New Jersey Governor Chris Christie courtesy wsj.comA New Jersey State Policeman assigned to Governor Chris Christie’s security detail has been suspended without pay and arrested for shoplifting. Police in Tilden Township say the officer, William Carvounis, stole nearly $300 in merchandise from a Cabela’s. He was observed placing items in his basket, then removing the packaging, placing the items in his pockets and discarding the empty packaging on nearby shelves. He was also seen removing the price tag from a Cabela’s hat, which he was wearing. . .

when he attempted to exit the store. Police say that when caught he invoked his position, asking repeatedly for a little professional courtesy so he wouldn’t lose his job. Carvounis through his attorney denied both the shoplifting and the request for special treatment. [h/t PetitionForRedress]

Your Lockdown of the Day™ today is, unusually, perfectly warranted. Nine schools in Roanoke County, Virginia were locked down just after noon today after a man robbed the Union First Market Bank on the southwest side of Roanoke. While I love to poke fun at lockdowns that occur for silly reasons or at a great remove from the incident that prompted them, and while I’m still not sure that schools all the way across the county needed to be locked down, in this case there were three schools within a mile of the bank, one of them literally 500 feet away. So they get a pass, this time. The lockdown was lifted a couple hours later, with the suspect not apprehended, but having been seen headed in a direction away from any of the schools. Mark this day, as this is the first well-justified lockdown I can remember reporting, and it may have to hold for a while.

Brownell’s Valentine’s Day promotion, a free box of chocolates when you spend $99. Visit www.brownells.com/chocolate to learn more. The video’s pretty good, even if you don’t care about the offer.

As mentioned earlier today, Senator Rand Paul is introducing legislation that would end the blanket ban on guns in U.S. Post Offices. The measure would be offered as an amendment to the Postal Reform Act of 2013, which was introduced back in August and is still sitting with the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Sen. Paul proffered the amendment informally recently, but has withdrawn it to work on it some more before officially offering it to the Committee for action. The Democrat-controlled Committee has 16 members from 15 different states, so look at the list at that link and see if you’ve got someone on it. If you do, reach out and let them know how you want them to vote when the amendment does come up for consideration.

A man attempting to rob a home in Bloomfield Township, Michigan walked way (well, ran) with an extra hole last night. He and an associate forced their way into an occupied home and demanded money. The homeowner agreed to give it to them, and led one of them to a bedroom, where he grabbed his gun. A bit of fisticuffs ensued, and a shot was fired. The fight continued, and goblins eventually beat feet. The homeowner fired another shot as they fled. A bit later, sheriff’s deputies found an injured suspect in the hospital receiving treatment for a perforated hand. He was questioned and arrested, and police are still looking for the other guy.

MattV2099 is back out with his Draco AK47 pistol, this time with the addition of a muzzle device from Snake Hound Machine called the Loudener. Basically designed to clear the range around you, the whole point is to make the report as loud as humanly possible. The microphone on the camera gets clipped quite a bit by the volume (notice you can’t hear anything when he changes magazines because the muting levels haven’t zeroed out yet), but there are several shots where you can hear it echo off the mountains nearby. (Some NSFW language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1n2rbpOJ4E
I’m not sure why you’d want it, but “because I can” has always been good enough for me.

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89 COMMENTS

  2. Good pay and pension. Good current duty. Thinks he deserves free stuff? Who does Carvounis think he is, Jack Kennedy?

      • Yeah, this is standard behavior in Joisey. “C’mon, I’m a cop fergawdsakes! Little professional courtesy here, schmuck!”

    • This falls in the statistic that shows cops are arrested for various crimes at a higher percentage rate than those Licensed to CC.

      I remember the stats as the general population has a criminal rate of around 3%, cops as 1.5% and people with CCL’s as 0.3%.

      So cops break laws at 5x the rate as the POTG; and they break the law about half as much as the criminals they are supposed be protecting us from; Yep, I can believe that.

    • Someone once put it in terms much better than I’m about to, but in a nutshell those that lean right actually have a sense of humor and can detect sarcasm. Hardcore left? Not so much.

    • They did; it’s in the fine print of that 18 x 24 poster inside the building. All you usually see on the door are “No-Smoking” and “You’re Going to Hell for Robbing a Post Office” stickers.
      Never could figure out why Post Office property was such holy ground.

      • Used to be a lot of money went through the mail, and robbing the mail station, wagon or train was a frequent occurrence.

        Further, if someone robbed the mail, there was no “he didn’t do anything in this city/county/territory” crap; he was toast from Florida to Alaska.

        These days, though, the whole aura of mail robbery being a Federal matter has kinda outlived its relevance.

      • In my 10 year stint as a fed employee I was in and out of federal buildings daily. Corps of Engineers, IRS, Federal courts, VA, etc. In the days before ATM’s Post Offices had a huge amount of cash on the premises. Huge. Every post office I was in had a vault that would put a banks to shame.

        Now everybody uses plastic. I imagine things are different.

  6. just as an aside: Bloomfield Twp is a VERY VERY well to-do area. . . . I am surprised they tried a hot robbery. Usually, they wait until the homeowners head off to their corporate jobs and break in thru the garage where the homeowners forgot to lock the garage door or set the alarm.

    • Bloomfield Hills is very pleasant. Is that the same, in the township? Have two friends who went to Cranbrook. It’s definitely not the Detroit of popular imagination.

  9. I discovered the secret to open carry in post offices this summer. There were a couple of dozen of us waiting in line when a guy walked in with a pistol and a pair of handcuffs – no badge visible – and no one seemed to pay any attention to him, I assume that everyone else, like me assumed he was a cop. So if you want to open carry in a post office, get yourself a pair of handcuffs and a belt holster for them and walk right in. It probably works just about anywhere else too.

    • You don’t even necessarily need handcuffs. Chinos and a polo shirt will get you by just fine in most places. Sadly, you have to live in an open carry state for that to apply, and I don’t.

      • You also need the haircut. All cops desire to have the same haircut. Barely any on top, buzzed sides. The “beaver.”

        • Hmmm…..I dress professionally, have had a flat top my entire life, and if I shaved the rest of the full beard I would have an epic porno ‘stache……

          Time to convince the wife to let me run this experiment….

      • This guy didn’t have a buzz cut, but yea, chinos and a polo shirt, check.

        That said you can’t look like a hippie or a gang banger or anything. But if you look halfway normal…

        Oh, and in Iowa you have a ‘weapons carry permit’. Open or concealed, it’s up to you.

        • Define halfway normal.

          If I trim my massive beard down to a demure little goatee and wear nicer jeans than usual, how far toward normal would that get me? What if I keep the wild facial rig and go with a collared shirt and a pair of Dockers (dress pants for the bigger-butted man)?

          Plus, what the hell are chinos?

        • Okay, so khakis. Trousers.

          Thanks, Carlos. Wikipedia is our friend. 🙂 I searched Wikipedia for “halfway normal,” but even they don’t define it. Guess I’ll just have to trust in my Dockers (chinos for the bigger-butted man)..

      • My first thought on reading that was “what state is he in?” Insomnia ducks. So does auto correct.

  10. Loudener. Nice. Single chamber brakes like that can be pretty effective recoil reducers. Plus… noise and fire is awesome! For a gun like that Draco with no “real purpose” other than FUN (which is a great purpose), a loud, flashy muzzle brake makes it even more fun. I’ve always liked the Rainier Arms Mini Comp that I have on an AR and on the Tavor. Also single chamber, but it’s smaller than this Loudener so probably isn’t quite as loud but it’s still good for some sideways boom and fire and a very noticeable reduction in felt recoil and muzzle rise (it also has a couple small top ports). Plus it’s really small, which appealed to me. Or… you could always run this 😉 http://precisionarmament.com/product/m11-muzzle-brake/

  11. Is it just me, or would Christie look better with a pair of suspenders like John Goodman from O Brother Where Art Thou?

    • I think he’d look better as the assistant manager of a mcdonalds. But really, what do you expect from the Worst State in the Union? He’s not the fat crooked slimeball politician they need, but he’s the one they deserve (I forget how Dark Knight went). God help us all if that blubbering sack of everything wrong with politics manages to get to a higher office.

      • Sorry, movie nerd: Dark Knight was the reverse of that. But the movie nerd in me grants a bye when a quote needs to be arranged to better fit your point, which yours does.

        Carry on.

  12. Unconfirmed reports say several megaphone manufacturers are developing rail mount versions, and at least one will be offered with a digital camo option.

  13. I should appreciate Sen Pauls attempt. Every little bit helps. I just wish there would be a push to reverse Pres. Obamas executive order keeping those M1 and M1a’s from Korea out of the country.

    Maybe call it the “Return American Veterans Historical Heritage to the American People act”, or something patriotic sounding.

    The bill could be written to cover C&R firearms deemed to have historical significance. And I think saving the world from the Nazi’s would be pretty well within that definition (What other kinds could we import as civilians at this point anyways?).

    • The M1Carbines blocked by Hillary Clinton were manufactured and sold to South Korea. They were never US service weapons. Not that it matters–the blockage was pure political theater.

  14. Good job, decent pay, high profile boss, good future prospects,,,, caught,stealing, among other things, a Cabela’s cap. No brains, no situational awareness, and certainly no fashion sense…..

      • Or, if he has gotten away with things before just by pulling the old professional courtesy card.

        Maybe he has pulled bigger stuff before and walked away, so this seemed like a lay up.

        • He was probably expecting store security to be awestruck to have been given the opportunity to extend professional courtesies to a real live state cop. He was probably expecting them to ask for his autograph.

    • Stealing Cabela’s apparel is about the only way to afford half of it. I love that store, but my god, the prices!

  15. Well, I always thought it would be useful to have a line of .22LR muzzle devices (recoil boosters/Nielson device) that increased recoil to approximate various more-powerful cartridges. For training. If you’re practicing CQB with a handgun, SMG, or AR, the only disadvantage to using .22LR, besides potential reliability issues (which help train failures), is the lack of recoil. Increasing noise could also be appropriate for training, but increasing noise and flame are really not essential for training as flash hiders and suppressors are widely available. Unless I was specifically training for something with a big muzzle blast, which is unlikely, I’d rather just have the recoil increased. It might sound louder than my suppressed rifle, anyway.

  17. I may be sort of crazy, but I really enjoy loud-ass guns. Even when I’m not shooting them. I swear to God every time a shot is fired I hear “Murricuh”. I also enjoy living near a military base and hearing the jets and helicopters come and go. Some things never get old.

  18. Maybe this is off thread(& it will certainly be a first), but isn’t that a pretty measly box of chocolates? I’d expect a slap in the face if I presented something like that, Randy

    • Well, would you give chocolates normally? Is she used to a bigger box than that? If so, then sure. But if not, then my answer is “One is an infinitely larger number than zero.”

  19. AS men we must all admit we are sinners
    That is the doorway to truth
    It t must be the sinners free will that acknoladges his/her guilt, but not in a court of man’s law but one of God'[s law

  20. Christie is a discussing looking specimen, so NJ let’s this garage run the whole state?

    And, I use the term run loosely, in fact I use the term state loosely as well.

  21. Maybe off topic…I don’t understand how Christie expects anyone to vote for him when he obviously doesn’t have the will power to exercise and eat right. Not considering politics that demonstrates a weakness to me that I would never vote for.

    No matter, after the 2012 debacle, I swore off voting Republican until they find a non RINO candidate anyway. My vote will get cast into oblivion for either a Tea Party or Libertarian candidate.

  24. Loudener? I want to punch Snakehound Machine in the face. All of them. I have enough problems with hearing damage as it is.

  25. I wonder if the weapons prohibition is just on guns. I’ve seen open carry of a 6+ inch fixed blade knife in one of my local offices, nobody made a fuss.

    • It’s just an “only ones” example. And my understanding is that the NJSP is one of the most “only ones” agencies there is. I usually go pretty easy on the anti-cop stuff, personally, and I’m one of the first to speak up when I think it’s getting over the top. But once in a while isn’t over the line for me, I don’t think.

  28. After working in Loss Prevention for 6yrs, I’ll tell you now, NOBODY is above the law, you steal from me, and I’ll prosecute you to the fullest extent that the law allows…

  29. I suggest that we start a movement to put loudeners on the muzzles of every gun in the ‘no-nfa-items’ states until they allow suppressors.
    Or, for that matter, on every gun everywhere, until people beg the Feds to take suppressors off of the NFA list altogether.

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