Category: You have to be kidding, right!?!

Obviously, I liked the guns.
Perhaps my favorite, based purely on aesthetics, was the pepperbox revolver. If you’re unfamiliar with it, think of a Gatling gun in your hand and you’ve got a good idea of what it looked like, though the operation was very, very different.
The guns aren’t really a thing in this day and age, yet apparently, you can still get arrested for having one in California.
Just after 8 p.m. on Tuesday night, officials with the Redding Police Department said their officers were called to the Burger King off of Eureka Way for a report of a man seen walking around with a handgun on his bag. Officers said they responded to the area and contacted the suspect, identified as Ryan Battles.
After searching Battles’s bag, police said they found an antique black-powdered pepperbox revolver, black powder and iron pellets.
Of course, the media called it a “musket-style pistol,” which makes little sense.
Battles was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
Now, with all that said, yes, there is more to the story. For one thing, police believe Battles stole the gun in the first place. Apparently, he’s not much of a history buff or something. Either way, if the gun is in fact stolen, I’m all for putting Battles under the jail, metaphorically, of course.
I cannot abide a thief, but especially not a gun thief.
Yet I can’t help but chuckle about someone ultimately being arrested for carrying an 18th-century revolver, something not that different from what anti-gunners routinely tell us the Second Amendment is really protecting.
Again, Battles isn’t actually charged with having a stolen gun. They just think it’s stolen. While they’re probably right, they still arrested a man for carrying an antique, muzzle-loaded revolver that apparently wasn’t even loaded.
Only in California.
OK, not just in California, of course, but you know what I mean.
Still, if they believe it to be legitimately stolen, they need evidence that it wasn’t his gun. I don’t know that they have that, which also means it’s possible that Battles is innocent of that accusation.
Either way, though, this looks like it could be a surprisingly interesting case. I clicked on it because the headline looked weird and I’m a fan of pepperbox pistols, so seeing the picture made it obvious that I’d talk about this one.
But there are a lot of layers to this one that hasn’t really been uncovered as of this writing. I’d say it’ll be interesting to see how all of this shakes out, but it’s California. Even if the gun belonged to Battles lawfully, he’s still getting prosecuted for not having a carry permit at a minimum. As such, we know how it will ultimately shake out. It should still be pretty fascinating to watch in that trainwreck kind of way.

Army helicopter pilots are very highly regarded, regardless of rank. They bring firepower, food, ammunition and mail. They evacuate the wounded and remove the tired from the battlefield. They are braver than lions, fiercer than tigers, gentle as lambs. They have nerves of steel, the eyes of eagles, the cunning of a snake and can drink like its the end of the world. And on top of all that, we are ever so humble and modest.
Finally! An accurate description of an Army helicopter pilot, as seen by the people in his life:
As seen by himself:
An incredibly intelligent, tall, handsome, innovative, and highly trained professional killer, idol to countless females, and Gentleman Adventurer, who wears a star sapphire ring, carries a hair-trigger .45 automatic in a specially designed, hand-made quick draw holster along with his trusty survival knife, who is always on time thanks to his ability to obtain immediate transportation and the reliability of his Rolex watch.
As seen by his wife:
A disreputable member of the family who comes home once a year all bruised up, driving a stolen jeep up to the back door carrying a B-4 bag full of dirty laundry, wearing a stained flight suit, smelling of stale booze and JP-4, wearing a huge watch, a fake ring, and that damn ugly beat-up pistol in that stupid holster, who will three months later go out the front door, thankfully for another year.
As seen by his commander:
A fine specimen of a drunken, brawling, jeep stealing, woman corrupting liar, with a star sapphire ring, fantastically accurate Rolex watch, an unauthorized .45 in a non-regulation shoulder holster, and trusty survival knife.
As seen by Division Headquarters:
The embodiment of a drunken, brawling, jeep stealing, woman corrupting, lying, zipper-suited Sun God, with a ring, a proscribed 1911A1 .45 in a non-regulation shoulder holster, a Rolex watch, who for some reason carries a survival knife.
As seen by the DoD:
An overpaid, rule-ignoring, over-ranked tax burden, who is unfortunately totally indispensable simply because he has volunteered to go anywhere, and do anything, at any time, only so long as he can booze it up, brawl, steal jeeps, corrupt women, lie, and wear a star sapphire ring, Rolex watch, and carry an obsolete hand gun and a survival knife.
As seen by the enemy:
The implacable inescapable face of death!

America must keep faith with its military veterans. We owe the greatest debt to those who risked their lives to keep us free.
But the promises America has made to the women and men who have served in uniform are due for a review. The budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs has grown at a dramatic pace since 9/11 — from roughly $45 billion in 2001 to more than $300 billion this year.
None of these steps would be politically easy. Proposing and voting for new benefits for veterans have long been among the few policy areas that both Democrats and Republicans support. We also know that the array of benefits offered by the VA plays an important role in attracting and retaining the all-volunteer force — especially in an era of low unemployment and rising wages in the civilian sector.
But the moral responsibility Americans have to those who fought for the country is of diminished value if it does not align with the fiscal responsibility Americans have to keep their financial house safe and sound.
I haven’t been enraged reading a news article in a long, long time. Why am I enraged? Because of these Ivy League, snot-nosed fucks at the Washington Post.
That’s the publically available editorial staff’s information about the board who wrote one of the most disrespectful articles I have ever seen about veterans. There are so many awful opinions in this opinion piece that it’s difficult to break down each and every one. I’ll lead with some words from the VFW, ya know, the VFW that helps in leading the charge against bullshit like this. The VFW that was a huge driver in getting the PACT act passed.
It is laughable that the employees of one of the richest individuals in the world have the audacity to suggest disabled veterans should be the persons responsible for balancing the federal budget – instead of their wealthy billionaire benefactors who notoriously skirt their tax liabilities.
You would think with all the collective Ivy League degrees held by The Washington Post Editorial Board they would understand basic economics. Instead, they recommend that veterans be subjected to means tests or outright forfeit their earned benefits if they manage to constructively cope with these life-altering disabilities.
If you don’t remember, the PACT Act was established to secure health care and entitlements for thousands of veterans who are being diagnosed with various cancers, lung diseases, and much much more. Health care was also improved for dozens of other causes and ailments.
We have been making great strides in helping or honoring those who served in the longest fucking war in American history. We went to a place where we could have been blown up at any moment. We went to a place where we had to watch someone point a gun at us before we were allowed to return fire. We fought in places where we had to put our battle buddies on choppers in body bags and watch them head back home to their families without breath or a heartbeat.
Vast numbers of us have terrible back problems, difficulty breathing at times, PTSD, Traumatic brain injuries, and on and on and on. These are things that we did for our country and we only ask for what was promised which is payment for the sacrifices to our bodies and minds that no reasonable government or dumb-ass editorial board could ever imagine stripping away with a means test.
Just like the VA’s motto until a few weeks ago, the terminology is what is outdated, not the benefits. Over the years, entitlement has become a bad word that implies laziness or the wanton use of funds by the government. The VA is the opposite of that. The VA provides entitlements based on the injuries you sustained while serving. Those injuries do not go away simply because you got a job. Veterans are entitled to these payments in the purest sense of the word.
Those injuries do not go away simply because the fiscal state of the United States is in dire shape. The injuries remain and will remain for the rest of our natural lives. Injuries like the aforementioned are something those entitled- the bad version now- people who have cushy jobs writing nonsense about some of the hardest working people in this country.
People that while they were typing or doing some kind of financial news stories, we were in sands above 100 degrees for months at time with packs that weighed over 60lbs on the regular. People who while the WP Board was polishing their Pultizers were calling family members on satellite phones from the rooftop where another person was standing watch with a machine gun ready to protect you while you talked to your kids.
People that had no problem walking near and over IEDs so that we could locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver while you were at the latest James Beard award-winning restaurant. While they were in their posh environments, many of us were marching to the sounds of the guns.
The injuries sustained by veterans and active duty members should be one of the last wells that we fill our buckets with simply because the well is closer and easier to draw water from. Walk to the next village over and look in that well of governmental waste. While I type this blog, my hands shake. My hands aren’t shaking because I am mad, which I am, my hands shake because I sustained an injury to my fucking brain when I was blown up by an IED. Does that change because I have a good job? No.
Does the veteran with PTSD lose it when she works in an accounting job now? No.
While I dont think this type of idea has or ever will get any legs, it’s beyond insulting when a huge newspaper like the Washington Post writes an opinion piece that can mislead and manipulate readers with a lesser understanding of the inner workings of both the VA and the veteran service organizations.
There are plenty of ways to improve the VA, the costs associated with the care of veterans, and the budget without ripping away the entitlements veterans are owed.
It is not only insulting but it also is completely untenable. Homes would go into foreclosure, cars would be repossessed, and families would struggle even more to put food on the table, a concern I’d imagine those Harvard, Yale, and Cornell graduates have never felt in their entire fucking lives.
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USA – We saw New York State’s blatant defiance of the NYSRPA v. Bruen case when the Democrat-dominant legislature slapped the Supreme Court in the face with the implementation of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA) that went into effect in September of 2022. The CCIA was quickly voted on in Albany and signed into law in July of 2022, immediately after the June SCOTUS ruling when they Declared New York’s existing gun laws to be unconstitutional.
Matt Mallory, Founder of Public Safety and Education (psanded.com) / Host of Meet the Pressers (meetthepressers.com) said, “Why is it so hard for NY politicians to just obey the rulings from the highest court of the land? They expect us to obey their laws even though we all know true criminals won’t! Just to show us the distain NY politicians have for it’s legal law-abiding gun owners, the CCIA law could get you charged with a felony and over a year in prison for not being in compliance with the law! I wish SCOTUS could do the same for the Bruen decision. I bet Politicians would be less likely to blatantly defy a SCOTUS ruling ever again.”
Many people are asking, “how is this possible if the Supreme Court declares a law unconstitutional?”
Easy. Albany Democrats do what they want.
We must understand the mind of a tyrant. Although normal people would respect the ruling of the highest court in the land, Democrats spit in the face of our sacred judicial system if it doesn’t suit them politically. We are watching the same scenario play out with a recent 2019 ruling on stun guns.
Although SCOTUS ruled that the Second Amendment applies “to all instruments that constitute bearable arms,” NYS Law S 265.01 remains on the books. The unconstitutional law continues to put New York residents at risk of heavy fines and even jail time for possessing a stun gun.
The law states that a person is guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, a class A misdemeanor with up to a year in prison, when: He or she possesses any firearm, electronic dart gun, electronic stun gun…
Although some jurisdictions have decided to ignore the State’s unconstitutional law, in support of the 2nd Amendment, Patrolman Zonnevylle arrested Austin T. Johnson for possession of an electric stun gun. This incident occurred in the 100 block of East Garden Street in the City of Rome, New York. Luckily for Johnson, the case was dismissed on a technicality. The law, being in blatant defiance of multiple court rulings, remains on the books today, continuing to put New Yorkers at risk of arrest.
Matt Mallory said, “Before COVID, I met with the NY Senator’s office that put a bill forward in 2019 to reclassify these tools under NY law. That bill, S2421, just keeps getting recycled every session and goes nowhere. This is a perfect example of New York State politicians dragging their feet. Is it on purpose? I leave that for you to decide.”
Our founding fathers would’ve never believed that future Governors and State Legislators would make Americans choose between their own personal safety or jail time. While Governor Hochul lets prisoners out of jail, it would seem those cells will not remain vacant for long as long as there are good people willing to defend themselves against her recently released detainees.
The 2nd Amendment is not a privilege. It’s your right.
Dan Wos
Author – Good Gun Bad Guy
Host – The Loaded Mic
About Dan Wos, Author – Good Gun Bad Guy
Dan Wos is available for Press Commentary. For more information contact PR HERE
Dan Wos is a nationally recognized 2nd Amendment advocate, Host of The Loaded Mic and Author of the “GOOD GUN BAD GUY” book series. He speaks at events, is a contributing writer for many publications, and can be found on radio stations across the country. Dan has been a guest on Newsmax, the Sean Hannity Show, Real America’s Voice, and several others. Speaking on behalf of gun-rights, Dan exposes the strategies of the anti-gun crowd and explains their mission to disarm law-abiding American gun-owners.
