Nuisances? . . . Getting a gun for self-protection? Ask yourself some questions first. – The world has driven many people to learn the nuisances of using deadly force in their home. That is not normal for those who aren’t gun people or haven’t had that life experience. Many have no idea how to start a home security program that involves a firearm.
Engineering a lighter fighter . . . Marines Testing Polymer Solutions to Cut Ammo Weight – “The top equipment official for the Marine Corps recently said he believes that polymer is the answer to cutting ammunition weight for infantry squads. The Marines are focusing on lightening the load infantry squads carry into battle, William Williford, executive director of Marine Corp Systems Command, told an audience Monday at the Navy League’s Sea, Air, Space Exposition. ‘We have to have lighter equipment,’ Williford said, adding that the service is interested in using ‘polymer magazines, polymer rounds’ and other polymer products to reduce ammunition weight.”
Oh look, an Uber driver who values his life more than the company’s anti-gun policy . . . Uber driver shoots man trying to jack his car in Mid City, police say – “According to police, a 44-year-old Uber driver who was dropping off a passenger when two men approached the car and pointed a gun at the man telling him to drive. The Uber driver said he drove to an unknown location near Bienville and N. Telemachus streets where the two men told the driver to get out. The driver said he then got out of the car and fired a gun at the two men, hitting one of them.”
Clogging up the works to limit a civil right . . . Opponents filibuster bill to restrict local gun rules; ‘This is not the Wild West’ – Concertgoers file into Pinnacle Bank Arena with handguns openly strapped to their hips. It’s a scenario Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister said could play out if Nebraska lawmakers pass legislation that would prohibit Lincoln, Omaha and other cities from enforcing most local gun ordinances. That’s why he spent Tuesday afternoon at the State Capitol, urging lawmakers to oppose the bill as they debated it on the floor. Such scenarios prompted concern among some state senators. ‘This is not the Wild West,’ said Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln. ‘This isn’t every gun in every place.’”
Oh, the humanity! . . . BB guns on Highland Park hockey trip lead to athletic director’s suspension – “The Highland Park High School athletics director was suspended without pay for one day earlier this year after several students were found to have played with BB guns at his cabin during a hockey team road trip. Pat Auran, a former physical education teacher and hockey coach at Highland, learned from coaches that two students each had a BB gun in their possession during the two-game trip to northern Minnesota over Thanksgiving weekend. The coaches told the students to put the guns away, but no one took the guns from them or notified their parents, according to a discipline letter St. Paul Public Schools released to the Pioneer Press in response to a public records request.”
Did he use a punt gun? . . . Marquette King shoots his own punts out of air with shotgun – “Marquette King knows how to make a bang on social media. Over the weekend, the Oakland Raiders punter did that by shooting his own punts out of the air with a shotgun.”
Don’t try this at home, kids.
There would seem to be more to this story . . . Fake Cop With Guns, Bulletproof Vest Arrested At Lewis University: Police – “A Texas man spotted with two guns and a bulletproof vest at Lewis University claimed he was a Chicago cop and said he was conducting a “special detail” at the Romeoville campus, police said. Romeoville police responded to a report of a man with two guns and a bulletproof vest walking on campus at 11:47 p.m. Monday. Police met with campus safety officers, who said they were alerted to a man wearing a bulletproof vest with the word ‘Tactical’ on the back, along with a duty belt with a holster and firearm. Campus security located the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Reggie Shepherd of Fort Bliss, Texas. Police said Shepherd cooperated with campus security officers and was no longer wearing the bulletproof vest or weapon.”
Three generations of duck hunters share cherished traditions and valuable life lessons amid the flooded fields and timber of Arkansas.
So is Uber(or Lyft) going driverless vehicle? That would eliminate those pesky rule breaking drivers…Hey it’s illegal to open carry in Romeoville. As is not having a FOID or IL CC. Did they even arrest this Texas guy? Illinois has nearly no reciprocity…
The driverless cars keep crashing.
so do the driven ones.
It’s gonna be real hard to argue against driverless vehicle tech when the damn things keep consistently crashing less than the ones with (eating lunch, applying makeup, texting, drunk, stoned, and getting oral favors) meat operators.
I predict a vicious sport will crop up, anti-technology terrorists ‘punking’ the sensors to deliberately crash them…
When the race car circuit eliminates the drivers, I’ll consider being a passenger in a driverless car. This has to be race proven.
When the Teamsters Union and some of the cabbie locals learn what you can do to the sensors with a paintball gun, there will likely be a setback in the driverless bit….
True, driver and driverless cars both crash. However, shareholders don’t like losing money. Can’t blame the accident on an “independent contractor” driver. Lawyers will have a field day.
Polymer ammo to reduce weight? Grunts wind up carrying the same weight regardless of what historical period they served in. From the Roman legions to today.
If the supplies and equipment is lighter they just have to carry more to increase the duration of their mission.
Did I ever tell you I hate helicopters?
True, the reason they switched from .308 to 5.56 is so an infantry soldier could carry 600 roun ds instead of 200, not so they could carry a lighter pack.
Are you a heliophobe?
He’s only a heliophobe when he notices Pwrserge’s smiling face and bald head in full battle-rattle in the back when he climbs inside.
And then notices there are no seatbelts…
I hope serge knows how to fly by flapping his arms. Else that’s gonna be a bad day for him.
Only commies are afraid of choppers.
So, you’re saying that only commies have good sense? Why do you hate baby jesus, j?
Nuisance? It’s NUANCE. These malapriapisms are spreading dysentery in the ranks!
I have to wonder if it was intentional: the source material has it spelled correctly.
+1
I’m still laughing at malapriapism.
Gov
I can remember carrying 600 rounds of 308 plus a lot more too many years ago. There is always too much stuff to carry
JWM
I agree with about helicopters. I’ve been a passenger when the engine stopped. Not a good day.
Damn….. I went to school at Lewis university.
That little bit about bullets coming down at the same speed they went up is BS because of drag. Additionally the bullet turning around and facing point down is BS as well, since rotational velocity, which does not drop off nearly as quickly, prevents this due to the gyroscopic effect. They did get the part about it being a stupid and dangerous thing to do right, though. I wiill give them partial credit for getting that much correct.
A bullet fired exactly 90* up will momentarily stop as it changes direction. At this point, it’s fall is under the power of gravity alone and will eventually reach terminal velocity, the point at which the drag and air resistance cancel out any further acceleration due to gravity. These bullets are almost harmless, apart from the huge welt you’ll get it hit by one. Assuming no wind anywhere in its path (not likely) it would land exactly where it was fired from. It’s only lateral movement away from point of origin will be due to crosswinds.
If it’s fired at even a slight angle before or past 90, however it will remain in the same line of travel and maintain a substantially larger amount of its velocity. It’s these bullets fired up that are dangerous.
You skipped completely over the issue of rotational velocity. Quite a large error, since that was one of the main points of the post you replied to…
Depending on time of flight, the earth will have rotated under the bullet, so it’s unlikely for it to land exactly from the point of origin, even allowing for zero wind drift. That’s accounted for in ballistics programs, because at long distances your target will have moved slightly from where it was when you pressed the trigger.
I watched the video. IIRC, the video said the bullet would reach a speed of about 400mph, considerably less than muzzle velocity.
Since there would be outside forces acting on the bullet on its way up (wind), the chances of it being exactly perpendicular to the earth’s surface would be about nil, meaning that when it started back down, it would flip to be nose first on the way down.
Mythbusters covered this.
I think that the piece could have fit “bulletproof” in at least two or three more times.
I loved the 1950s orchestral music accompaniment that went along with the “don’t shoot guns into the air” video.
My only question is, why don’t punters spiral the football anymore?
Using polymer magazines to save weight isn’t going to do much since PMAGs are heavier than aluminum USGI mags.
I will be surprised if polymer ammo can be made to work in machine guns
The brass in a conventional round carries away a lot of the heat generated during firing
Plastic/polymer will be much less efficient at removing heat
Heat build up leads to cook off and malfunctions
Shotguns get away with plastic cases as they have limited capacity and cool off during reloads
When Mythbusters shot bullets in the air they barely made a dent on the desert floor. They could have done some research first.
IIRC, the “mythbusters” didn’t even shoot guns straight up in the air. They dropped them from balloons. They argued that it’d be too hard to find ones that were shot up, plus it’s nearly impossible to shoot straight up, and if it was shot straight up eventually it’d stop and fall back down to earth at terminal velocity, so they calculated what height would be needed to reach terminal velocity and dropped bullets from that height from balloons.
Which is all to say, it was the stupidest approach and totally invalidated the legitimate safety issues that “celebratory gunfire” idiots perpetrate. You cannot shoot “straight” up, the odds of it going exactly straight up are infitesimally small. And if it’s not straight up, then the bullet may retain spin stabilization and therefore wouldn’t tumble and therefore wouldn’t be restricted by the 120mph terminal velocity of normal falling objects.
Episode 50.
They did fire straight up (or as straight up as they physically could). The results were mixed.
In theory, a bullet going straight up at it’s apogee would tumble, cutting its terminal velocity.
In reality, it’s all but impossible to get that result because somewhere the bullet will encounter wind, altering its trajectory and bullet orientation. What the terminal velocity would be would depend on cross-sectional density, among other things, but we know it won’t be muzzle velocity.
My HS physics teacher called that Planet Pinkus. No wind resistance, ice has zero friction, tires on asphalt have zero power loss to friction/100% power transference, etc.
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