April 29, 2016 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

Anti-Trump Protesters Faced Off Against Police Yesterday (Source: Daily Mail).

News and Opinion:

• "Protesters clash with cops at California Trump rally: Hundreds of Mexican flag-waving demonstrators smash up a squad car, punch a Donald supporter and scuffle with riot police amid angry scenes"--Daily Mail.
• "Protests rage outside Trump rally in Orange County; 17 arrested, police car smashed"--LA Times. From the story:

Holding a Mexican flag, Juan Carlos, 16, said his parents came to the U.S. from Mexico and that he was protesting to support others like him.

"Donald Trump is worthless," Carlos said. "There won't be no United States without Mexicans."

• "Consistent Surge of People Crossing Illegally"--KRGV-TV.
• "Unmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge, Wall Street's Renegade Blog"--Bloomberg.
• "The Full Story Behind Bloomberg's Attempt To 'Unmask' Zero Hedge"--Zero Hedge.
• "Why Cruz Lost – Inferior Combativeness"--Anonymous Conservative. "One, Trump fought our enemies and Cruz didn’t." "The second reason Cruz lost was that when Donald’s rally was shut down because of leftist violence, Cruz took the side of the leftists and attacked Donald."

Self-Defense/Firearms:

• Active Response Training's "Weekend Knowledge Dump" for this week. Lots of good articles, of course, but one stuck out in particular to me: "10 Tips to Properly Conceal Carry when wearing a Men’s Suit, Blazer, or Sport Jacket"--A Tailored Suit. These are modifications to a suit coat or blazer to make it easier to conceal and draw a concealed weapon, or modifications to how you dress. 
• "Effectiveness of Old Firearms - III"--Firearms History, Technology & Development. This is part 3 of a series comparing the effectiveness of antique, black-powder firearms versus modern firearms. This particular article discusses penetration against various materials. From the article:

As the chart shows, the pistols, whether modern or ancient, all have similar penetrative properties at 30 meter range. Although the modern Glock had the best penetration on both steel and wooden targets, it didn't outperform the ancient pistols by that much in the penetration tests. On the other hand, it has a much longer range than the other pistols (and even the ancient muskets). This is because the tapering bullet does not lose velocity as quickly as a spherical ball does. 

On the other hand, the modern rifles simply outperformed the ancient muskets by a large margin in the penetrative tests, as well as the maximum range test. The AUG firing the NATO 5.56x45 cartridge penetrated about 2x to 3x the depth of the ancient muskets and the FAL firing the NATO 7.62x51 cartridge penetrated about 3x to 5x the depth of the ancient muskets. The maximum range of the modern rifles also far outperformed the ancient muskets.

However, there are other interesting results that became apparent by this series of tests.

Since the ancient weapons all fire larger spherical balls, (the calibers are listed in our previous post) they left larger volumes of wound cavities at shorter ranges. This is because, at close distances, the spherical balls were moving fast enough to do some serious damage. For instance, the flintlock musket that was made in Suhl in 1686, fires a 17.8 mm. diameter ball weighing 30.93 grams and at 9 meter distance (about 30 feet), it left a cavity of 530 cm3. Similarly, the flintlock musket from Austria that was made in the second half of the 18th century, fires a 16.4 mm. diameter ball weighing 26.73 grams and left a cavity of approximately 369 cm3 at a distance of 9 meters.

By contrast, modern weapons fire much smaller tapered bullets, which generally do less damage. At the same 9 meter distance, a modern Steyr AUG rifle firing a 5.56x45 mm. cartridge only left a cavity of 101 cm3.

On the other hand, as the distance increased, the tests showed that the wound cavity made by spherical balls decreased much more significantly. The same musket that made a 369 cm3 cavity at a distance of 9 meters, made a 155 cm3 cavity at 100 meters distance. In contrast to this, the Steyr AUG rifle which made a a cavity of 101 cm3 at 9 meters range, left a cavity of 70 cm3 at 100 meter range. This means that the modern rifle only lost approximately 30% of its penetrative powers at this distance, whereas the older weapon lost about 60%. Still, the older weapon left a much larger cavity, even at 100 meters distance. This explains the extremely horrific wounds experienced by soldiers in the 16th to 18th centuries.

Additionally, the tests showed that the shapes of the wound cavities are also different. Spherical musket balls leave trumpet-shaped wounds. They are widest at the point of entry and taper steadily down in diameter as the ball slows down and loses energy. By contrast, modern bullets leave cavities of a completely different shape: ...

Read the whole thing.

• "How Stiff is Stiff Enough for a CCW Belt?"--Jerking the Trigger.
• "Rifle Mags Measured In 'Footpounds'"--Mason Dixon Tactical. A comparison of weight between loaded polymer and steel magazines. The author writes: 

Well, for something like the M1A, it means if you go with polymer, you can carry two extra 20 round mags (since the steel mags weigh 1.5 pounds, and the total polymer weight of the basic load is 3 pounds lighter), or 80 extra loose 7.62 Nato rounds. For the AKM rifle, you can carry one extra 30 round mag (since the steel mag “Basic load” total was two pounds heavier, and the polymer mags weigh 1 1/3lbs.) or 80 extra loose 7.62x39S rounds.