Hector Hechavarria courtesy miami.cbslocal.com

The rule “Don’t bring a sword to a gunfight” was reinforced once again in Miami, FL on Wednesday. Hector Hechavarria (above) ran into the Presidente Supermarket in Little Havana waving a “sword or machete” and saying he was going to kill everyone. He managed to nip a female customer’s elbow with the blade before the store security guard, Jose Mendoza, drew down on him and ordered him to drop the weapon. Instead, Hechavarria charged him, and Mendoza fired several rounds. Despite being shot, Hechavarria managed to run outside, where he continued to attack the guard. Mendoza, struck over the head, was still able to subdue the suspect . . .

with the help of another man until police arrived. Mendoza was treated and released for his head wound, Hechavarria remains in hospital with “several gunshot wounds.” I was unable to find out what caliber Mendoza was carrying, but since the guy managed to keep fighting, it’s clear it wasn’t .40 S&W. [Commenter Pantera Vazquez points out below that security guards in Florida are limited by statute to carrying firearms in 9mm, .380, .38 or a .357 revolver utilizing .38 ammo.]

Your Lockdown of the Day™ for today comes from Surprise[!], Arizona. Paradise Honors High School was placed on lockdown for about an hour this morning after a report of a student bringing an airsoft gun to the school in his backpack. He never took the airsoft gun out, but his girlfriend knew about it and told a teacher, who then told someone in the school office. A Maricopa Sheriff’s Office spokesman said that no crime had been committed because the student had never taken the gun out of the backpack and never pointed it at anyone. Furthermore, the spokesman said that an airsoft pistol “does not qualify as a real weapon.” Sold out by his girlfriend today. Valentine’s Day was a week ago. Coincidence?

As part of MAIG’s email blast from a couple days ago when they publicized the “We are not gun grabbers” letter from three (former) mayoral members, they also touted adding “more than 65 mayors in 2014 alone.” The list actually totals 68, and since MAIG is very cagey about showing anyone their actual member list so I can’t point you to a page on their site, here’s the list of new members, according to their email. They’ve been sneaky in the past about claiming mayors as members who have done nothing more than sign up to receive “more information in the future,” so take a look and see if your city or one nearby is on the list, and maybe reach out to them and see if they actually intend to have their name associated with this bastion of civilian disarmament.

Warne scope base for Ruger 10/22 courtesy tacticalwire.com

From The Tactical Wire: Tualatin OR – Warne Scope Mounts has just released an aluminum one piece base for the Ruger 10/22. This new one piece Weaver style base for the 10/22 features four slots in the front and two slots in the rear as well as built in 10-MOA (minute of angle) cant to maximize adjustment for your optic. Made from lightweight aluminum and built ultra-low to not interfere with the factory open sights makes this base a must have for 10/22 enthusiasts. Add our Maxima Quick Detach rings and unleash the full potential of your 10/22 utilizing the 10/22’s own open sights as well as our Return to Zero Guaranteed QD rings for the best of both worlds.

Reader JP writes: “I am getting married at the end of April. As a groomsmen gift, I am heavily leaning towards giving each member a knife. Ideally I want something somewhat stylish, could be EDC, and performs well in most situations; an “all-purpose” knife. Something that 20 years from now they will still fondly use and appreciate, whether it ends up in the glove box of the truck, in the belt loop at all times, or in a survival kit that saves the day when Daryl from the Walking Dead ain’t around. Any suggestions?” Hop over to The Truth About Knives to help him out.

The traffic on last night’s Digest was a little low, and it had one of the coolest high-speed camera shots that I can remember seeing pretty much ever. So if you missed The Slow Mo Guys shooting a full auto M4 filmed at 18,000 frames per second on a $100,000 camera, check it out.

If you’re unfamiliar with 22Plinkster, here’s a trick shot montage to introduce you. If you do know about him, it’s an opportunity to get reacquainted with some of his older stuff.

I’d never seen the one where he shoots down the pipe before. That’s somewhat ridiculous.

Larry Potterfield is the founder and CEO of MidwayUSA, a company that needs no introduction. His company has produced several hundred videos, many featuring the man himself, that contain a wealth of information in a concise, easy to follow format. All are searchable and categorized on the MidwayUSA website here. I ran across this one the other day, and like many others, it’s a neat thing to watch. He’s finishing a gun stock with bar top varnish under a boiled linseed oil finish coat. The bar top varnish is hard and durable, and he uses it to fill in the pores in the grain to get a nice smooth finish for the linseed oil to polish. It’s very time consuming, and not nearly as easy as he makes it look, but the results are undeniable.

The was amazed by how little oil was necessary to finish the stock. If I’d never seen this (or a similar tutorial) and tried it myself, I guarantee I’d have used about 10x too much the first time.

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68 COMMENTS

  1. I got bupkous. Long week and the flu have worn me down. Still, this counts as a comment. Doing my bit to keep traffic up.

  2. It was interesting how intricate and time consuming finishing that stock was. Definitely a job for someone with a lot more patience and attention to detail than I have!

  3. I refinished the stock on my Mosin Nagant last year; sanded the red hue of the finish right out of it. I re-stained it with a much lighter stain, and it came out almost unrecognizable. I’ve had a guy at the range offer me $300 on the spot for it. I turned him down. It took me nearly two weeks to get it like I wanted it. Good video. I wish I’d seen it before I started…

    • I missed something in there–why did he put linseed oil on the glass? Just to check for drying time?

      Some interesting techniques. I’d never heard of the stuff he used to final buff the oil; I’ve just used 0000 steel wool or very fine wet dry paper before the final coat. One of the most important things is to get all the dust off–use a tack cloth or you will end up with flaws.

      • For me, tack cloths leave a residue. Never liked them much.

        But those microfiber cloths pick up dust very well without tackiness or residue. They’re even used in clean rooms where they make computer chips. Try one out and see what you think. They’ve been great for me for body work.

    • There’s a guy that’s a regular seller at the Orlando gun show that does Mosins. He only has 5-6 at any one time, and he wants lots of money for them ($5-700). There’s nothing special about the rifles themselves, they’re just as random as they come out of the crate. But he’s refinished the stocks, much like the one Larry does in the video above. All of them look really good, and some look like something you’d see on a bespoke shotgun that costs as much as a midsized sedan.

      I asked him once If he hand-selects the ones he’s going to refinish, and he told me no, he just does “the next one in the box.” So you never know what’s lurking under that old red shellac.

  5. .22 Plinkster, eh?

    Nice to know that by the time Miculek crosses the Great Divide, there’ll be others to keep the banner flying.

    “… ran outside and kept attacking the guard?” Did the guard get chased outside, chase Kaptain Kleaver outside or what?

    Nice that the Arizona LEOs didn’t arrest the kid and he apparently wasn’t expelled; sounds like the lockdown was just long enough to verify the nature of the pistol. Time for a new girlfriend.

    Sure better than the kids who were expelled for playing in the front yard of one of their homes…

    No Kansas or Missouri mayors gone over to the dark side.

    I can live with this DD.

  6. “A Maricopa Sheriff’s Office spokesman said that no crime had been committed because the student had never taken the gun out of the backpack and never pointed it at anyone. Furthermore, the spokesman said that an airsoft pistol “does not qualify as a real weapon.””

    Sane analysis from Law Enforcement. Well done MCSO.

    • That’s what I was thinking too.

      I wonder if any school administrators had to tuck their tails to save face?

      Nah; if they were antis they’d have no shame. If they were neutral or pro gun, they’d have had no problem with the the deputies disposition of the matter.

      THERE was some “common sense” good judgement on display by the Sheriff’s Office.

      Hope the kid learned something about…friendship.

  7. As for Plinkster, very nice trick shots, but KJW is MUCH prettier.

    Mythbusters did an episode with the shoot down a curved pipe trick.

    • Not really a fair comparison. KJW is prettier than 95% of the people I see in any given day, and that includes internet and TV. There’s some good genes there.

  8. ” Despite being shot, Hechavarria managed to run outside, where he continued to attack the guard. Mendoza, struck over the head, was still able to subdue the suspect . . .”

    … I hope the store either gets that man more ammo or some extra target practice. At least I assume he ran out of rounds, because I don’t see why else he would stop firing…

    And to the student, I figure there’s one of two things going on. First, he probably learned a lesson about women some older men still haven’t figured out (looking your way, GZ). Or perhaps he was frontin’ like a big man with his little girl and she thought he was crazy. Either way… not a good choice on his part.

    • I think it could also be a lesson in that someone on drugs(maybe in this case) can be pretty hard to stop. I’m betting shot placement may have been an issue as well.

  11. To: JP

    As groomsmen gifts, I got everyone a Letterman that was enameled and laser etched with their name and the date of my wedding. That went off very well with all involved. Everyone knows I am a gadget kind of guy so the all thought it was a great gift to remember the day.

  12. That list of “new” MAIG members is downright comical. It includes New York, NY. Duh! Replace Bloomberg with De Blasio and they have a “new” member! We should expect nothing less from the group that listed one of the Boston Bombers as a “victim” of gun violence.

    The airsoft gun incident is our weekly reminder that there is no limit to the stupidity of school administrators. In my hometown, the son of our greatly admired (two state championships) high school football coach was expelled because he brought a toy gun to school for use as a prop in a school play. The coach resigned in disgust and our football program hasn’t been the same since.

  13. As far as the security guard in Hialeah-that’s in Miami-Dade County Florida, he is limited by state statutes (Title XXXII chapter 493) in what he may carry on duty. He may carry firearms in 9mm, .380, .38 or a .357 revolver utilizing .38 ammo. He must be independently certified in any/all of the calibers above he chooses or is allowed to use by his respective employer.

  14. I did check out the 18000 fps full auto video. Very cool. I never noticed the sound of the brass hitting the case deflector after each shot. I think that was I was hearing. They never did stop talking over the rifle.

  16. Well Rick Kriseman, Mayor of Saint Petersburg, who I did not vote for, is on the MAIG list. Thank Flying Spaghetti Monster that Florida has preemption at the state level making his membership pretty much worthless. He’s already appeasing those that happen to live south of Central Ave. It’s going to be fun in the city when crime shoots right back up to pre 2010 levels.

    http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-St.-Petersburg-Florida.html

  19. Re. the Miami sword/gun incident….good story to reinforce the point that a handgun is not a “one shot/one stop” weapon system. Practice, practice and more practice is required and one must shoot, accurately, into center mass, and leave as many holes as possible in order to stop the threat. And it makes no difference what caliber was used. And no, sorry Matt, .40SW is not the “magic bullet.” Now, if the guard had been able to get several into center mass, and one in the old brain box, that would have been another story.

    The slow motion is awesome. My only suggestion for them would be to set up external lighting. Those high-speed cameras need all the light they can get. Some of the best high-speed stuff I’ve ever seen was featured on Midway’s “Gun Stories” show hosted by Joe Mantegna where they often had high-speed stuff shot out out at Gunsite academy where they filmed in the desert sun. The guys who can afford to rent, or buy, an $80,000 high speed camera should look into some halogen lighting and use that as well. I can watch this high speed stuff all day long. Keep ’em coming, Matt.

    As for Larry Pottterfield and his videos…great stuff. I got to know Larry a few years ago when my company was involved in the Malcolm Baldrige National Qualtiy Award program (we won, first time a publisher has ever won it). Larry is a huge advocate of it and a real champion for American business and, well, ‘Merica in general and the guy truly puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to gun rights/freedoms. Midway is an awesome place and Larry has what is, no doubt, one of the largest, if not the largest, private gun collections in the world. I mean, the collection is astounding. Their gunsmithing workshop and video studio at their headquarters is also equally amazing. I love watching Larry do his thing on various weapons. Thanks for that too.

  21. ”I was unable to find out what caliber Mendoza was carrying, but since the guy managed to keep fighting, it’s clear it wasn’t .40 S&W.”

    I was good with the article until you fell into the “magic bullet” trap. The 40? Really? It’s not a death ray. Have you read the story about the LEO who dumped 14 rounds of 45ACP into a felon (with at least 4 hits that should have been fatal) and the guy still lived. The 40, like all other common pistol calibers, are anemic for stopping threats when compared to rifle caliber rounds. That cop now carries 145 rounds of 9mm on duty.

  22. “He managed to nip a female customer’s elbow with the blade before the store security guard”

    People have forgotten just how deadly swords are and that hit could have been a death wound at worst. It could have crippled her for life. I started learning historical sword fighting and one move we learned was a quick hit with the sword’s tip to the top of the head. I perceived it as a light hit, likely to distract. The instructor said if it were properly done, it would split an unarmored skull through the forehead.

    • True, but the swords of today are hardly the handcrafted weapons of old, they’re mostly cheaply made mantel pieces…

      Not saying you couldn’t hurt someone with them, but I’m saying they aren’t the swords of old, ones that could likely take body parts clean off.

        • Didn’t see the episode, but logic would lead me think it’s bogus…

          In order to sharpen a metal it must be somewhat soft, has to take an edge repeatedly. So, unless the gun is of a vastly, lesser hardness, the sword will likely not go thorough it. Rockwell scale, and all.

  24. Mendoza didn’t haave to shoot did he? Course he would have looked like a bad Benihana dinner, but thats just the price to be paid for living in a “decent” society, thanks sarah, what would we do without your strong moral compass?

  25. I want to give kudos to the Maricopa County SD. The school district might be full of fail but at least the sheriffs department knows the different between a toy and a weapon.

    The more that school faculty and administration want to make a criminal case out of what are hardly even worthy of calling childhood foibles or at worst minor disobedience issues in the face of incomprehensible, counter-intuitive and draconian rules, the more I want to see minors protected under the full weight of the BoR when facing criminal charges originated by school personnel. I realize the massive pitfalls and the unworkable nature of the suggestion, its just that thinking about teachers and administrators in some of these misguided districts having to deal with students who enjoy the protection of the 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th amendments. Let them sweat over due process and the right to representation, security from unwarranted search and seizure and the like until they beg for a little ‘common sense’ in dealing with childhood indiscretions. Then, once they admit that is what these cases are we can educate them regarding what is a common sense approach to gun shaped pastries, pointed fingers, drawings of guns and the like; ignoring them.

    Most of the most compelling arguments against extending the BoR (minus the 2A which has physical safety ramifications) to minors stem in some fashion from the twin ideas that children seldom have ‘criminal’ intent or clearly understand the ramifications of their actions and that adults can and will sort out innocent transgressions by well meaning children as teaching opportunities rather than deserving of punishment. Most also rely on some form of the often unspoken idea that adults want what is best for children and know better than children what is best for them.

    I submit that it is impossible to reconcile a suspension over a vaguely gun shaped pastry or calling the police over plastic toys with either the concept that these adults know what is best or that they have the child’s best interests in mind.

    Of course there is another way to protect children from irresponsible, ill-informed, immature and arguably despotic faculty and administration, in fact it’s far more logical that an extension of the protection of the BoR to minors: One could attempt to correct the educators who behave in such a way until they are in alignment with the children’s best interests, or else replace them if that proves unworkable. A fantastical and revolutionary idea I know, this ‘remove employees who are ill suited to the tasks for which they were hired’ stuff. My god what would follow? Would you next expect them to perform to some objective standard?

    For so long as teachers unions prop them up as inviolate little bureaucrats of their own, insulated from behaving responsibly, demonstrating good judgment or even performing to an acceptable standard this madness will continue.

    As an aside, I once managed a large number of employees in a corporation that had more rules than any school ever thought of. However, I was expected to apply policy evenly and in a manner that was proportional and demonstrated good judgment and grasp of the policies intent. Thus immediately terminating an employee who was smoking pot on the job would be a good call while terminating one who had a marijuana leaf pin on his lapel would be an enormous over reach and considered a very bad call, one that would have me being ‘coached’ about proportionality of response and exercise of good judgment. Remember that these were adults, and fully capable of reasoning for themselves what sort of manager I was. I wasn’t apt to change what sort of people they were, only their behavior while under my supervision. Had they been children my ability to be just and proportional in my response to their behavior very well would shape how they would come to see the world and the people they would be as adults.

    How is it that we consider it acceptable to have children treated in an unjust and reactively overreaching way when we would condemn such treatment for adults? What sort of adults will these children come to be?

    • Your point about extending the protections of the Bill of Rights to children makes a lot of sense, actually. If you’re going to subject them to the vagaries of the criminal justice system at the age of 8, 10, 12 years old, then they should be able to avail themselves (or have an adult/lawyer/guardian do it for them) of the protections that are designed to protect us from that legal system. It’s patently unfair for them to both be subject to what would, to an adult, be an illegal search, and then force them to be liable for what is found in a court of law, where it would get thrown out if the suspect was an adult. If you’re talking about in-school punishment, I would probably feel differently, but the moment you pull the criminal justice system into the mix, you should have to pull all of the criminal justice system into the mix, including the protections therefrom.

      • Given that these days everything from plastic toys to solid die cast 1/2 inch pistol shaped hunks of pot metal to empty pistol magazines in a school warrants calling the police it seems that administrators increasingly wish to invoke the legal system and criminalize what are both non-crimes even in terms of the juvenile status of the ‘offender’ let alone in any sane sense a ‘crime’ at all, it would seem that things such as protection from unreasonable search ought to be afforded to school age children. It would encourage administrators to keep these sorts of non-criminal acts in house to be dealt with rather than calling the police for every minor infraction.

        This sort of criminalization of ordinary childhood behavior began at least as far back as the late 80’s when laws making it a criminal offense of status to be absent from school above an arbitrary number became all the rage. Next it was simple acting out that became a ‘problem’ that somehow rose above simple childhood behavior when the push to medicate any kid who didn’t like long boring classes was given to being talkative and antsy.

        It took precious little time for these to lead to the current situation in which any deviation from any arbitrary rule is apt to produce a response from administration out of all proportion to the act itself or any potential ramifications it may have. One wonders what an educator thinks an elementary school child with a pasty chewed into the shape of a gun will escalate to if left unchecked but I strongly suspect that the draconian response was much more harmful to that student, other students and the schools reputation that anything that could have come from ignoring the behavior altogether or perhaps insisting that the child finish the pastry.

        What do we teach children when we condone, if only by lack of resistance, the sort of massive overreaction of administrators to behaviors that are neither harmful nor disruptive? Do we teach them that punishments need not fit the crime, or in fact even require a ‘crime’ for punishment to be administered? Do we teach them that capricious and arbitrary rules and decisions by those in power are acceptable? Do we teach them that no matter how nonsensical or useless or even detrimental a rule may be it still must be followed?

        I think that is exactly what we teach.

        How then do we square that with their becoming in time free citizens of a constitutional republic, a place where we revere prohibition on disproportionate punishment, where the protections of the BoR are both the law and the pride of the land, where due process is sacrosanct and cherished and where capricious and arbitrary behavior on the part of those in charge is something we once fought a bloody revolution to be free of?

        I don’t think we make very good future citizens when we allow these things to go on or where those who engage in such excesses escape unpunished for their overreach and misdeeds. If you’re wondering if I support terminating faculty and administrators for a ‘mistake’ you underestimate the effect these things have on the future lives of these children. I fully support barring anyone so foolish and incapable of reasonably reacting to such trivial ‘misdeeds’ of children from ever having contact with children again period, let alone ever having a position of power over them. Just because one is a teacher does not mean one should remain a teacher (or a cop or a judge or an elected official). None of these is or has ever been intended to be a ‘right’ or an entitlement, they are jobs, meant to be filled by those who can effectively discharge the duties that accompany the position. Now teachers act like cops, who act like judges who act like legislators who act like petty little despots. This is what we get from collectivism in the form of unionism and entrenched political machines that support the same. A nasty, incestuous and grievously twisted system in which each supports the misdeed of the other in an endless and every worsening loop.

        The first step toward a solution is a law that states those who are paid in part or in whole with tax money have no right to collectively bargain and must accept the standards and practices dictated by the elected or appointed by elected officials who govern their jobs. This alone would go a long way towards the end of police brutality, failing schools, entrenched bureaucracies and the sort of heinous behavior on the part of certain school personnel that started this conversation. It would put the performance of those WE hire and pay back in our control instead of de facto giving them a lifetime position regardless of performance or behavior. This alone would, I believe, correct much of the most egregious problems we currently face as a society.

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