July 26, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"FN Five Seven Pistol Review and Body Armor Test"--Sootch00 (22 min.)

This is an in-depth review covering aesthetics, ergonomics, take down and reassembly, and shooting tests. And, yes, it was able to penetrate Level 2 soft body armor.

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• "Preconceived Notions: “The Bugout”"--Mason Dixon Tactical. This is a re-post of an October 2015 article. The author distinguishes between a "bug-to" (travel to a predetermined location that has supplies and shelter, e.g., a retreat) and a "bug-out" (simply getting out of the immediate area with no set location, e.g., evacuating to the nearby mountains). He goes on to describe why "bug-out" should be a last resort, and it comes down to the fact that there is only so much food or other supplies that you can carry or transport, and that most people are simply not trained or inured to that lifestyle. Most people will quickly revert from "survivalist" to "refugee" (or, if the breakdown continues for sufficient time, "bandit"). 
• "Cheetah 12 Shotgun , Cheat the Import Ban ~ Review and Video"--Ammo Land. As the Russian sources for AK style shotguns dries up, China is stepping in to fill the void. 
• "Look Ma, No Milling! JT Defense Pistol Optic Mount"--The Firearms Blog. A red-dot mount for Glock pistols that is secured by dove-tail for the rear iron sight and a replacement for the rear striker plate, and, therefore, doesn't require permanent changes to the handgun. One thing that JT Defense points out at their site is that the mount works with the compact pistols, including the Glock 26. MSRP is $100. The downside, from the reviewers perspective, if that it put the red-dot too high, although that is something that could probably be resolved through practice.
• "Three Self-Defense Myths That Just Won't Die"--Shooting Illustrated. The three are: 

(1)  "Hit him anywhere with a .45 and it will knock him down." As anyone with knowledge of firearms and ballistics know--or even basic high school physics--the energy delivered by any hand held firearms is not enough to knock a person down (the whole action = reaction thing). 

(2)   "There's no need to aim a shotgun, just point it in the general direction of the bad guy and fire."  At short (across the room) distances, the spread of shotgun pellets will be near zero (i.e., about the size of the bore) to the size of a baseball depending on the choke of the shotgun. While the old adage is that you don't aim a shotgun, you point it, this refers to using a shotgun in the field to hunt birds or small game; it still involves alignment of the front site along the barrel or rib and is, therefore, a type of "aiming." It is just that it is a continuous, flowing motion, to bring the shotgun up to the shoulder and sweep up to the target (or just ahead of it) that is different from the steps used to aim a rifle.  

(3)  "If you have to shoot a bad guy in your front yard, drag him into the house before calling the cops." I've heard this in jest many times, but, seriously, tampering with a potential crime scene is a bad idea.  

• "Bullet Trap & Backstop"--M.D. Smith's Reloading Pages. How to construct your own bullet trap.
• "Did the Single-Stack Nine Kill the Carry Revolver?"--Shooting Illustrated. The author discusses the advantages of carrying a backup gun (BUG) or concealed carry weapon that has a similar manual of arms to the your full sized weapon, as well as the advantages as to magazine capacity and reload time for the small single-stack nines. I don't believe that the single-stack 9 mm pistols have killed off the small revolver, but the prices are probably making people rethink which one to use. As the Revolver Guy discusses in this article, when considering the cost of a short-barrel 6-round revolver (a used S&W 66 in this case) versus the cost of compact 9 mm, the balance tips heavily in favor of the semi-auto. In his case, the $2,000 that was being asked for the used Model 66 would have bought two 9 mm Shield pistols, several extra magazines, over two thousand rounds of ammunition, a holster and magazine carrier, and other accoutrements. Even if the price was cut in half, he still could a lot more bang for the buck. However, there is more than just price to consider when picking a concealed weapon, and one of those is the peace of mind that the weapon will use when you need it to. Which is why I don't believe that the small concealed carry revolver will disappear anytime soon.
• In his "Hump Day Reading List" for July 12, 2017, Grant Cunningham has a couple articles involving the reckless use of a handgun to shoot at fleeing thieves which are worth your perusal. In the first one, a man let off a fusillade of shots after a car thief and, unfortunately, struck and killed a neighbor living down the street. He is now going to be spending 10 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter. In the other article, the man fired shots after fleeing shop lifters, but fortunately didn't strike anyone. It is notable that even police officers may not shoot a fleeing felon where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others. Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 7 (1985). 
• Another self-defense myth: Only experts can be trusted to carry firearms. "Secret Service special officer accidentally shoots himself while on duty"--Washington Examiner. No details on what happened, other than it was an accidental discharge. 

Other Stuff:

• Evolution in action: "Dramatic dashcam footage captures the horrific moment a cyclist was sent flying over the top of a car at a busy intersection"--Daily Mail. The cyclist ran a red light and suffered the obvious consequences. 
• "California secession campaign can start gathering signatures"--Sacramento Bee. Initiative supporters will have to collect over a half-million signatures to get the measure on the ballet. According the the article:

The initiative would form a commission to recommend avenues for California to pursue its independence and delete part of the state constitution that says it is an inseparable part of the U.S. The measure would also instruct the governor and California congressional delegation to negotiate more autonomy for the state.

With California having issued nearly 1 million driver's licenses to illegal aliens, it is a cinch that they should be able to get the requisite signatures. 

• "Sea levels are falling"--Ice Age Now. Although sea levels will vary through the year, the author notes that there was a distinct decline in maximum sea level from 2016 to 2017.
• "Ines Laufer: The 'refugee' criminality between facts and media lies"--Epoch Times (h/t Chateau Heartiste). This German article (hit the translate button) cites German police statistics showing that the violent crime rates of "asylum seekers" (i.e., the so-called refugees) is some 15 times that of native Germans. 
• "Afghanistan’s Opium Trade: A Free Market of Racketeers"--Diplomat Magazine. From the article:

Afghanistan accounts for some 70 percent of the global opium production, according to the World Drug Report 2016 of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Although poppy cultivation is concentrated in southern Afghanistan, it can be found throughout the country. And while opium production is more prevalent in ungoverned areas like Dara-i Mazor, it also exists in government-controlled zones, as security forces, often struggling to keep insurgents at bay, are hardly able to prevent poppy cultivation.

The main point of the article, however, is that farmers are not being coerced into growing opium, such as is sometimes alleged, but something that they freely choose to do. 

• Tyranny of the judges: "ALL petrol and diesel cars to be banned from 2040: Pollution crackdown could also see tolls introduced on dirtiest roads to improve air quality as electric vehicles set to take over"--Daily Mail. It doesn't appear that the ban would require people to get rid of older vehicles using gasoline or diesel fuel, but would prohibit the sale of new vehicles using such fuels. The ban is the result of a successful lawsuit against the UK by an environmental group. 
• "The Moon Is Seriously Loaded With Water, More Than We Ever Expected"--Science Alert. From the article:

       Astronauts from several Apollo missions also brought back geological samples from various parts of the Moon's surface, and in 2008 these samples were re-analysed to reveal trace water locked up in tiny glass beads.

       Those glass beads were found in pyroclastic deposits - rock deposits of volcanic origin from some 100 million years ago when the Moon was still a highly geologically active ball with a bubbling core and surface volcanoes.

        Such water, locked up in the Moon's own geology, is considered to be of local origin or 'indigenous', meaning it could have stuck around ever since the Moon was still a chunk of matter violently torn off our young Earth.

       But scientists couldn't tell whether these beads actually indicated a 'wet' layer right underneath the Moon's dusty crust, in the lunar mantle.

         "The key question is whether those Apollo samples represent the bulk conditions of the lunar interior or instead represent unusual or perhaps anomalous water-rich regions within an otherwise 'dry' mantle," says Ralph Milliken from Brown University, lead researcher of the latest study.

          To answer that key question, Milliken and his team turned to orbital data from India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, which carried aboard the handy Moon Mineralogy Mapper.

        Using orbital data from previously mapped large pyroclastic deposits on the Moon's surface, laboratory analysis of Apollo mission samples, and a detailed model of lunar surface temperature data, the researchers found water-rich volcanic deposits all over the place.

         "They're spread across the surface, which tells us that the water found in the Apollo samples isn't a one-off," says Milliken.

        Some of these volcanic deposits stretch for thousands of square kilometres, and the team's data shows that there is four times more water in these than the measurable background level we mentioned above.