Security Tips 101 for the Holidays

Here's a few simple precautions to take when shopping for the holiday season (or any other time):

Shopping Online: Do not use public computers (such as those in public libraries) to order stuff online. It's an exposure of personal information, such as home address and credit card info.

Shop at retailers that are well known and trustworthy, and don't access website via links that were sent to you in emails. Always type in the website address.

Remember to update anti-virus software every day.

Shopping in stores: Keep all receipts and check them against monthy credit card and bank statements. If there are any discrepancies, notify the bank or credit card company immediately.

"Skimming" is the criminal act of attaching a credit card reader to a bank cash machine. When a customer swipes their bank card to get cash from their account, the skimmer records the number so that funds can be stolen from the account at a later time. Always check for odd-looking devices attached to the ATM before withdrawing cash.

At stores and restaurants, keep credit cards in sight when paying for items. If the waiter or store staff must take the card away, be sure they give you your card back, and not some other card.

Especially in crowded places such as stores, cash machines and bars be aware of people around you. if someone looks or acts in a suspicious manner, put some distance between you and them.

In a vehicle, store valuables in the trunk, or at least throw a blanket over them so criminals cannot tell if there is anything valuable in the car.

Connecticut Dodges a Bullet on a Magazine Ban

Senate Bil 1094, that would have banned the possession and manufacture of magazines with a capacity of more than ten rounds, died in committee on Friday when the Judiciary Committee declined to vote on the bill. Bills like this are most certainly an infringement on the right to keep and bear arms, and do nothing to stop crime. I'm glad to see that the senators on the Connecticut Judiciary Committee see it that way. You only have to look at other countries that have enacted various types of gun bans to see the consequences. In Britain, restrictions on firearms have led to an increase in burglaries and home invasions, because criminals are no longer afraid of being shot if they break into someone's home. And as guns have become increasingly difficult to own, the increase in violent crimes involving knives has skyrocketed to the point where the stupid british politicians want to severely restrict ownership of knives and police actively request members of the public to turn in their friends who own a knife. Has anybody read George Orwell lately?
I personally have seen refrigerator magnets in a London police station that read, "If you know someone who has a knife ..." and then gives a phone number for a crime hotline.

We have to remember that gun control (and in some cases, knife control) is not about reducing crime, it's about politicians and governments making it harder for the people to protect themselves from crime (so that they become more dependent on government), and harder for the people to overthrow a tyrannical government. Every dictator in modern history has disarmed the population so that he could control them.

Where are they Now?

Did you ever wonder what Harry Potter's enemy, Draco Malfoy did when he grew up?



















Landed a cool gig as Vice President.

WWII Veteran is honored by the US Army Marksmanship Unit

My friends at the US Army Marksmanship Unit, Ft. Benning, Georgia recently honored an 86-year-old World War Two veteran who was an Army sniper.

Medals are great, but for his service during WWII, the AMU gave this gentleman an honor that has only been bestowed on a non-AMU member eight times before: An AMU black hat.

Here comes the best part; they took him out to the sniper range and he shot not only a replica of the sniper rifle he carried in WWII at 300 yards but also the latest, hi-tec sniper rifle currently in use by the AMU at 1,000 yards. Click here to watch this great piece of video and see how well he did.

The Dangers of Gun Bill H.R. 308

Following on the heels of the shootings in Arizona, congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY, 4 District) has introduced federal bill H.R. 308 The Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act. Unlike many previous gun ban bills that were an attempt to ban everything imaginable, this bill is very short. It is intended to "Prohibit the transfer or possession of large capacity ammunition feeding devices, and for other purposes"

In other words, it is designed to reinstate the provision in the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban (1994 - 2004) that banned the sale of magazines with a capacity of more than ten rounds.

The H.R. 308 McCarthy bill, "magazine, belt, drum, feed strip or similar device that has a capacity of ... more than ten rounds of ammunition." and goes on to say that under the bill, it "... shall be unlawful for a person to transfer or possess a large capacity ammunition feeding device."

The bill does include a provision that keeps it legal for anyone who already owns any of the above mentioned feeding devices before the bill becomes law, to keep them.

This law is bad for a number of reasons:

First, this country is at war with radical Islamists. The troops who have been deployed since 2002 in the Middle-east use the same thirty-round capacity magazines in their M4/M16 assault rifles as civilians and law enforcement officers use in their AR-15 rifles. The troops use the same high-capacity magazines in their 9mm M11 pistols as civilians police officers use in their 9mm Beretta pistols. The sad fact is that the firearms industry that manufactures weapons for our military cannot survive on military contracts alone.

Without the money spent by civilians on these items, the firearms industry could not keep its doors open, and would not be able to supply our troops and our police officers.

Unless, of course, you want each magazine to cost the Pentagon ten times what it costs now.

Second, it isn't like we haven't already tried this legislation. The Clinton magazine ban was around for ten years. Did we see any reduction in crime because of it? NO. But one thing we did see was that pistols designed to run with higher capacity magazines were not always as reliable when running the hastily-redesigned ten-round magazines. Don't home-owners and the nine million people in this country who hold a concealed carry permit deserve to have a reliable pistol for their defense?

Representative McCarthy's passion for more gun control stems from the murder of her husband on the Long Island Railroad Commuter Train shootings in 1993 when a nutcase with a pistol murdered six people and wounded nineteen others. My heart goes out to her for her loss. But the answer to making the world a safer place is not to disarm law abiding citizens and put them at the mercy of those who wantonly and violently break the law. The answer lies in accepting the constitutional right of those citizens to arm themselves, if they choose, in order to successfully defend themselves and those for whom they care and are responsible.

And if that means carrying a pistol with one or more high capacity magazines, then so be it.

It's the violent nut cases of this world we have to curtail, defeat, and whose rights we should infringe upon, not those who already respect and obey the law.