Matter protests and civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis., last year.
“It was a turbulent case. For many days the prosecution was on the ropes — some of the state’s witnesses seemed to bolster the defense’s case that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense.
“But on Monday, the lead prosecutor, Thomas Binger, offered a meticulously documented closing argument that deftly summarized all the ways Rittenhouse acted unlawfully.
“That’s because it cleverly unraveled some of the foundational tenets of gun advocacy: That guns are effective and necessary weapons of self-defense. That without them, lawlessness and tyranny would prevail. And that in the right hands — in the hands of the “good guys” — guns promote public safety rather than destroy it.
“In the Rittenhouse case, none of that was true. At every turn that night, Rittenhouse’s AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle made things worse, ratcheting up danger rather than quelling it. The gun transformed situations that might have ended in black eyes and broken bones into ones that ended with corpses in the street. And Rittenhouse’s gun was not just a danger to rival protesters. According to his own defense, the gun posed a grave threat to Rittenhouse himself — he said he feared being overpowered and then shot with his own weapon.”
This is self-defense as circular reasoning: Rittenhouse says he carried a rifle in order to guarantee his safety during a violent protest. He was forced to shoot at four people when his life and the lives of other people were threatened, he says. What was he protecting everyone from? The gun strapped to his own body, the one he’d brought to keep everyone safe.”
Well, the jury in the Rittenhouse case blew this absurd New York Times editorial out of the water.
At the core of the Second Amendment rests the right of self-defense. This isn’t a supposition. This isn’t theory. This isn’t opinion. And it certainly isn’t a mere fervent wish. Self-defense is at the heart of the inviolability of personhood; the sanctity of mind, body, and spirit.
No other Nation on Earth, but the United States, talks about the Right of self-defense as a fundamental, unalienable, natural law right, and truly means it; has etched it in stone in its Constitution.
What does the international community have to say about this? Read all the documents you will, disseminated by the UN and the EU. They all go on about human dignity and the right to life, sure. But you will struggle to find one that even mentions the right of “self-defense.”
You won’t see it. You won’t find it. It doesn’t exist. But then, are not the words “right to life” and “human dignity” vacuous in the absence of the inherent, natural, God-given right of self-defense to secure one’s life? And isn’t individual responsibility an important component in that equation?
The Right of Self-Defense is embedded in the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
A firearm is the best means of self-protection and has, for centuries, been thus.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms is merely a reiteration of and reminder to Government that the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms means the Right of Self-Defense, be it employment of self-defense against attack by beast, person, or the tyranny of Government.
Make no mistake—the most cherished right of every human being was on trial in the Rittenhouse case: The right of self-defense.
The mainstream Press will play the outcome of this case as it has from the outset; as the aforementioned splice from The New York Times editorial presents—that the Rittenhouse case is about guns and the need to place further constraints on the Right to keep and bear them.
That has been the messaging droning on, all along: guns promote lawlessness; guns threaten public safety and order; guns don’t belong in a civilized society; guns aggrandize vigilantism; and so on and so forth.
The Rittenhouse case isn’t really about guns. It never was.
The case is about the inherent, natural, immutable, God-given Right of Self-Defense. And as the case proved, armed self-defense works damn well. Kyle Rittenhouse would have suffered serious injury and probable death had he not been armed. No question about it. No one seriously doubts it.
A brave young man, looking for neither glory nor condemnation, went to Kenosha, to protect the city of his father from destruction. He did that because the police couldn’t because an effete State Government wouldn’t let the police fulfill its main function; its official mandate: to protect the community it serves.
The people themselves would have to step up, and one young man did.
Many journalists and commentators will say, in the days, weeks, and months to follow, that the jury came to the wrong conclusions in each of the counts against Kyle Rittenhouse. Some, though, will admit that the case was a weak one from the start. The liberal Press will rant and rave, fume, and make excuses, and will issue dire warnings of what the outcome of this case portends for society, which undoubtedly the Press will, wittingly or not, foment.
But the truth of the matter is that the case against Kyle was, from the start, not only weak, it was absurd.
Video evidence alone demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that an angry mob, out for blood, intended to seriously injure or kill Kyle Rittenhouse. The mob was chasing after Kyle. Kyle wasn’t chasing after them. Kyle did his level best to avoid confrontation. And that is a critical point when a person claims self-defense.
The State’s case against Kyle was nonsensical from start to finish. It was an oblique attack on the inherent right of self-defense. But it was also a direct assault on civilian ownership and possession of firearms.
The prosecution argued that, if a person has a right to self-defense, Kyle certainly didn’t because he didn’t play fair: he brought a gun to a knife fight, notwithstanding that one of the attackers did bring and did point a loaded handgun at Kyle.
But the prosecutors never charged that third attacker, Grosskreutz, for unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon. Strange that.
The prosecutors created a story that Kyle, by carrying a rifle that night in Kenosha, was looking for trouble. The State constantly used a buzzword, “active shooter” to describe Kyle.
The prosecutors employed rhetoric instead of reason to entice, seduce, and mislead the jury. It didn’t work. The jury saw through the sham. They were never taken in by it.
And, fortunately, justice was served. The jury obeyed the instructions given them by the Judge. The jury wasn’t deluded by Biden’s insulting and ludicrous and false assertion that Kyle is a “white supremacist” or by claims that the Rittenhouse case is all about vigilantism—as if any of that would or should have bearing on the case, anyway.
But let’s cut to the chase. This case was and is about one thing: the right of self-defense, and whether the employment of it was reasonable under the circumstances. Wisconsin law is clear about this:
- Wis. Stat. § 939.48 Self-defense and defense of others, says this:
“A person is privileged to threaten or intentionally use force against another for the purpose of preventing or terminating what the person reasonably believes to be an unlawful interference with his or her person by such other person. The actor may intentionally use only such force or threat thereof as the actor reasonably believes is necessary to prevent or terminate the interference. The actor may not intentionally use force which is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm unless the actor reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself.”
The jury found that, on all Counts, Kyle Rittenhouse complied with the Wisconsin law of self-defense. He never shot to kill. He shot to stop aggressive attacks on life, and when the threat passed, Kyle stopped.
And one should take careful note:
Wisconsin law doesn’t assert or imply a limitation on the use of firearms for self-defense.
On the contrary, the State Supreme Court of Wisconsin reiterated the right of armed self-defense.
In the recent case, State vs. Roundtree, 395 Wis. 2d 94, 952 N.W.2d 765 (2021) the Court opined that “the core right identified in Heller, is ‘the right of a law-abiding, responsible citizen to possess and carry a weapon for self-defense. . . ”
See also State vs. Christen, 396 Wis. 2d. 705, 958 N.W.2d 746 (Wis. 2021), and note, once the defendant successfully raises the self-defense privilege, the State has the burden to disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. And that standard is a difficult one for the State to overcome. Moreover, if the State cannot meet the standard of proof, then the privilege automatically applies to any crime based on the conduct directed to the criminal charges.
“Wisconsin has codified the privilege of self-defense. § 939.48(1) (‘A person is privileged to threaten or intentionally use force against another for the purpose of preventing or terminating what the person reasonably believes to be an unlawful interference with his or her person by such other person.’). This self-defense privilege extends further in the context of the home where the privilege may include the presumptive right to use deadly force. See § 939.48(1m)(ar). When a defendant successfully raises the self-defense privilege, the State has the burden to disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. State v. Head, 2002 WI 99, ¶106, 255 Wis. 2d 194, 648 N.W.2d 413. If the State cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the defendant did not act in self-defense then the self-defense privilege serves as ‘a defense to prosecution for any crime based on that conduct.’ § 939.45.”
The jury, in the Rittenhouse case, obviously determined the prosecution failed to overcome the self-defense privilege in each of the charges brought against Kyle Rittenhouse involving the use of his weapon for self-defense. Hence, all the charges related to the use of his weapon for self-defense automatically drop.
The Press will, no doubt, have a field day with this turn of events.
Let us hope the U.S. Supreme Court in NYSRPA v. Bruen, will recognize and make abundantly clear that the right of armed self-defense doesn’t stop at the doorstep of one’s home.
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— Roger Katz is CEO of Arbalest Quarrel, and an attorney licensed in Ohio & Arizona (formerly New York) focusing on federal and state firearms issues. He has worked in patent, intellectual property, criminal and securities law and has degrees in English, Philosophy, Public Administration & Education. He believes in the sanctity of the Bill of Rights.
All DRGO articles by Roger Katz
—NYPD veteran Stephen D’Andrilli is President & CMO of Arbalest Group, with masters degrees in Criminal Justice and Public Administration. He is an NRA Certified Firearms Instructor & Training Counselor, and is passionate about the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
All DRGO articles by Stephen D‘Andrilli
Maven Binos: B-Series with JJ
Maven is a relatively new optics company from Wyoming who prides itself on great, custom-like products and top-notch customer service. While the company doesn’t make its own optics (much like most of the optics companies out there) it contracts with one of the best Japanese firms in the world to produce to-spec optics that are first class.
Here JJ tests the compact and easy-to-carry B3 8×30 and the top-of-the-line B6 12×50. These optics proved as durable, as bright and clear as nearly any optics in the world, and represent great value when you consider they are 1/3 the price of most European brands.
JJ likes the machined aluminum controls, the armor that’s not too sticky but not too slick, and mainly, the clarity and great low-light performance. Maven has also distinguished itself in a sea of very similar optics by offering a custom-build section on its website where customers can tailor any Maven product to their liking with styles and colors. It offers its products direct to consumers to cut out the middle man, one of the reasons Maven is less expensive than optics of similar performance.
A self-described optics snob, JJ has tested them all, and Maven continues to impress him in the mid-price range binocular category.
Elite You Launches Virtual Training Site
Elite You is an online/virtual training platform for those who understand the need for self-reliance and the potentially life-saving value of being formidable.
“The sum of virtue is to be sociable with them that will be sociable and formidable to them that will not.” ~ Thomas Hobbes
Initially, Elite You was designed as a virtual platform for leading experts, trainers, and mentors to have the ability to record their knowledge, lessons learned, and expertise gained throughout their lifetime. A place for experts to create a database of knowledge for longevity of training, to be used for generations to come, long after they are gone. That idea has evolved to become much, much more.
Elite You is now a virtual platform for anyone and everyone to access the information from these experts, from the comfort of home, for less than it costs to buy a tank of gas. It has gathered multiple experts in very specialized disciplines, all in one place, creating an opportunity to access the skill, knowledge, and experience that would otherwise be unobtainable. These SMEs will help others reach their own true potential within those areas of study.
It’s the place for anyone and everyone to become the very best version of themselves – to work at becoming formidable.
Come join us.
ELITE YOU: Excellence starts here.
Online at TheEliteYou.com; on Facebook at The Elite You.
Laws for the Little Guys
In a recent Research Letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association (“Knowledge of State Gun Laws Among US Adults in Gun-Owning Households”) Ali Rowhani-Rahbar MD et al present data regarding knowledge of state firearms laws. Specifically, they assess the knowledge possessed by adults living in “gun-owning households” as to these state laws.
They approach this from the perspective that many such laws are designed to prevent injuries, and that following them would be useful for this reason. Using a self-selecting sample of subjects collected via the Internet, they find that a significant number of individuals living in a gun-owning household are not aware of laws in place, for example, to limit child access.
While there is no doubt considerable truth to the assertion that safety would be enhanced if individuals more carefully limited children’s access to firearms, there’s more to the story.
It’s often said that the law is a blunt instrument, and this certainly is the case regarding children’s access to firearms. Laws of this sort vary by state and locality, and one household can be very different than another. Some, for example are never visited by children, and in other instances the “child” in the family may be 17 years old, working to support the family and an accomplished hunter—does protecting this “child” by limiting access to firearms make sense?
The authors deserve credit for avoiding the politics so frequent these days in medical publications addressing Second Amendment issues. Concerning firearm harm prevention in general, they note “… for most gun laws, the evidence is either inconclusive or lacking.” Not mentioned, of course, are possessors of illegal guns, who seem unlikely to follow laws regarding firearms safety.
Not mentioned either is the complexity of some of these statutes. In Pennsylvania, for example, individuals are cautioned that they may actually need the services of an attorney to fill out the form to purchase a firearm legally. And that reflects just one section of this state’s firearm laws.
The authors note that the sample of subjects they used is representative in many ways, such as age, but it is impossible to know if it is representative with regard to characteristics most important to the research questions. So, for example, individuals who are skeptical as to the conduct and possible benefits of research regarding firearms may choose not to participate. In fact, by the authors’ report, over 33% of the individuals approached to participate declined to do so.
It seems possible also that the complexity of laws regarding firearms may have kept individuals from answering “yes” to their understanding a certain kind of law as being in place because they were aware that they didn’t know the entirety of that law and/or other related ones.
Beyond the scope of the research are the motives of individuals advocating for laws to prevent harm from firearms. The situation is a bit like the Puritans’ opposition to bear baiting. Their concern was not the suffering caused to the bears, but rather they were upset by the pleasure enjoyed by the spectators.
One may wonder to what degree laws passed to protect people from firearm-related injuries are in fact advanced with the thought that the freedom to own firearms is noxious and should be restricted.
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—Thomas E. Gift, MD is a child and adolescent psychiatrist practicing in Rochester, New York, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical School, and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
All DRGO articles by Thomas E. Gift, MD
Dry Fire Dreaming With the Mantis Blackbeard And Mantis X10
Mantis revolutionized dry fire, starting with a mere sensor that measured your dry fire performance. From there, they produced newer and better sensors, an app that’s absolutely fantastic, and now the Blackbeard. The Mantis Blackbeard might be the dry fire tool to end all dry fire tools, at least for the AR 15. The Blackbeard was a welcome surprise at a time when 20 rounds of 5.56 seems to cost 20 bucks. The Mantis Blackbeard takes dry fire to the limit and provides an extremely capable training tool.
What Is the Blackbeard?
The Mantis Blackbeard is a big plastic bolt that comes with a nonfunctional charging handle and a magazine/battery pack in the shape of an old-school 20 round magazine. What does it do? Well, it’s a tool that combines a laser training cartridge with a device that automatically resets your trigger.
The ‘bolt’ utilizes a device built into the bottom to automatically reset the trigger. It’s electronically powered, and the magazine connects to the bolt and powers the whole system. So every time I pull the trigger, the bolt stays put, but an internal mechanism resets the hammer for you. I know what you’re thinking. It must be slow and force you to take a shot every five seconds or so.
Well, you’d be wrong! As was I. The trigger resets nearly instantly, and according to Mantis, it can reset the trigger ten times in a second. I can’t pull the trigger that fast, but I can confirm I can’t outrun the system. Both the magazine and the Mantis bolt are bright red, and impossible to accidentally mistake a real bolt for or vice versa. The bolt itself doesn’t move or cycle. It stays put, but a device at the bottom of the bolt resets the trigger. Nothing cycles, and the bolt cannot be retracted or pulled.
Does It Work Well?
It works extremely well. Well, once I got it set up, it worked well. The charging port was placed improperly in the battery. So I took the screws out and moved it so it was properly in place and could accept the charger. Then I had to charge it, which took hours to fully charge. Luckily the battery compartment has an LED system to show when the system is fully charged.
Once charged, the battery claims to last for 10,000 shots. I haven’t quite gotten there but have gotten to about 600 trigger pulls. On top of that, my kids had a good time shooting the laser at a target on the wall. Lots and lots of trigger pulls without issue. Never once did the trigger fail to reset, and the system fail to ‘fire.’
Installation takes no time at all. Drop the bolt in, plug the magazine and go! I will say that the only real problem comes from how tight the bolt fits into the gun. You gotta shove your lower and upper together to close that rear pin. Once it’s in, it stays in, and you and the Blackbeard are ready to rock and roll.
At the “Range”
By range, I mean my dining room and living room. I taped a few targets to the wall and began practicing. Most dry fire is a slow, methodical practice that really only works precision fire. With the Blackbeard, I can do that, as well as work fast-firing combative drills. I can do almost any rifle drill in the book with the Blackbeard, minus most reloading and immediate action drills. I can run action shooting drills, use cover, multiple positions, etc.
Zeroing the laser to your optic is easy. You can set the laser to constant on, and the adjustment turrets are exposed on the ejection port side. Dialing in the laser to align with your optic takes no effort at all. I did that with ease, and boom, now my optic and my Blackbeard aligns exactly where my reticle lands.
I combined the Mantis X10 with the Blackbeard, and now I can mix speed and precision and keep making myself better and better. It’s training me to be fast and have a good trigger pull, break, etc. It can be a little frustrating but seeing the score on the Mantis app rise makes me oh so happy. Even if it seems to be a slow rise.
It does work outdoors, but in the brightest part of the day, that laser can be tough to see. If you can set your target into a little shade, it’s much easier, and you can see that red laser dot. Speaking of, the Blackbeard also comes in green and IR should you so choose.
Argh, Maties!
The Mantis Blackbeard is a fantastic piece of training equipment that I absolutely adore. It makes dry fire fun, and it’s easy to install and will pay itself off after about an hour of use. I wish I could work reloads somehow, but I guess that will remain laser-free for now. Check out the Blackbeard here. It will make a great Christmas gift.
BREAKING: Mass School Shooting at Oxford High School, Michigan.
The afternoon of the 30th of November, 2021, shots rang inside Oxford High School in Michigan. Current casualties listed at the time of this writing are 3 known dead, and 6 known injured. A 15 year old student, who was holding a handgun when apprehend by police, is in custody.
This appears to be the first such active shooter incident in Michigan in 40+ years. While crimes involving firearms have strayed into or been committed on school property, and occasionally students had been found with weapons, an actual shooting had thus far been avoided.
That all changed today.
As you readers are probably aware, schools in Michigan are pistol free zones.
The only legal way to bring a handgun onto Michigan school grounds is as a CPL holder and in an openly carried fashion. Firearms are otherwise prohibited from schools and school property.
This did not stop the student, who acquired the handgun in a currently unknown fashion, from bringing the weapon to a high school that serves about 1,500 students this school year.
Readers, it is critically, crucially and potentially of catastrophe preventing importance that firearms be secured well in the home and steps keeping them from those who may seek to abuse them are in place. Adults and teens alike, teens perhaps especially so, since they are still growing and developing their problem solving skills, can be tempted and succumb to the temptation to use a firearm to solve problems that a firearm is not there to solve.
Bullying, harassment, insult, and base injury, these are disturbingly common in the lives of the young men and women in the school systems. It can seem that an easy solution to these temporary conditions is to permanently end them by a violent and dramatic means.
Projectchildsafe.org and organizations like it are emplaced to encourage the responsible storage behaviors, education, and link to resources that mandates and other legal structures cannot provide assurances of.
No law has prevented a school massacre, or any massacre, from taking place by a determined individual or group. We can, however, do more and more to stack the odds in our favor that such tragedies are avoided and well responded to. Acting so that the loss of life is minimized or prevented entirely.
The complex social choices that revolve around the decision of violence are too numerous to put so asininely as, ‘a 15 year old shouldn’t have had a gun‘. Of course they ‘shouldn’t‘ in this context. They also shouldn’t feel that the only reasonable way to solve whatever was happening to them is murder. But both of those things occured and only one of them is going to catch the blame. It will be, for political capital, the gun. It always is.
APEX Ammunition Upland Bird TSS Loads
Columbus, Miss. (November 30, 2021) – APEX Ammunition is pleased to announce its Upland Bird TSS shotshells are now shipping. These meticulously handloaded, ultra-high-density Tungsten Super Shot loads deliver exceptional performance in a non-toxic round. Whether you are hunting grouse or Huns out West, quail in the South or late season roosters across the Great Plains, APEX TSS helps you put more birds in hand.
“An increasing number of states and public lands are transitioning to non-toxic shotshell requirements, and our APEX Upland loads give bird hunters confidence that they won’t sacrifice performance with an environmentally friendly round,” said Jason Lonsberry, CEO of APEX Ammunition. “TSS simply delivers unrivaled knockdown power due to its density, tight patterning, and retained velocity. This has expanded options for upland hunters, many of whom now use sub-gauge shotguns – even 28 gauge and .410 bore – to achieve clean kills on various upland birds from quail to pheasants.”
At 18.1 g/cc density, APEX TSS is denser than Lead (11.34 g/cc), Bismuth (9.8g/cc), Copper (8.8g/cc), or Steel (7.84 g/cc), allowing the use of smaller-sized TSS pellets and more of them per payload. The result? More pellets on target and greater knockdown power at longer ranges.
These handloaded upland shotshells feature clean-burning powder and a one-piece, Tungsten-grade wad system engineered to deliver the tightest pattern possible and maximum barrel protection.
APEX Upland Bird is available in 3-inch 12- and 20-gauge loads. Upland 28 gauge 2 ¾-inch and .410 bore 2 ½ and 3-inch loads are available upon request. For more information on APEX Upland Bird offerings, visit: ApexMunition.com/upland
MSRP: $49.99 – $65.99 (per 10 round box)
About APEX Ammunition
What started in 2017 with a few handmade shells for a hunting trip with buddies has become an obsession to provide wingshooters with the absolute best performing ammunition possible. Founded by U.S. Veterans and hunting enthusiasts in the great state of Mississippi, APEX Ammunition pioneered the commercial application of ultra-high-density Tungsten Super Shot to create the hardest hitting, most accurate shot loads in the business. The driving principle behind the company’s continued quest for innovation and better performance is its commitment to delivering a hunting experience like no other. For more information, visit ApexAmmunition.com.
The Newly Released Maven C.4 High Power Binocular
The Maven Optics C.4 Binocular joins a line up of C-series Binoculars.
Offered with 15x or 18x magnification and a 56mm objective lens, the C.4 is built to provide outstanding low-light capabilities and exceptional clarity at long distances. It’s constructed with a Schmidt-Pechan prism with dielectric coatings for optimal light transmission, extra-low dispersion glass to minimize chromatic aberration, and scratch and oil resistant lenses for an uncompromised image. The polymer frame is waterproof, fog proof and durable to ensure years of use. It’s also tripod mountable, but at approximately 45 ounces still light enough for handheld use. Plus, it’s all covered by Maven’s unconditional lifetime warranty. (15×56: $700 and 18×56 $725).
“With the C.4 we wanted to expand the C Series with a larger, more powerful optic that provides stronger performance at long distances,” said Brendon Weaver, Co-founder and Head of Design and Marketing for Maven. “We’re confident the final design accomplished that and we’re excited to offer it at the great value Maven is known for.”
Known for offering exceptional performance at a fraction of comparable binoculars’ costs, thanks to Maven’s D-to-C business model, the C Series represents the brands mid-range line of optics. With the introduction of the C.4, which will be the most powerful optic in the series, the C series now offers a full lineup of binoculars designed to fit specific needs.
For more information see the blog post HERE
Specs
Price: 15×56: $700
18×56: $725
Objective Lens Diameter
15x: 56mm
18x: 56mm
Field of View
15x: 4.1″
18x: 3.7″
Eye Relief
15x: 17.4mm
18x: 16.4mm
Weight
15x: 45.1oz
18x: 44.8 oz
Exit Pupil
15x: 3.73mm
18x: 3.11mm
Brightness
15x: 17
18x: 9.7
Twilight Factor
15x: 29
18x:31.75
See the chart HERE for more detailed specifications and side by side comparisons. The chart also shows testing specifications and results.
Foodscape Thanksgiving
I know that the holiday is over, but just consider this a Thanksgiving After Action Report.
It is difficult to try to put into words the satisfaction that I felt when serving Thanksgiving dinner that consisted in large majority of food I grew with my own two hands. Marie Kondo ain’t got nothing on me when it comes to finding things that “spark joy”.
This was my reward for the work put into my yardstead/foodscape and Pandemic Garden 2.0 this year. I did not get to feed my family last year and spent the holiday by myself learning how to pressure can turkey. So this year’s Thanksgiving was the big payback.
Yes we are still in a pandemic by the way, and (big surprise) there’s apparently another variant in the wings. Add to that our inflationary economy and projected shortages (LGB), and we have even more incentive for you to get started on your own garden and foodscape if you haven’t already.
But first let me humble brag for a few paragraphs about the meal(s) I was able to serve my family from my homegrown foods.
Wednesday night dinner
Since two members of the family are vegetarian, I tried to have some options where meat was not the main attraction. So Wednesday night when all the adult children had gathered I offered pasta night – with meatballs served separately – on the stove top “buffet”.
Admittedly the meatballs were not my own. I still have a single frozen pound of venison burger left, but I am hoarding that until the end of this year’s deer season.
The pasta was from my pandemic stash. My son laughed and said “same” when I mentioned the whole case of rotini I had ordered from Amazon in March 2020, not knowing how things were going to play out. But even when it’s not a national emergency, having extra food on the basement shelves means you don’t have to make a frenzied extra grocery run when the offspring return home hungry.
The salad featured carrots from my own garden, and peppers from the last garden harvest before the frost. There was also a single fresh tomato that I picked green a couple weeks ago when frost was looming. Since I don’t have a greenhouse or cold frame (yet), the lettuce was store bought.
The pasta sauce however, was entirely my own. Three pints of home-grown, home-canned pasta sauce came from untold pounds of home-grown tomatoes started from seed in toilet paper tubes in my kitchen window. From start to finish it was entirely of my own creation (well, myself and the Almighty and Mother Nature). It was an incredible feeling of accomplishment. And that was from last year’s stash. There are several pints of sauce still in the pantry, and then I have this year’s stash yet to break into.
Breakfast
For breakfast noshing on “The Day”, we had pumpkin muffins made with my homegrown pumpkin, and zucchini bread made with my garden zucchini. The eggs were store bought. My HOA does not allow livestock of any variety, though I’ve occasionally wondered whether I could get away with a couple very quiet rabbits. Even so, it’s not like rabbits really lay Cadbury eggs.
The Main Meal on Thanksgiving
Okay, here is where my self-satisfaction reached an alarming and disgusting level. I nearly dislocated my shoulder patting my own self on the back.
The turkey was store bought. Although I saw lots of wild turkeys on my game cams, the wily galliformes only showed up when I was at home doing other things. So 12-pound Butterball it was. I also bought a 20-pounder at a loss-leader 59 cents a pound, but that will stay frozen for canning in January.
Squash
My garden butternut squash was not as prolific this year as last year, so to the two small ones I had, I added a pattypan squash that came from a coworker’s garden. That was all cubed, tossed in a mix of olive oil and maple syrup, and roasted in the oven.
Corn
Then there was the garden corn. I had blanched and frozen the cut corn in late summer, so all I had to do was defrost and nuke it, allowing folks to butter and season to taste at the table.
Potatoes
Remember the container potato experiment where I grew two varieties of potatoes in a laundry basket and milk crates lined with hole-punched garbage bags? Those taters were the next installment in Thanksgiving dinner. I cubed them, tossed them in olive oil with various herbs and salt and pepper and roasted those in the oven too.
With that potato recipe I was trying to save the lactose sensitive in the family from too much in the cheese and cream sauce department, plus I figured if there were any leftovers we could fry them up with the eggs for breakfast.
Green Beans
Next in the line-up was green bean casserole, starring (you guessed it) my garden green beans. And yes, even the lactase-deficient members of the family specifically asked for traditional green bean casserole. Even so, I did substitute some veggie broth and oat milk for some of the added milk in the recipe just to see if it would work (it did).
Stuffing
In years past I have usually punted in the stuffing department and just done a boxed version because it was one less thing I needed to pre-prep. But this year, needing a truly vegetarian version (no meat broth), I searched the internet for a scratch oven stuffing recipe and hit the proverbial jackpot. I’m linking it here because it was fantastic and I think this will be my new traditional recipe.
This recipe was totally worth the prep time and it allowed me to use my garden grown sage and my dehydrated apples. If the serviceberry bushes I planted this past spring really get going, I’m hoping to have my own dehydrated berries to add next year as well.
Applesauce
In addition to the above we also had two kinds of home-canned applesauce – from the apples on my yard tree. (I canned 34 pints of applesauce this year) One was plain applesauce sweetened with maple syrup, and the other was strawberry applesauce. By the last batch of sauce this fall I was truly appled-out. I found a big bag of frozen strawberries in the chest freezer and decided to go wild with that last batch.
It turned out really well and gave me high hopes for the strawberry plants I put in containers this summer. I got a small handful of berries for the first year, but maybe next year I can have entirely homegrown strawberry applesauce too!
Three Sisters
Suppers the next couple days will consists of leftovers because mom is tired of cooking for a bit. But as a back-up plan I’m going to make Three Sisters Casserole with my black beans, pumpkin, corn, and my home-canned salsa (with cornmeal from the few stunted ears that I let dry out on the stalk instead of harvesting). That should serve the dual purpose of trying out that recipe but also being a vegetarian dish for the non-meat people in the family. I’m looking forward to trying it out.
In total for the whole visit my family consumed this list of my homegrown pandemic garden produce:
Pumpkin, zucchini, tomatoes, butternut squash, corn, peppers, carrots, green beans, potatoes, apples, black beans, onions, basil, sage, and thyme. Admittedly I couldn’t feed that many people all year long with my little garden, but for a few special family meals and a small suburban yard, I was just delighted with the results!
When it comes to learning self-sufficiency every little bit helps, and a few small successes can encourage you to continue into bigger projects. I’m already looking at my seed catalog for next year, how about YOU?
What’s up with new AK’s?
Since the AK-203 is in the news with India buying a metric boat load of them, Kalashnikov Group goes over their modern lineup. Vlad Onosky takes us on the tour.
This is similar in scope to a company like FN going down their modern AR lineup, where the Military Collector M4 and M16 are the ‘old’ technology. Then the Tactical Carbine, Tactical II, and TAC3 are all variants for various purposes that the M4 also does, but does differently or with a greater degree of efficiency in one category or another.
Variants are about specialization. They pick a series of specific tasks to do with greater efficiency than a more generalized rifle.
SBR’s focus on size.
DMR’s focus on accuracy, likely with a specific round in mind.
Even the variations of otherwise general purpose carbines are usually attuned to working with specifically picked ancillaries. Whether that is a specific optic suite, suppressor, caliber, or a specialized ammunition type, they are a purpose built unit.
Looking at the modern AK, it really is the AR’s peer. They come in all the calibers, they have the configurations, they are set up to serve in the same roles. With the sole exception of DMR’s, which are overwhelmingly freefloated gas guns for obvious reasons, the AK and AR continue to be the standards.
It is also delightful to see the ‘trash rod’ come into the modern sphere so strongly. Boutique weapons like the SCAR, X95, or AUG are all still well, good, and fun.
But two rifles run the world.
The AK is one.
Effectively Firing a Magazine Fed M249 SAW
The FN M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) can be described as “not reliable, finicky, trash”. This however is only due to improper maintenance and operation. Part of that operation involves feeding the M249 by magazine instead of belted ammunition.
Why
Knowing how to use magazines properly within a M249 is important due to this being your last resort for ammunition. The belted ammunition is out and you only have the rounds on your chest or belt in your magazine pouches. This being your last resort or needing to be a very quick reload, you also want to ensure that you are doing this effectively because it is possible to harm the magazine and cause a malfunction in the 249.
The Army -10 Operator Manual States this,
Operation
Seat the magazine with the bolt forward. Leaving the bolt forward/closed will keep you from over inserting the magazine. If you do over insert the magazine with the bolt to the rear, the moment you fire and that bolt goes forward it can shear off the magazine lips. Causing both a locked up gun and unusable magazine.
Also, when inserting the magazine, don’t jam it into the magazine well. Simply insert the magazine into the well and push until you hear a click, then give a tug to ensure seating.
P.S. Sometimes when clearing out the 5 points of inspection (one of them being the magazine well) your glove can get stuck inside the well. Don’t panic, simply hit the magazine release and pull it out.
Type of Magazine
Seeing M249’s be fed by both GI magazines and PMAG’s, PMAG’s are the better option.
GI magazines are not reliable inside M249s and have shown that they simply don’t have enough spring power, so to say, to keep up with the higher rate of cycling compared to an AR-15. You can configure the magazines to function a bit better by taking another spring from another GI magazine and stacking them together. Stacking meaning doubling together side by side, not stacking on top of each other. This can give the spring more strength.
PMAG’s run inside of the M249 like butter. This past week it was seen that out of ten M249’s on the line and over 30 iterations of firing each, not one M249 had a magazine induced malfunction. Magpul does test their PMAG’s inside M249’s to ensure proper operation.
Fun Fact: Magpul D60’s also run very smooth inside a SAW..
Gunday Brunch 29: Thanksgiving Special
The guys are here to give you a short list of things they’re thankful for, and hopefully a 15 minute reprieve from your relatives. Happy thanksgiving everyone!
An excellent AIWB draw
In this series of images, we’ll look at a breakdown of a very well executed draw from the appendix position by at student at the 2021 Revolver Roundup. The shooter was using a JM Custom Kydex AIWB holster and carrying a Ruger Speed Six, which basically makes him awesome by himself. In the first image, used in the head of this post, we can see he’s established his master grip, with his trigger finger straight down along the line of where his holster is.
In photo 2, the student has begun moving the pistol vertically to clear his holster, note again how straight and well clear of the trigger his index finger is.
Here you can see the shooter has begun to rotate the gun to the horizontal, again with his finger well clear of the trigger guard and the barrel clear of his support hand.
Now the gun begins to “get on the escalator” as I call it as the support hand approaches the grip. Note: finger still clear of the trigger, and his hands are going to come together in a natural position, not artificially close to the chest.
In this photo, the shooter is almost done completing his grip, and because the gun is flat and level towards the target, he begins to move his finger towards the trigger.
The strong hand thumb starts to come down, which completes the thumbs forward revolver grip, and now the shooter is fully on the trigger, starting to roll through his press.
The grip here is now fully formed, the gun is on target, and the shooter is fully engaged in pressing the trigger. The next photo in this series shows the gun in full recoil, as the shooter completed the shot process. He got a good hit too.
This is an excellent frame-by-frame example of how I teach the appendix draw, and this guy really did everything as right as I could ask any student to. This was in a class in the Roundup taught by Chuck Haggard.
Black Friday SALES
So, you’re out of your deliciously induced stupor and here you are, looking for news and such. Well I’m still in my stupor, I assure you, and so you’ll have to make do with shopping.
Sorry.
But on the bright side there is a flamethrower.
Not kidding.
Click images and shop on, they’ll open in separate windows so you can shop them all with ease. Enjoy your Friday, friends.
