Weekend Reading #74

Some longer or more involved reading:

• For those interested in gun and self-defense topics, Greg Ellifritz has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump available. Some of the links that caught my attention in particular:
• First up, it looks like Trump has come through again with the DOJ now taking the position that the ban on the sales of handguns to 18-20 year olds being unconstitutional. This is a great start to nibbling away at the Gun Control Act of 1968.
• A piece from SWAT Magazine on lubricating the AR.
• A video from Spyderco with advice for left handed people (some 10% of the population) about selecting and making use of folding knives with, obviously, an emphasis on Spyderco products. 
• Just because I have posted about this topic in the past, a Q&A with Giles Stock about the Scout Rifle and what Cooper intended. Interestingly, he recommends against anyone trying to custom build one today "as the Steyr Scout does it better out of the box."
• A great article from Guns Magazine on the use and practicality of using a strobing flashlight, including the history of the strobing technique. Notably, the original technique was not built around a strobing light; rather, it was two or more officers taking turns to quickly turn on and off a flashlight to distract a suspect while allowing the other officer to move. 
• A video with tips on hardening your doors.
• A couple articles on the importance of concealed carry guns needing to be truly concealed--i.e., no printing or inadvertently peeking out at times. 
• Attaining combat accuracy, with "a good standard to aim for; 4" group at 25 yds with a pistol and 4 MOA at either 100 or 200 yds. with your carbine."
• And an article that argues that locked classroom doors don't have any effect on reducing the number of victims killed in school shootings and may actually make things worse, with the author noting:

    During the two high fatality school shootings of the past decade, lockdowns and locked doors made the situation worse. In Parkland, students were trapped in the hallways with the gunman because they couldn’t get back into their classrooms after the doors locked behind them.

    In Uvalde, students and staff who were following lockdown procedures instead of evacuating from the campus were hit by bullets that went through the walls and doors. Just the idea that the classroom door was locked cause police officers to wait outside for more than an hour. 

There's more, so be sure to read the whole thing. Also, Greg has a recent post linking to some free (at the time, at least) Kindle e-books from Amazon.  

• "Cheap Prosperity Or A Logistics Trick? Time Will Tell."--Wilder, Wealthy & Wise.  A look at supply chains and fragility. For instance, John points out:

Right now, gasoline and diesel demand are dropping because their costs are going up in a painful way.  This is impacting the cost of every physical good, from water to steak, and not in the good way.  There are only two results from this situation:

1.     Recession, or,
2.     Inflation.

We have gone far beyond the time when politicians will allow a recession.  At any sign of those, the money printer goes brrrrrrrrr.  The result?  Huge inflation in things like wheat in poor countries, which leads to revolutions and uprisings.  People can’t eat, governments can’t govern.  

• A brand new report from Pew Research: "Tradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S." An excerpt:

    Several of Pew Research Center’s surveys dating back to 2007 have found that Latter-day Saints are, on average, among the most religious adults in America.

    For example, about seven-in-ten Latter-day Saints surveyed in the Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) say that religion is very important in their lives. This is roughly on par with evangelical Protestants and members of historically Black Protestant churches – and far higher than the shares of U.S. Catholics (44%), Jews (27%) and Buddhists (21%) who say religion is very important to them.

    Latter-day Saints also have remained overwhelmingly attached to the Republican Party over the past several decades. About three-quarters of the church’s members identify as Republican or lean toward the Republican Party, as of 2023-24.1 Previous Center surveys conducted in 2007, 2011 and 2014 also found that Latter-day Saints were, on the whole, among the country’s most politically conservative groups when asked about their ideology.

    Amid these signs of stability, however, are indications of change within the church. ...

Some of the areas of change noted in the article is that the Church--in the U.S.--is becoming more ethnically diverse, slightly less religious, and "modestly" more liberal. However, some of the declines stopped over the past 5 years.