Author: Grumpy
FACT-O-RAMA! I use the same mass shooting standards and all relevant info as gunviolencearchive.com. A mass shooting is four people who have been shot, not including the shooter, in a fluid situation.
The nation celebrated our freedom from British tyranny with 25 mass shootings from June 30 until the morning of July 5. One-hundred-sixty-one people were ventilated, and 25 gave up the ghost.
Chicago (of course) kicked off the summer’s July 4 “Festival of Lead” celebration with a good, old-fashioned drive-by mass shooting that left one dead and three injured. The Windy City had a similar shooting days later, leaving one dead and four wounded after roughly 100 rounds were fired at an Independence Day party. Chicago’s top police officer claimed that the cops should have “done more” and broken up the party before the shooting, relieving the “gun nuts” of responsibility for spreading mad brass around Chicago’s Southside.
BLAST-O-RAMA! A person is shot in Chicago every 2 hours, 55 minutes, and one is murdered every 13 hours, 37 minutes.
The most dramatic mass shooting lack of impulse control occurred in Baltimore where two were killed and a whopping 28 were injured, most of them teens.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott — playing both sides of the racial coin — whined that white mass shootings get more attention than those committed by black folks.
I guess he doesn’t realize the Pravda press purposely hides the level of black mass shootings in the U.S. while trying to unscrupulously pin the majority of them on drooling, white men in MAGA hats despite overwhelming evidence that a vast majority of mass shootings are committed by black people.
“THEY” SHOT THEM-O-RAMA! A recent mass shooter in Philly is a BLM-lovin’ trans dude whom the press doesn’t want you to know about, so don’t read this article.
Fort Worth, Texas — refusing to be outdone by Chicago — racked up two mass shootings for a total of three killed and 12 wounded at their yearly Como Fest, a black celebration.
Many of the usual suspect cities, Indy, Cleveland, and D.C., chimed in and hosted a mass blasting.
Saint Ann, Mo. — not usually home to mass shootings — was the scene of a domestic murder-suicide when a man killed his girlfriend and her three kids before graciously eating a bullet himself.
Philly played host to the shooting with the most fatalities with five killed and two injured.
Detroit and St. Louis, the two blue cities that frequently slug it out for the honor of being called the “murder capital,” were suspiciously absent from the mass holiday shootouts.
Related: Four Mass Shooting Truths to Shut Down Your Liberal Family Members at Thanksgiving Dinner
The nation has seen 360 mass shootings thus far in 2023, but check back in a few minutes for an update.
Kevin Downey Jr. Is a comedian, columnist, and radio show host. When he isn’t writing or performing, he is collecting surf records and practicing his mixologist skills at his tiki bar. His apartment—the Atomic Bunker—looks like it was furnished from George Jetson’s garage sale.
You can hear KDJ crush the commies and punish the pedos on “The Kevin Downey, Jr. Show” every Monday-Friday from 10-11 am at LINEWSRADIO.com.
In Cincinnati, the Reds are on a hot streak, winning their last ten games and overtaking the Brewers, who are 4-6 in their last ten games. The Pirates have gone from first to fourth place in the division after losing ten in a row and 13 of their last 15.
Also moving up in the NL Central are the Chicago Cubs, who have won three in a row and are 8-2 in their last ten games. Their archrivals, the Saint Louis Cardinals, visit London Stadium for two games this weekend.
But when Monday arrives in Chicago, when the weekend’s box scores are pored over, when the runs, hits, errors, and wild pitches are discussed and argued about, there will be another, much bleaker set of statistics also discussed: the number of people shot and killed over the weekend. Based on recent history, we can safely predict that between 40 and 50 people will be shot in the Windy City between Friday and Sunday and that between 5 and 10 of them will die.
It’s sad to say, but these numbers have come to be discussed as casually as baseball scores, so routine is the mayhem that grips Chicago, especially in the summer months. Faced with this grim tide of blood in the streets, Chicago’s new mayor, Brandon Johnson, attributes it to “disinvestment” and a lack of jobs. “We have already identified 2,500 additional positions that we can hire young people for,” Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday. “And there are businesses that are stepping up,” he continued, “to make sure that they’re doubling the amount of young people that they’re hiring.”
Which prompts some questions for the mayor. The invaluable website CWB Chicago recently reported on an attempted carjacking that occurred early Monday morning in the city’s Bucktown neighborhood. In the video included at the linked story, we see two men exit a white car (which itself is believed to have been stolen) and approach the 52-year-old male victim, who is on the sidewalk next to his parked car.
The victim appears to offer little if any resistance, yet one or the other of the suspects (perhaps both) shoots him in the back. The suspects then flee in the car they arrived in, leaving the victim bleeding in the street. The man survived, perhaps finding some measure of comfort in knowing his was not among the 477 vehicles carjacked in Chicago so far this year.
And now those questions, Mayor Johnson. Consider the callousness of the two suspects shown in that video. Consider those who committed the 477 completed carjackings this year and the 1,674 completed last year and the 1,848 the year before that. Consider those responsible for the 293 homicides committed so far this year in Chicago and the 1,113 non-fatal shootings, and don’t forget the 4,085 robberies, an average of more than 23 each and every day.
What magical “investment” will serve to lower these numbers, and which businesses should be expected to hire the people responsible for these crimes? And, assuming such people are willing to accept honest employment, who should be expected to patronize a business that employs them?
No matter what success the Cubs may have this season, it’s going to be a long summer in Chicago. Who could have imagined Chicagoans would come to miss Lori Lightfoot?
My passion is collecting old British Lee-Enfield rifles. Reading books on Lee-Enfield rifles, investigating their proofmarks and regimental markings, and exploring their developmental history is all part of the fun.
Several years ago, at a gun show, I purchased a somewhat rare Australian Lithgow No. 1, Mk III* club rifle. During the interwar period, owners of No. 1, Mk III* rifles would have gunsmiths install heavy barrels, remove the standard rear sights and install Central or Motty peep sights. The front sights were modified to be adjustable and were held in place with a set screw. Triggers were also re-worked. These gunsmiths would finally install a new top handguard, covering where the leaf sight once was, and re-finish the metal.
The club rifle I purchased has all of these fine qualities. It was re-stocked to accommodate a new rear sight, has a very smooth trigger pull and is beautifully blued. It is fitted with a rear peep sight from Central Mfg. What makes this rifle special to me is the small metal tag tacked to the right side of the buttstock that reads: “John Brennan Concord R.C.” (R.C. meaning rifle club).
Curious to see if I could find the original owner, I sent an email to the New South Wales Rifle Ass’n. About a month later, I received a letter from a Mr. Abbott, who belonged to Concord Rifle Club and knew Brennan. He said they had competed back in the 1960s, and that Brennan had since passed. Abbott was pleased to know I had one of his acquaintance’s rifles. He remembered when Brennan had my particular rifle worked on. He also said Brennan was a fine shot and a club treasure.
Needless to say, my club rifle shoots very well and will stay in my collection.
—John Presensky
Every gun has a story, and the late Major Joseph W. Marshall’s Model 1911
has plenty. He carried this sidearm in WWII and Korea, while he worked
for the FBI and OSS. (Images provided by Jack Kellum.)
When Joseph W. Marshall, then 78, passed away in Seattle in May 1988, the headline on his obituary in the old Post-Intelligencer newspaper was a bland reference to his having been a teacher at Garfield High School.
Even in those days, a Seattle newspaper might downplay a life’s history full of adventure and service to his country. It took five paragraphs before the unknown author of that obit mentioned how the late Mr. Marshall had served in WWII, where he was “attached to the Chinese army as a colonel and was Chaing Kai-shek’s adjutant general, teaching administration to the Chinese army.” Somewhere in there, he also worked with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and learned to speak 13 different Chinese dialects.
But we’ll give the Post Intelligencer the benefit of doubt. Back when I was a weekly newspaper editor well back into the last century, I often tried to be brief in writing obits, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so harsh.
Marshall also had worked for the FBI and was a member of the National Guard coast artillery, stationed at Port Orchard, before shipping out to the war. In addition to all of that, Marshall was also “in the first flying cadet class at the U.S. Army’s Randolph Field School in Texas in 1932.” Additionally, he served during the Korean conflict, and the pistol went along for that ride, too.
Joe Marshall’s 1988 obituary opened the book on a fascinating
life behind the man identified as an ex-teacher in Seattle.
He earned a law degree from George Washington University. After he left government service, he went into teaching and spent 12 years as a teacher and counselor at Seattle’s Garfield High, where he also taught photography. After he retired from teaching in 1968, he became a senior intern for then-Congressman Joel Pritchard, a Seattle Republican, and in February 1987, he was commissioned a “Washington General” by then-Gov. Booth Gardner, only 15 months before he passed away.
For a kid born in Waubay, South Dakota, a small town about two hours east of Aberdeen, that’s not a bad lifetime of work and accomplishments, maybe two lifetimes.
Enter Jack Kellum, now an Eastern Washington resident who was raised in Seattle and “grew up reading Elmer Keith.” Jack is also an American Handgunner reader. He had a bit more of a story to tell about Joe Marshall. And it involved a particular Model 1911 pistol, which accompanied him all over the place. Kellum has at least one image to prove it. Nowadays, he also has the pistol.
“Joe carried it here in Washington, then in China, the FBI and in Korea,” Kellum said in a telephone conversation.
Here’s an image of how Joe’s Model 1911 looked in a tanker-style
shoulder holster when Jack Kellum, who grew up knowing this
fascinating man, and inherited his pistol.
Yes, Indeed
Let’s see if I can do this pistol, and the man who owned it, complete justice. I have doubts, but here goes. Joe’s pistol was marked “United States Property.” Serial No. 577129.
When he was stationed in Korea, then-Major Marshall corresponded with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, sending the original G-Man some photos and information about the troubles they were living through.
This somewhat faded snapshot of Joe Marshall was from Inchon,
South Korea in 1951. That’s his pistol in the tanker holster.
“The tragedy that these children are going through,” Hoover wrote in part, “is written on their faces and it makes one doubly conscious of the responsibilities which adults assume in declaring war.”
In one of the images Kellum provided for this report, one sees a younger Joe Marshall in uniform, wearing a tanker-style shoulder holster holding his Model 1911 pistol, by then fitted with fake pearl grips. The image was taken at Inchon in 1951
Letter from J. Edgar Hoover to Joe Marshall, regarding photographs the major sent the FBI director.
According to Kellum, Major Marshall “shot the pistol a lot” and wanted to carry it while with the FBI, but he “couldn’t see the sights well enough to qualify,” so at some point, he installed replacements from Kings with the white line around the square rear notch.
After he moved into teaching, Marshall continued his interest in photography. He published a photography book titled “Hands” and also collaborated on two other photography books, according to the Post Intelligencer obituary.
Kellum’s entry into Joe’s life came in 1942, when Jack’s family moved into the home next door. He was but 6 months old at the time, “and grew up as a next door neighbor.”
“Joe was always the guy next door who taught at Garfield,” Kellum told me in a text message. “He was always the pleasant teacher with a positive attitude about life. Never a bad word about anything or person.
“I never knew his background until after I went in the service,” Jack recalled. “I was probably in my early 30s before I slowly learned of some of his past. He died a few months after my Dad.”
Joe’s pistol with a sheathed KaBar knife. You can barely see it, but the sheath is stamped “USMC.”
“My mom helped his wife go through and sort stuff,” Kellum’s narrative continued. “A month or so later, she was coming to visit and brought a large paper grocery bag full of many of Joe’s special items wrapped tight and stapled shut with my name on it, left for me by Joe. At the very bottom was the holstered 1911 in his tanker holster, as seen in the one picture.”
He was survived by his wife, Leola, and two nephews, one living in Alberta and the other living in Kelso, in southern Washington along the lower Columbia River.
It Traveled Some
When Jack’s work took him to Colorado for a while, the pistol went along, and it came back to Washington State with him when the job “went away.”
This may have been the final long trip for a sidearm that had served one man well for decades.
About two months ago, the now-71-year-old Jack Kellum reached out to American Handgunner in an effort to contact either myself, Will Dabbs or Jeff “Tank” Hoover, and apparently I got to him first. Initially, it was his intent to sell this historic sidearm, but in a recent text message, Jack admitted, “Every time I play with it, I just re-embrace it. It’s really a neat piece and screams of its past. If only it could talk. Over the hump in China, FBI service and Korea. It’s got some stories to tell.”
Joe Marshall’s .45 now wears a set of walnut grips, unless it is posing
for photos. Jack Kellum sent far more images than I needed. I appreciate his help.
I hope this article has helped Joe’s pistol tell some of those stories, or at least hint at some of the adventures man and gun shared over the course of a lifetime that might have left high school students awestruck. Like so many kids that age, we never realize that teachers were something else before they entered the classroom. It was certainly that way with Joe Marshall.
I remember some of the teachers I had in junior and senior high school. One man became a hero when he swam out into the ocean on the Washington Coast to save the life of a swimmer in trouble. Another guy had served in WWII, somewhere in Europe, and only mentioned one time about the aftermath of a battle he was in.
Guys like Joseph Marshall certainly leave an impact on the students they meet in class, and they also leave a much wider mark on other lives they touched. When all that remains are images and a keepsake pistol, it reminds all of us we should take stock of the lives we’ve touched, and those who have touched our lives. Somewhere in there are more stories to tell.