The judge’s order in New Jersey suspends, for now, impending requirements that gun carriers purchase liability insurance — a requirement that would have been the first statewide mandate of its kind.
by Victor Davis Hanson
Almost immediately, three media narratives emerged.
One, semiautomatic weapons, not the killer Audrey Hale, were mostly responsible for the massacre.
Two, the shooter’s transgender identity profile played no role in the killing whatsoever.
Three, the public had no need to know of the contents of the shooter’s “manifesto.”
Why?
The media and authorities apparently assumed Hale’s written rantings tried to justify the murders because of Christianity’s supposed disapproval of transgenderism.
That censored reaction to the Tennessee shooting was quite different from another mass murder committed nearly six weeks later in Allen, Texas by a former security guard Mauricio Garcia.
Within minutes of the identification of the shooter, the media blared that Garcia wore pro-Nazi insignia and was thus a “white supremacist.”
Apparently that narrative was deemed useful to promote the idea of white supremacist terrorists using their semiautomatic “assault” weapons to kill for right-wing agendas.
Yet second-generation Hispanic immigrants, whose parents do not speak English, are not likely “white supremacists.”
The strained effort to make violent “people of color” into white right-wing killers is reminiscent of Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012.
Then the media reinvented the shooter, half-Peruvian George Zimmerman, into a “white Hispanic.” He was transformed into a right-wing vigilante and racist who supposedly hunted down an innocent black teenager.
The media did not wish to portray Martin’s death as a fight between an Hispanic and black teen. Instead, it tried to refashion the shooting as “systemic racism”—to the point of doctoring the 911 tape and photoshopping Zimmerman’s police photo to fit its false narratives.
Recently, an African American man named Deion Patterson lethally shot one and wounded four others in an Atlanta medical waiting room. His own politics, race, and type of weapon were apparently of little interest. So he was simply described as suffering from mental illness.
The media also did not wish to sensationalize either the profile or circumstances of another contemporaneous mass shooter Francisco Oropeza. He executed five of his neighbors, including a young boy and two women.
Only later did we learn that Oropeza was in fact an illegal alien who had been deported four times previously and returned each time through an open border.
Most recently, outrage grew over the homicide of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who frequented the subway and often threatened and occasionally attacked bystanders.
When a would-be good Samaritan and ex-Marine determined Neely’s latest threats to passengers were serious, he subdued him with a choke hold. Tragically Neely died while being restrained.
A media circus followed. Neely was black. The former Marine who held him down was white. So activists and the media immediately cited the death as yet more proof of systemic racism.
The public was lectured that Neely was a talented impersonator, who did professional street imitations of Michael Jackson.
The violent death of his mother, we were told, had traumatized him.
Released subway videos showed him on the floor of the subway, thrashing about while the white Marine held him in a headlock.
Protests and demands for a murder indictment followed.
Then later the inevitable skipped details trickled out, despite, not because of, media coverage.
Neely had been arrested 42 times, including for lewd conduct, with three convictions for violent assaults.
His forte was brutally punching random victims in the face, including a 67-year old woman, and a 68-year-old Hispanic male.
The news stories also neglected to mention that a black passenger helped subdue Neely.
The public learned there might be other, as yet unreleased, videos of Neely earlier threatening commuters.
Death is traumatic enough, without searching for ways to gain political traction from it.
It is eerie how each tragedy prompts a desperate effort to spin narratives of a racist America, where only right-wing killers and vigilantes prey on marginalized people of color and the transgendered.
Once these fables become “facts,” then the media runs with their fables.
– – –
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is an American military historian, columnist, a former classics professor, and scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush. Hanson is also a farmer (growing raisin grapes on a family farm in Selma, California) and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism. He is the author most recently of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, The Case for Trump and the recently released The Dying Citizen.
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Me neither!
I’m biased so shut up
Strangling a taliban leader by sneaking into their compound at night alone
Narrowly avoiding death 4 times
Exposing yourself in a Taliban ambush to draw attention away from your boys
Running directly into enemy fire, neutralizing the enemy for your team to escape, being killed while doing so
With many more honorable actions to mention, I present to you
The Australian SASR
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Italian Breda M37 HMG
U.S.A. – New York Attorney General Letitia James has taken legal action against Mean Arms, a Georgia-based gun accessory manufacturer, for their alleged involvement in the illegal possession of assault weapons in New York. The lawsuit follows the tragic incident in Buffalo, where a shooter used Mean Arms’ magazine lock, known as the MA Lock, to replace magazines in his AR-15 and carried out a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 10 individuals.
According to the lawsuit, Mean Arms deceptively promotes the MA Lock as a device that makes weapons compliant with New York’s gun laws. However, it is alleged that the lock can be effortlessly removed, allowing the shooter to add 30-round detachable magazines to the firearm used in the massacre. The Attorney General argues that Mean Arms’ marketing practices and instructions on how to remove the lock contribute to the illegal possession of assault weapons in the state.
Attorney General James danced in the blood of the Buffalo shooting, calling it “one of the darkest days in the history of New York and the nation.” While dramatically claiming that the harm caused cannot be undone, and she aims to seek “justice” for the lives lost by the acts of a madman by now pursuing legal action against Mean Arms.
The NY lawsuit seeks several “remedies”, including a halt to Mean Arms’ operations in New York, restitution, damages, and civil penalties for the company’s alleged violations of state laws. Moreover, the Attorney General intends to force Mean Arms to issue corrective statements regarding the misleading claims made about the MA Lock.
Mean Arms’ MA Lock is designed to lock a detachable magazine in place on a semiautomatic rifle using a shear bolt mechanism. However, the New York Attorney General’s office found that the company provides instructions on how to easily remove the lock on the packaging itself. Online videos also demonstrate the removal process, which involves using a #2 speed out drill bit and a power drill.
The lawsuit reveals that the Buffalo shooter had purchased a semiautomatic rifle with the MA Lock installed and a 10-round magazine in January 2022. Using the common tools and a power drill, he removed the lock, enabling him to attach multiple illegal, under New York law, 30-round detachable magazines. This modification allowed the shooter to continue firing 30 rounds without reloading, as would be the case with the NY arbitrary number of 10 rounds, and according to the AG, that somehow contributed to the increased “lethality” of the attack.
Attorney General James’ legal bullying of Mean Arms is part of her ongoing efforts to claim she is doing something to curb “gun violence” and to force “responsible gun safety laws” on New York. In recent months, her office has wasted taxpayer monies on a statewide gun buyback program and cracked down on online ammunition sellers for “illegal” shipping.
While the lawsuit claims to hold Mean Arms accountable, it is worth noting that laws like New York’s, banning so-called high-capacity magazines have faced legal challenges. Various federal courts, including the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, have ruled such bans to be unconstitutional, citing the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
The lawsuit against Mean Arms, however, underscores the Attorney General’s commitment to doing the dirty work of gun banners. The legal action has garnered support from advocacy groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, as well as local leaders, including U.S. Representative Brian Higgins and Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown.
By Fred Riehl and AI technology. Note: This article was generated using AI technology and may contain some automated content and analysis.
In a world of hyper-velocity cartridges, where shooting into the next zip code has almost become the norm, it can be refreshing to spend some time with one of the classic rimmed cartridges which our grandfathers used for varmints, predators and small-game species. In fact, the relatively mild report and virtual lack of recoil can be a wonderful diversion. The speedy .220 Swift was released in 1935 and the .222 Remington was released in 1950, the year my father was born, but among those earliest designs were the .22 Hornet and the .218 Bee.
I like rimmed cartridges, especially in lever guns and single shots, and the mild cartridges can be a pleasure to shoot. Just as it’s good fun to grab a good old .30-30 carbine instead of the .30-06 sometimes, time spent with a good rifle chambered for the Hornet or the Bee can be a great change of pace. In my grandfather’s era, the .22 Hornet was the go-to varmint cartridge, and the couple of seasons I spent behind the trigger of a .218 Bee were a whole lot of fun. Let’s compare and contrast the pair of old veterans, and see which comes out on top.
The .22 Hornet is the older of the pair, being released commercially in 1930. Those esteemed gentlemen at the Springfield Armory—including Col. Townsend Whelen and Capt. G.L. Wotkyns—were experimenting with the now obsolete .22 WCF cartridge, and arrived at what we know as the .22 Hornet. Though there had been another cartridge in the 1890s known as the Hornet, it was dimensionally different from the 1930 variant. It is a simple and diminutive cartridge, immediately evoking a bygone era. It has a rim diameter of 0.350 inches, a case length of 1.403 inches, and a slight 5-degree, 38-minute shoulder which culminates in neck measuring 0.386 inches, giving all the neck tension you’d want. The Hornet’s overall cartridge length is 1.723 inches.
Initial loads pushed a 45-grain jacketed bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2400 fps, and Winchester believed in the cartridge to the point where they offered it in the Model 54 bolt-action rifle and it was one of the original chamberings for the Model 70 in 1936. Modern powders have increased the muzzle velocity of the .22 Hornet, and many manufacturers have seen fit to use the lighter 30- and 35-grain bullets to boost velocities further. For furbearers and varmints inside of 200 to 250 yards, the .22 Hornet is a sound choice, as even the 45-grain “traditional” load—look to Hornady’s Custom line for the 45-grain Spire Point at 2665 fps—can be zeroed at 200 yards, striking 2.8 inches high at 100 yards. Lighter loads like Federal’s Varmint & Predator 35-grain Tipped Varmint load, at 3000 fps, can be zeroed at 200 yards, striking 3.1 inches high at 100, but will drop off quickly after 200 yards. Yet it remains a deadly little cartridge at woods distances.
The .218 Bee came along in 1937, at the height of the Great Depression, released in Winchester Model 65 lever gun. Designed to compete with the .22 Hornet, Winchester necked down the .25-20 Winchester to hold .224-inch-diameter bullets (the .25-20 itself was a .32-20 necked down), and the Model 65 was offered in .218 Bee, .25-20 and .32-20. The Bee is slightly shorter, but definitely fatter, than the Hornet. Its base measures 0.408 inches, has a body with minimal taper and a steeper 15-degree shoulder. The overall case length measures 1.345 inches and the Bee has a neck length of 0.258 inches, more than one caliber, for sufficient neck tension. The Bee also comes in slightly shorter than the Hornet, at 1.680 inches.
Because of the lever-action tubular magazine, the Bee was loaded from its inception with round nosed bullets. With a 45-grain bullet, the Bee will give another 100 fps over the Hornet, with factory loads driving a 45-grain to 2750 fps. There were some accuracy complaints early on with the .218 Bee, but it’s pretty much accepted that the issue was with the lever-action rifle more than the cartridge.
There are a good number of rifles chambered in each, with Ruger having adopted both. The Ruger 77/22 is a great bolt-action repeater with their proprietary rotary magazine, and the Ruger No. 1 has been chambered in both cartridges at one time or another.
Which of the two makes the better choice? Well, the performance of the two is pretty similar, with the Bee having the slight velocity advantage, but the Hornet has the advantage of more factory loads and more availability. At the time of this writing, there are two advertised factory loads for the Bee (Hornady and Winchester), while the Hornet has a dozen or more. The Bee’s factory ammo uses 45- and 46-grain bullets, while the Hornet offers a range of bullet choices from 35 to 50 grains.
I personally feel that the Bee is a better cartridge, firstly because of the velocity increase over the Hornet, secondly because I’ve found that brass for the Bee tends to be more consistent than that of the Hornet, and thirdly for the roomier case which gives a bit more flexibility for the handloader. But unless you intend to handload, the Hornet makes more sense, simply for the availability and range of factory loads. I am an unabashed handloader, and when I spent time with that Ruger No. 1 in .218 Bee, components were readily available, so feeding the single-shot was no issue.
Both cartridges are easy on the ears and have very little recoil, yet are effective for any of the smaller species for which these are suited. It seems that the industry has chosen the .22 Hornet, and with the modern factory loads you can probably do anything that you could do with the .218 Bee. I’d hate to see either fade away completely, but in this competition I’ll have to give the nod to the older .22 Hornet.
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Have a great Day!! NSFW
