Gun & Prepping News #77

Some links that may be of interest:

• The Bugscuffle Gazette has published a couple articles on "Situational Awareness". Part 1 goes explains what is situational awareness. Short take:

    This point was driven home by a on-line conversation with someone who has been following me for years, who happily informed me that they “scanned for danger all the time”.

    That’s … not what situational awareness is. “Scanning for danger” means you’re looking for things that are already a threat — and only looking for active threats puts you way behind the power curve.

    Situational awareness, for lack of a better term, is observing and determining what is “normal” for the area and time, and looking for things that aren’t normal. The professional term is “baseline”.

Part 2 describes a month-long practice or exercises to help you develop situational awareness. For instance, for the first week:

    Every time you change environments or zones, you need to stop, get out of the flow of traffic, and focus on your senses for 30 seconds. Start with your vision and we’re looking for generalities: check the density of people on the street — is it sparse, crowded or somewhere in-between? What is everyone wearing? Direction and velocity of traffic flow? In your mind, state each observation.

    Next, focus on your hearing. What does the street sound like, generally? Car horns? Laughing children? Vehicular traffic sounds? What level — soft, medium, loud? What kind of noise? Again, each note you make, tell it to yourself in your head.

    Smell, next. What does the street smell like? What does the air smell like? Make conscious notes.

    Then, touch. Which way is the wind coming from? How hard? Is it humid? Hot? Cold? Static electricity? Same. Record all by talking in the vaults of your mind.

    Lastly, and most importantly, gauge the emotional mood of the scene. What does everyone’s body language say? Speak it to yourself.

Each subsequent week builds on this foundation. The author has promised a part 3 for the next 30 days of practice.

• "Should You Carry A Reload for Your Everyday Carry?"--Guns & Ammo. The author, James Tarr, says "yes" arguing: "The odds that a private citizen will need to reload their gun in a fight are the same as someone needing a gun to defend themselves. It’s low, but never zero." He adds:

You might think the main reason to carry a reload for your pistol is the obvious one, that it simply provides more ammunition to fight with. While that’s definitely in the top two, I don’t know that it’s the best reason. The best reason to have a reload on your person — specifically a spare magazine if you’re running a semiauto pistol — is because magazines wear and fail. Magazines are consumables that suffer wear simply by existing. Whether loaded or unloaded, they’re under constant spring pressure and springs die. Feed lips also spread apart over time, causing malfunctions. On several occasions, I’ve seen magazine basepads crack while people were shooting, dumping the basepad, spring, and all the remaining rounds onto the ground. It’s annoying at a pistol match but potentially deadly during an a defensive engagement. The solution is simple: Shove a new magazine into the gun, but to do it — stick with me here — you actually need to have a spare magazine on you! 

Funny enough, though, he points out in rebuttal of the 3 shots, 3 yards, 3 second FBI findings for police shootings that "with all the cameras everywhere — mounted on buildings, on your phone, in your doorbell, not to mention police bodycams — we’re exposed to more and more footage of actual defensive shootings." Yet John Correia, who has watched thousands of videos of armed encounters, has stated that he has never seen one involving a civilian where the armed civilian reloaded his or her weapon. In any event, I've seen a lot of articles and videos on this topic lately, so it is obviously a topic that is on the minds of trainers. And as Tarr points out, "Law-­abiding citizens are learning that a lot of bad guys like to do crime with their friends, and it’s rare that the shenanigans stop after the first shot is fired."

• "Mauser 98k Review: Why This WWII Rifle Still Hits Hard"--Guns America.  From the article:

    To really understand the importance of the Karabiner 98k, you need to understand Germany during World War I. The German military had upgraded its service rifle to the Gewehr 98, which was adopted by the German Army in 1898, hence the 98 in the model name. The German Army used the Gewehr 98 effectively during WWI, and at the time wit as considered an excellent combat bolt-action rifle. The Gewehr 98 featured a 29-inch barrel, used a 5-round stripper clip, and was chambered in 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridge, also known as the 8mm Mauser or 8x57mm. Total length was 49 inche,s and it weighed nearly nine pounds. As Germany rebuilt after WWI, the Mauser rifle was adopted to better suit the needs of a modern combat soldier.

    A long rifle is a liability for the modern combat soldier at the time, who was transported in trucks and who fought not only in open fields like in WWI but in urban warfare. The 98k addressed the evolving needs of the modern combat soldier.

    The 98k was adopted by the German Army in 1935 and was similar to the Gewehr 98, but featured a shorter 23-inch barrel and improved sights. It was nearly 47 inches long and weighed about 8.5 pounds. In hand, the 98k is a hefty weapon. It features a wood stock and handguard, is equipped with iron sights, though some K98k rifles were adapted for sniper use with mounted optics. The 98k was chambered in 8mm Mauser, which is similar in length and power to the .30-’06 Springfield, which we used in the M1 Garand during WWII, as well as the .303 British and 7.62x54rmm Russian calibers.

While the Mauser 98k might have been significant because of its shorter barrel, the overall importance of the Mauser 98 was not that it served as Germany's primary combat rifle but that almost all successful bolt action rifles either copied the Mauser controlled feed design or were heavily influenced by it. 

• Jumping forward in time: "The Hellion - Springfield Armory's Bullpup Has Bite!"--Guns Magazine. The author describes the rifle:

    [T]he Hellion is essentially the justly famous VHS-2 bullpup service rifle designed in Croatia and used by their armed forces. Proven in battle, this platform has been modified slightly in a few key areas to make it appropriate for the U.S. market. The key parts of the Hellion are manufactured at HS Produkt, Karlovac, Croatia (that has also made the XD series for Springfield over the years). The rifles are then imported to the U.S. where Springfield does final assembly with the American-made parts added.

    The Hellion is, of course, semi-auto while the VHS-2 is full auto. The Hellion feeds from AR-pattern magazines as opposed to the proprietary mag for the VHS-2. The Hellion also uses replaceable AR-style pistol grips, has M-Lok slots and six QD mounting points for slings — all features Americans generally look for.

    There are some other qualities adding to the user-friendliness of this design, which might not be obvious at first glance. The Picatinny rail on the top is about 13″ long — longer than I’ve ever seen on a rifle like this. It allows a red dot, an optic, night vision/IR, laser, light, etc., especially if you use an off-set mount or two. The rail also has built-in flip-up sights of excellent design, with aperture choices allowing for almost instant ranging options from 100 to 500 meters. There are scads of possibilities there.

    A 5-position adjustable buttstock manipulates easily and surely. The carrying handle is handy — once you learn to make use of it. Hey, it’s there, use it! The ability to customize the grip and use one of your favorite shooting styles fitting the AR can help make the rifle even more comfortable. It comes stock with the BCMGunfighter Mod 3 grip but swapping it out is easy.  

The rest of the article delves into some other features and the author's experience shooting it. With a 2-10x scope mounted on it, the author was getting about 1.5" groups at 100 yards shooting Black Hills .223 55-grain FMJ and 1.15" groups with 77 grain  Federal Gold Medal Match King. MSRP is at about $2,000, but considering that you get a battle proven design, built in backup sights, adjustable gas block, and it is a bullpup design, that actually seems a good deal. 

• "How Redacted Arms Is Raising the Standard for AR‑15 Components"--Guns Magazine. The article indicates that "Redacted Arms focuses squarely on AR‑15 components that matter: fire‑control parts, active reset systems, and supporting hardware designed to run hard and run clean." And, the article adds: "At the heart of their AR‑15 lineup is the Super Safety system — an active trigger reset component engineered to deliver a clean, consistent reset shot after shot without altering basic semi‑automatic operation."
• "CMC Triggers Drops a Drop-In Upgrade for Your Remington 700"--The Truth About Guns.  It seems that the primary advantage over a Timney trigger is that it is adjustable from outside the action.
• "Chiappa 92 Core: .44 Mag Lever Gun with M-LOK and Threaded Barrel"--The Firearm Blog. This is a modern lever action set up but with wood furniture to give it a classic look. 
• "O'Connor, Keith and The Killing Power Controversy"--The Firearm Blog.  An excerpt:

In the early 20th century, there were two basic schools of thought on hunting cartridges. Some shooters thought that heavy bullets pushed at lower speeds would penetrate better; others thought that lighter bullets at high velocity were preferable.

[Jack] O’Connor espoused the second idea and had a reputation for pushing the .270 Winchester as a great hunting cartridge. He pushed the idea of careful shot placement and said for years that a fast, well-placed bullet was what killed wild game—not raw power itself. He liked flat-shooting cartridges because they reduced the margin of error when hunting sheep, elk and other big game in wide-open country.

[Elmer] Keith did not disagree that more speed meant better killing power, but he put more emphasis on tough bullets with strong construction and high sectional density. No 130-grain .270 loads for Keith. He thought that killing power started at .33-caliber bullets weighing 250 grains or more (think .33 Winchester, or .35 Whelen; he thought the .30-06 would get the job done as long as you used heavy-for-caliber bullets). Later, when more modern cartridges like the .338 Winchester Magnum came along, he was a big fan of using heavy bullets at high speeds in guns like these, and no wonder; that particular round was based on ideas he had explored in his own wildcat cartridge designs.

• "Catalyst Arms Hardpoint & Bomb Rack Accessory Mounts for Ruger Mini-14"--The Firearm Blog. There are companies that manufacture replacements to the upper handguard that incorporate an optics rail. But if that is not for you, the article states: 

 If you want to add Picatinny or M-LOK accessories to your Ruger Mini-14 without making any permanent changes to the gun, you may want to take a look at the new Hardpoint and Bomb Rack Mini-14/Mini-30 accessory mounts by Catalyst Arms. Both the Hardpoint, a 1913 rail section, and the Bomb Rack, an M-LOK extension, are attached to the gas block of the rifle, providing accessory mounting points in front of the handguard. 

• "Thinking About Holster Selection"--The Tactical Wire.  The author discusses a couple non-orthodox holster selections that work well for certain situations. The second example he mentions is the shoulder holster:

    An instructor of executive protection recommended shoulder holsters in general for bodyguards.  With the arms folded over the chest, the gun hand disappears inside the jacket for a low profile "ready" position with the hand on the stocks of the pistol.  If it's good for bodyguards, it's okay for narcs who often operate in crowded environs. Aside from the ready position, the piece can be easily secured from casual "frisk" bumps and seizure attempts merely by drawing up the arms. 

    Another advantage of this type of holster, is that when you slip on a gun, the spare ammo goes with it. It is carried on the “wrong side” for real speed reloads, and that's better than carrying no spares at all.  Sadly, too many folks carry guns and no extra ammunition.  It's unlikely you'd forget it with one of these rigs.

    The bad news?  Well, you can't replace the gun in the holster with only one hand.  It may not seem like a big deal to you, but try to hold down a suspect for handcuffing while replacing the gun in the holster.  It doesn't work.  ...

    Consider the tasks you’re likely to have to perform, then consider carry methods in line with that activity. And practice.

• "Concealed Carry Corner: Holster Rundown Guide - Part 1"--The Firearm Blog.  Assuming that you can get this to load, what with all the pop-ups and animated ads, the author discusses the two best materials for a holster--leather and Kydex--and a very brief discussion of the different styles of holsters, spending some additional space on his favorite setup--an inside the waistband (IWB) holster with a single large clip--or a shoulder holster.
• "Is the S&W 396 Night Guard the Ultimate .44 Special Carry Revolver?"--The Truth About Guns. The Night Guard revolvers are based on S&W L-frame and come in two varieties: a 7-round .357 Magnum and a 5-shot .44 Special which is reviewed here. MSRP is just $1,269 though, so it is not a cheap action. So why would you want a .44 Special over .357 Magnum? After all, the .44 Special is comparable to the lighter .45 ACP or .45 Colt loads. (See, "The .44 Special Ain't So Special?" for a discussion of why it didn't offer anything over other .44 cartridges extant at the time it was introduced). On the other hand, I don't know if it is still the case, but there used to be jurisdictions that prohibited civilians from using hollow point bullets which favored using a big bore pistol over a smaller .38 caliber bullet. And some people just like big bore pistols. What the .44 Special needs is a +P loading: something less than the .44 Magnum, but more than the anemic .44 Special loads that we generally find. 
• Yes. "Do You Still Need Hearing Protection with a Suppressor?"--The Truth About Guns. 

Unsuppressed gunfire is like standing next to a jet engine at takeoff. A suppressor brings it closer to a chainsaw, pneumatic impact wrench, or ambulance siren, which, as most of you will intuitively know, are noises you don’t want to be exposed to for very long without some sort of hearing protection (even though all those sounds are awesome to listen to). The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health flags anything at or above 140 dB as risky for immediate damage with impulse noise. Many suppressed setups sit right around or just under that line, depending on caliber, barrel length, ammo, and environment. 

• "Economic Squeeze? Best Budget .22 Suppressors for Beginner Shooters"--The Truth About Guns.
• "Griffin Armament 1-8×24 FFP LPVO: Just Right For A Scout-Type Rifle"--The Truth About Guns. At about $490, the author's test of the scope satisfied him:

 I have to admit that this scope punches well above its price point. I’ve reviewed some pretty fancy glass, and this scope did everything it was supposed to and did it well. Even though it was designed to grace the top of an AR’s receiver, I had no issues mounting it on my Ruger American Scout .308… I did have to remove the rifle’s rear open sight, but that’s no big deal.

• "Nitecore NPL35 Review: Blazing Bright, Not Perfect"--Guns America.  This is a weapons mounted light intended for use on pistols. The author described the mounting system as "outstanding." The "not perfect" part is that it uses a proprietary rechargeable battery. 
• Speaking of batteries: "What Batteries Don’t Leak? Best AA & AAA Batteries for Stored Gear"--Modern Survival Blog.  The three top batteries (in order):

1. Energizer Ultimate Lithium    
2. Eneloop rechargeable    
3. Energizer MAX alkaline

• "How to Feed Your Family When You’re Flat Broke"--Organic Prepper.  The author has a whole book on the subject but she offers some tips on where to shop to save on food prices as well as general tips for frugal eating and tips specific to proteins, fruits and vegetables, and dairy. 
• "Bridgeford Shelf Stable Sandwich Review"--Guns Magazine.  The idea here is something that stores like an MRE, but smaller and without the prep of other meals for camping or hiking. As the author notes: "These sandwiches are individually sealed in a brown foil retort package and are designed to fill a very specific role: quick calories, no prep." The author also mentions his food storage strategy:

What I do is maintain a layered capability, starting with a fully stocked pantry with long-term staples. On the same side of things is a freezer in the garage, usually filled with wild game and home-grown vegetables. Next come some bulk dry goods, such as potatoes and rice, which we store in various places. Then comes the actual “emergency food,” such as MREs and similar items like these Bridgeford entrees. Finally, there’s my cache of freeze-dried food. 

    Lately, I’ve primarily leaned into freeze-dried options simply because of the shelf life — 25 years buys you a lot of flexibility. However, long-term storage is only one piece of the puzzle. The other piece is mobility.

    If something happens and we need to leave, I want food that we can take with us. Something that requires no or minimal prep, no additional ingredients and overall, no friction. Plus, beyond emergencies, there’s the simple reality of day-to-day life, such as last-minute fishing or camping trips and range days. This is where the Bridgeford goodies start to make a lot of sense.

    I don’t think they’re replacing “real” food — they’re filling the gap when real food becomes inconvenient or unavailable.

The author tested two flavors: “Pepperoni Pizza With Cheese and Sauce” (which wasn't a sandwich but more like a piece of pizza) and "French Toast". The pizza one was, per the author, comparable to the school pizza particularly if you had some means to heat it; and the french toast was apparently very good.

• "Emergency Rations Test #2: ER Bars"--Blue Collar Prepping.  ER bars come in vacuum sealed pouches that are intended for emergency rations for something like a lifeboat. 

The ER Bars come vacuum-sealed inside a resealable pouch, and it is a single block that is scored so you can break it into six pieces. (If you look at the package on the left, you can see the scoring because of the vacuum seal.) Each piece or portion will provide around 400 Calories* and the maker suggests eating two portions ($1.03 each) per day to make the bar stretch for 3 days. Personally, I'd rather carry an extra bar or two and eat three times a day for 1200 Calories; that's closer to a "normal" diet and would provide the extra energy that I will need. 

He adds:

I would be content to carry this brand of emergency rations in a get-home or bug-out bag. They meet my minimum requirements of tasting good, alleviating hunger, not costing much, and being fit to store anywhere. I will probably add one of the left-over packs to my truck bag and another will be cached in my wife's car.    

Back when I did a lot of travel between Idaho and Utah, I kept a small emergency kit in my car that had something similar to this product in case I got stuck in my car in a blizzard that shut down the roads. Fortunately I never had to use it. 

• "Are 'Energy Lockdowns' Coming to America?"--Organic Prepper. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the explosion at Valero’s Port Arthur refinery got the author thinking about how the U.S. might deal with a severe shortage of fuel. She notes that other countries had already at the time of the article (which was March 25) already started restricting how much gasoline people could buy or mandated shorter work weeks or work from home policies to conserve fuel. In other words, something similar to the the lockdowns during Covid. 

Young Men Now More Religious Than Young Women

Gallop reports that its "latest data, from 2024-2025, show 42% of young men saying religion is very important to them, up sharply from 28% in 2022-2023. By contrast, during this period, young women’s attachment to religion has held steady at about 30%." More:

    Young women were significantly more attached to religion than young men were at the start of the millennium, leading by nine percentage points (52% vs. 43%) in calling religion “very important” in their lives. That gap widened to as much as 16 points in the early to mid-2000s before steadily narrowing over the next decade.

    By the mid-2010s, the difference had shrunk to about five points, and the two groups remained about this closely aligned through 2022-2023. The most recent data mark a clear break, with young men now surpassing young women on this measure of religious importance.

    This reversal is unique to those aged 18 to 29. Among adults aged 30 and older, women remain more religious than men.

    The percentage of young men saying religion is very important to them is now similar to the percentage for men aged 30-49 and only slightly lower than for senior men. Young women, by contrast, are now by far the least religious women. At 29% calling religion very important, women aged 18-29 trail the next-least religious group, 30- to 49-year-old women, by 18 points and are less than half as likely as senior women to say religion is very important.   

Well, if a woman believes she needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, that woman is definitely not going to believe she needs a man that was nailed to a cross. 

RPG Saturday: Merc

Merc was a table-top role playing game wherein the players took the roles as mercenaries fighting in the bush wars in Africa, including the Rhodesian war. The game was apparently first published by Fantasy Games Workshop (FGU) in 1981 and must have continued to be published through at least 1983 because some of the material I have for the game was copyrighted that year. 

    In any event, the game did not achieve any great popularity, as evidenced by the fact that the video, below, was the only one I could find on YouTube. 

VIDEO: "Role Playing Games - MERC"
The Dusted Game Shelf (8 min.)

    Although sold and marketed as a role playing game, I feel that it falls in a grey area between RPGs and tactical war games. You don't have the full panoply of rules that you typically see in a role playing game because it focuses solely on combat and combat missions, but you have more freedom of action than you would have in war game. 

    My experience with the game is somewhat limited as we only played for a short time--the kid that owned the rule set moved. However, I had fond memories of the game and when I happened across a copy for not very much on a used RPG website a couple of years ago, I jumped on the chance and purchased a set. 

    My boxed set came with three 6-sided dice; a main rule book; a rules supplement; a single character sheet on card stock intended for photocopying; a couple sheets with frequently used combat and damage tables; a transparency (like for an overhead projector) with two different sized reticles printed on it; and a card stock sheet with a front and side view of a person on one side, and various combat vehicles on the back. (See the photos, below).

 

     The first book contains the rules of the game, starting out with rules for creating a mercenary character and picking a specialty: driver/pilot, demolition expert, heavy weapons expert, medic, interpreter/interrogator, sniper, etc. It then goes into rules on how much gear you can carry, common actions (and modifiers to success for each), movement and terrain, different types (and quality) of troops you might encounter, combat for different types of weapons (hand-to-hand, thrown weapons, small arms, sniping with a scoped rifle, grenades, and mortars. It also covered damage to vehicles. And, of course, the weapons that a Merc in the 1970s would have had access to or might encounter on their commie opponents. 

    While the normal small arms combat was a simple roll with modifiers to see whether you hit (and then subsequent roles to see exactly where you hit), the rules for snipers were different and this is where the transparency and human torso where used. For the sniper could select which part of the body to aim for. The appropriate human torso was used and the larger of the reticles was placed over where the sniper was aiming. Two dice were rolled and totaled, modifiers applied, and then the resulting number was compared against the numbers on the reticle. So, for instance, if I had aimed at the right ankle (which is where the reticle happened to fall when I was arranging everything for the photograph) a final sum of 0 or less (the center of the reticle) or a 2 or 3 would have struck the right ankle. A 5 would have struck the other ankle. 8, 12 and 16 were high and would have struck the right leg, and the other numbers would have been misses.  A similar method was used if a character was aiming at a specific part of a vehicle, except using the vehicle silhouettes. (The rule book says that the large reticle is to be used with the vehicles, but I believe this was a typo and it meant the small reticle).

    However, this also illustrates how slow combat could be in this game. Even without the sniper rules, you have to roll to hit, adding or subtracting modifiers to reflect distance, your movement or the movement of the target, if the target is behind cover or concealment (this game uses the British terms of soft and hard cover instead of concealment and cover). If you hit (or are hit) then the target location must be rolled: upper arm, lower arm, upper head, lower head, shoulder, chest, lower torso, etc. Once that is determined, you roll again to determine the severity of the wound which is generally expressed in points of damage, but could also be a "mortal wound" that instantly kills you for some hit locations. Furthermore, there are special effects for Hit Locations and wound severity. For instance a hit to the chest could result in no special effect, a a broken rib (so you can't run), internal bleeding (requiring a medic), or dying instantly. And as you accumulate damage, you risk losing consciousness on top of any other damage or effect. 

    There are also rules on different types of booby traps (including diagrams that look like they were taken from military manuals) and figuring out how they worked in game play. Finally, there is an example of how to play the game and a short scenario set in Rhodesia involving an attack on terrorists/guerillas that have captured a native village. 

   The second book in the box is titled "Supplement 1" and has some modifications to some of the specialties in the main rule book, rules on additional specialties (including "survivalist"), additional common skill checks, rules on poisons, and rules allowing you to incorporate airborne missions. Finally, there are a bunch more rules on using and maintaining vehicles. 

    Although the game was intended to take place in the African bush wars--there is a very definite Soldier of Fortune magazine vibe to the game--it could easily be modified for any type of small unit combat of the modern era simply by updating what weapons and equipment are available. 

     If all you wanted from a game was modern small unit combat, this would probably be a good game. If you want more or something different--surveillance and spying, treasure hunting, exploring, conducting a heist, hunting vampires, being a detective, surviving the radioactive wastes after a nuclear war--this game is not going to be it. 

18 Arrested After Street Takeover in Atlanta, GA

 The New York Post reports that "[a] massive swarm of [over 200]young street racers took over an Atlanta intersection in the middle of the night Sunday, where they did donuts, drifted and raced one another in the wild melee, dramatic footage shows." Per the article, "[e]ighteen alleged street racers were taken into custody and charged with multiple traffic violations. The oldest arrested was 25 and the youngest was 15, police said." An photo accompanying the article shows 9 or 10 of the arrestees and they all appear to be Hispanic. 

Full FISA Renewal Blocked

Axios reports that "[t]he House voted overnight to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for two weeks after a bloc of 20 Republicans derailed a longer-term renewal." The GOP leadership had been pushing for a 5-year renewal. It is not clear from the article whether the 20 Republicans did not vote for it because they were opposed to the breadth of the FISA or didn't believe it went far enough in allowing spying on Americans. You might remember that Section 702 was the section of the FISA that the intelligence agencies used to spy on the Trump campaign. Presumably the two week extension will be so that the intelligence agencies have time to dig up dirt on the politicians that blocked the renewal. 

Shocker! CA City Reports Monkey Pox Case

 The Daily Mail had this vague headline: "Most dangerous strain of mpox detected for the first time in major West Coast city." I saw it and immediately thought, "it has to be San Francisco." And I was correct:

    San Francisco has become the latest US city to confirm a case of the more dangerous strain of mpox, following a quiet yet concerning upward trend in the US over the past two years.

    The patient is an unvaccinated adult who was hospitalized but is now improving, city health officials said. The person had close contact with someone who traveled internationally.

    It marks the first Clade I case in San Francisco, but it is not an isolated event. Other cities in California, New York City and other jurisdictions have now reported the strain, including several cases with no history of travel, indicating it is no longer solely an imported problem.   

So "close contact" is now what they call buggery?  

Dalrymple Misses The Point

Theodore Dalrymple has published a book review, entitled "We Shall Not Fight on the Beaches,"  of Jean Raspail's dystopian novel The Camp of the Saints. Raspail's novel, published in 1973, is of a France too full of guilt and self-loathing to drive off a flotilla of immigrants sailing from the slums of India to France; and when the immigrants do land, it results in the collapse of France and Western Civilization, generally.

    Dalrymple's essay begins well enough, roughly describing the book and the reaction it has engendered among those same elites which are condemned in the novel. But at the end of the review, Dalrymple faults Raspail for selecting Hindus from the slums of India as the invading hordes rather than Muslims, which turned out to be the hordes that ultimately invaded Europe. He writes:

But there were some things that he did not foresee—or if he foresaw them, omitted to mention. Chief among these was his failure to foresee or mention the peculiar difficulties for Western countries posed by large-scale Muslim immigration. In making Hindu Bengalis the Trojan horse, he was startlingly, almost diametrically, mistaken. Hindu immigrants have never created difficulties anywhere; and, oddly enough, it is Eastern, Muslim Bengalis, not Western, Hindu Bengalis, who have established a vast ghetto in London’s East End, and have profoundly corrupted the local politics. A member of the British Parliament, who was elected in a constituency in which Muslims were a majority, on a platform that made Gaza the most important issue, recently made a speech in which he called on Muslims to remain united in the face of the enemy—the very West to which they had emigrated.

 I can understand why Dalrymple focuses on the Muslim hordes, but I think it misses the overall point made by Raspail. Raspail could have picked most any people for his horde when he wrote his book. At the time, though, India was the poster child of overpopulation, overcrowding, and revolting slums. The overcrowding of Muslim cities, such as Cairo, had not yet occurred; and neither had Africa yet seen its population start to explode. 

    But the idea behind the book is not that there was something particular about the population he had picked for his invading horde. Rather, it was that they were not Western and did not appreciate Western Civilization. They were barbarians, but of a different sort than had previously shown up in history. Not warriors that militarily destroyed a civilization but a vast unthinking horde that washed over a France (and, by extension, the West as whole) like a tidal wave. They were Indians in his book, but could have just as easily been Africans or, in the early 1970s, starving Chinese peasants. His book wasn't a warning about Islam because it was more broadly a warning of mass migration, particularly from non-European peoples, into Europe. 

    The Gates of Vienna actually has a good article about this entitled "The Varieties of Cultural Enrichment" which, while acknowledging that "[t]he Islamic variety [of enrichment] may be the worst, ... there are other contenders constantly vying for the title." Or, to put it another way as I saw in recent meme: "If local panda numbers were declining, you would never just bring in a bunch of cockroaches & say[ ] things are good bc 'the number of animals is growing'."

    And the reason that any third world people could have been the horde in the novel is because the real warning of the book is not about the horde, for there are always barbarians trying to force their way through the gates, but about the people that not only left France (and the West generally) helpless and prostrate before invaders that could have been easily stopped at any time before they arrived, but reveled in the destruction of the white race. 

Protests Break Out In Spain Over Amnesty Plan

 From the Daily Mail: "Violence erupts between right and left-wing protesters in Spanish city days after socialist government approved plans to give 500,000 migrants legal status." But is not all: "Immigration offices across the country this week threatened to strike next week in protest at Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's mass amnesty program for undocumented migrants."

VIDEO: Ideas For An SPR Setup

The YouTuber that made this video had apparently released an earlier video about creating a lightweight SPR style rifle which was (sans scope) supposed to cost less than $1,000. But there were some things he did not like about the set up. This video goes over what he changed to make it more usable and changes to the scope. 

VIDEO: "The 2026 Civil Defense SPR. What Changed?"
Black Flag Civilian (15 min.)

Strait of Hormuz Open ... For Now

The New York Post reports that the "Strait of Hormuz ‘completely open’ as Trump celebrates tumbling oil prices, says Iran removing all sea mines." From the article:

    Iran’s foreign minister announced Friday that the Strait of Hormuz is now “completely open” for all commercial ships — as President Trump said the US would take all of Tehran’s leftover nuclear fuel.

    “In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post to X.

    The cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon went into place on Friday and is scheduled to last 10 days.  

President Trump is also indicating that Iran will be turning over all of its enriched uranium.  

Update:  Now that the U.S. has forced Iran to lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the UK Prime Minister announced a "joint plan with France and other international partners to protect freedom of navigation" without tolls or restrictions on routes. However, that hasn't sit very well with President Trump, who has warned them to "stay away". While Iran has agreed to let ships sail through the Strait, the U.S. blockade of ships traveling to or from Iran remains in place until a full and final deal is reached with Iran.