Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party is narrowly ahead of the Conservative Party (Tories) in polling. I suppose this makes Reform the official Opposition to the Labor Party that is miles ahead of both these “right wing” parties. I put that in scare quotes because the Tories have proven themselves to be progressives. And now it is Farage’s difficult job to recreate a conservative party out of the ashes of the disaster that the Tories concocted in their eight years in power. God speed Nigel. All the best luck.
I am angry at the custom of forbidding children to call their father by the name of father, and to enjoin them another, as more full of respect and reverence, as if nature had not sufficiently provided for our authority. We call Almighty God Father, and disdain to have our children call us so. I have reformed this error in my family.—[As did Henry IV. of France]—And ’tis also folly and injustice to deprive children, when grown up, of familiarity with their father, and to carry a scornful and austere countenance toward them, thinking by that to keep them in awe and obedience; for it is a very idle farce that, instead of producing the effect designed, renders fathers distasteful, and, which is worse, ridiculous to their own children.
Recently I was part of a training exercise that was meant to update the kinds of risks that might occur during the workday. And most of it was what everyone expects; fire, flood, power outage, tornadoes and hurricanes, earthquakes(?), downed power lines, automobile crashes, etc.
And after several hours and hundreds of questions that were meant to flesh out our thoughts about what would have to be done in these circumstances, I was thoroughly bored (as you could imagine). But then we got to the really wacky stuff. We got to the active shooter, hostage taking, suspicious powder in a letter, malicious drones and angry mob scenarios.
Now I had gone through what-ifs for active shooters, hostage situations and anthrax attacks. But killer drones and mob violence was new. And (as you could imagine) some of my answers started getting a little humorous. Even the instructors were a little tongue in cheek when it came to events like the angry mob (actually called large combative protest group). Our predictable answer was to summon the police. Lock the doors and provide information to employees and bystanders and shelter from the demonstrators. But when first asked for my plan I said, “I’d recruit a squad of able-bodied men armed with salad tongs and cafeteria trays and wade into the center of the mob.” This got some chuckles and some frowns.
Suffice it to say that our answers were very perfunctory and tended toward actions that revolved around calling for police support, summoning emergency workers such as utility companies, calling for an ambulance and providing the kind of first response help that usually doesn’t accomplish much. So afterward I didn’t think much about the training but later it occurred to me that drone attacks and mob violence are both now solidly in the center of the radar screen for corporations and governments.
And they’re right. Ten years ago, drones were toys that photographers were starting to buy to get interesting and difficult to capture perspectives on photographic subjects. Now they’re almost the primary weapons of war. They can take out a tank or a trench full of infantrymen. They can spy on people in their homes and even attack other drones.
And everyone is now aware that mob violence is a favorite tactic of Leftist groups like BLM and Antifa. And, of course, the favorite answer we had for the trainer; calling for the police and waiting for their arrival, isn’t really an answer when the police have been instructed to stand down and let the mostly peaceful mob sack and torch your home. As far as the drone scenario, chances are the drone belongs to the federal government and if you attempt to interfere with its activities, I’m guessing that will just increase the charges against you to include malicious destruction of government property.
What I’m trying to say here is that we live in very troubled times. None of these scenarios are what Americans of fifty years ago would consider things to worry about or plan to survive. But today, if you don’t you may be putting yourself at risk. Even twenty years ago home invasions and carjackings only happened in the worst parts of the worst cities. Now they happen in Beverly Hills and the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We live in the dystopic future that science fiction writers imagined back in the 1970s. And we’ve just kind of accepted it. And that is the scariest thing of all.
What you need to do is to go buy a suitable pistol for home defense. Then you can practice your photographic skills by composing shots of your new weapon in various backgrounds.
Learning to shoot it well is a rewarding challenge.
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reply by photog
I’ve been thinking about it. I wanted something that Camera Girl could fall back on when I’m out of the house. Some people have told me to get a shot gun for her because of its ease of aiming. As far as the photographic opportunity I see what you’re saying. Pistols are beautiful machines. The gun show isn’t a very photo friendly environment. No control over lighting or camera support.
reply by TomD
I’m not sure I would recommend a shotgun as a first and only weapon for a female who has absolutely no prior gun experience. I’ve got a shotgun for home defense but I got my first shotgun 65 years ago, at the age of 9. I’ve hunted and shot competition skeet, trap and sporting clays, all extensively.
Shotguns have significant recoil, enough to intimidate, probably scare, a first time shooter. And you really don’t want to start training a new shooter by scaring and intimidating them.
I’d like to see you buy a .22 pistol for learning how to shoot, practice gun safety and taking to the range. There’s no recoil to speak of and the noise is just fine with ear plugs. You’d need to get around 500-1000 rounds each to get comfortable and learn the fundamentals. ESPECIALLY GUN SAFETY! Get someone to teach you. I’d love to take you to my home range but it’s about 900 miles SW of you.
And your home defense weapon would be something like a Glock in 9mm. Maybe a revolver.
Below, my Benelli Nova 12 ga, it’s chambered to accept all 12 ga up to 3-1/2”. With 3” OO buck, it recoils hard enough to intimidate the devil out of me, approaching retina detachment levels.
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Update
Comment from War Pig
Working the slide on an autoloader can be a problem for women who may lack hand strength. Especially mature women. Milady’s 25 auto is easier but as far as I’m concerned the 25 is a cap gun and highly likely to malfunction. I always recommend a revolver for women who lack significant experience. The .38 is fine. Deadly at close range and a lot less recoil than a .357Sig. Since she’d likely be firing at very close range she can use a shorter barrel. I would recommend using special personal protection ammo. Say, Winchester Defender for the .38 special. The expanding defender type bullets maximize torso damage and she needs less accuracy. With a torso hit with defense ammo she would likely not require a second shot.
There are revolvers in .410 shotgun but they are very loud and flash a lot. Okay to intimidate the bad guy but the inexperienced shooter may drop it after the first shot.
Personally, I prefer a knife first, then a 45 ACP. But most people don’t like up close, look them in the eye and smell the adrenalin that fighting with knives requires.
The absolute worst thing about teaching women to shoot is their female reaction of closing their eyes in anticipation of or in reaction to, a loud noise. Teaching marksmanship to female officer cadets I had to overcome that first. I kept a length of 50 caliber cleaning rod on hand. I had them dry fire. Every time they closed their eyes I’d smack them on the top of the helmet liner they wore and shout “WRONG HOG”. Then when I broke them of that I’d do the same during live fire. Getting them to keep both eyes open was almost as bad.
Now, you can’t do that to Mrs. Photog unless you want to sleep with one eye open for the rest of your life and hire a food taster. So a mildly recoiling revolver is probably the best bet.
Comments from photog
Thanks Tom and War Pig for your very helpful advice for my home defense decisions. Hopefully this will also be valuable for other readers on the site.
In reply to War Pig.
I tend to advise revolvers for limited experience people. In extreme high stress situations, people with little to no training to fall back on tend to brain lock. In that situation, chambering a round and flipping a safety needs to be every bit as thoughtlessly automatic as going for the brake pedal on your car. No think, just done.
That takes practice and experience.
Revolver? Just point and pull the trigger, no boom, pull again.
Here’s a revolver I bought sometime back. It’s not exactly up there with my S&W’s and Colts but it performed it function as a VERY light and small carry piece. At that time, as a structural engineer, I commonly found myself alone in old powerless and boarded up buildings in downtown Atlanta to see if they could reasonably be repurposed. I didn’t do that for long unarmed.
I never had to pull it on anyone, thank God. But one time, it may have saved me some serious trouble. A couple of the “residents” came upon me in some dark hallway. They were almost certainly measuring me when I put my hand in my pocket, a decision was instantly made and they left. At that time, I had 5-6 projects going in the area and the Mexican workers who usually kept all of their earnings with them were being robbed too many times to count.
This is a Taurus Titanium Ultra Light, .38 Special +P. It’s no larger than my hand and weights less than a pound.
Downside is when firing +P, it has a pretty sharp bark and recoil. It is ported, so that helps with muzzle flip.
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War Pig In reply to TomD.
That’s good. Hammerless can be good but the trigger pull is heavier than cocking and firing. But, it removes another step so that outweighs the extra trigger pull. As you said, point and pull. Keep pointing and pulling until he goes down and stops moving. Yeah, plus-p does bark a bit. My late wife had a pistol. I started her out with the 38 and she progressed to the Python in 357 mag. Back then defender type rounds were mostly just hollow points. So she had 6 hollowpoints. Never had to fire it and only pulled it once to chase away the idiot. Actually not quite true. She did use it on an overbold coyote once. Made mincemeat out of him. Another advantage of a revolver is you can leave it fully loaded all the time with no worries. No magazine spring to fade if left loaded at max over time.
Chemist In reply to War Pig.
Look into the Shield EZ. It is a semiauto .380 where the slide is very easy to manipulate.
I watched these two Biden clips. One has Biden spouting absolute gibberish. Honestly, I couldn’t even guess what he was trying to say. It was just jibber jabber. The other has a scene where his toadies are dancing to Juneteenth dance music around him but he is frozen in a posture that makes him look like an animatronic mannequin. Watching both of these video clips should be enough to convince any reasonable adult that Joe Biden is now hopelessly senile. He can’t speak coherently, even when reading from a teleprompter. His ability to perform minor tasks like walking, climbing short flights of stairs and recognizing things in his environment like entrances and exits from the platforms he is being exhibited on is evaporating. There are even indications that he is becoming increasingly incontinent.
Under these circumstances how are we supposed to believe that he is the current leader of this country? Other people write his speeches and executive orders and map out the agenda that is followed by the executive branch under his cabinet. There is virtually no way any of this could be the work of Joe Biden. Calling him a puppet is a remarkably apt expression. That is exactly the way he looks and acts. The only way it could be clearer is if he literally had visible strings attached to his wrists and ankles.
And yet Biden is barely a point or two behind Trump overall and even a point or two ahead in some swing states. Can half of the country really hate Trump enough to vote for a dementia patient to lead this country through some of the most dangerous circumstances we’ve seen since the Cold War? I guess the answer is absolutely!
So, I won’t be surprised when Joe makes his first State of the Union speech for his second term zip-tied onto a mobility device like some kind of cyborg scarecrow with a prerecorded AI voice track emanating from speakers while his mouth remains half open in a mute grimace of confusion and gas pain.
But what if Joe expires before 2029? Will Kamala succeed to the Oval Office? Well, somehow it seems unlikely. And not because she’s much stupider than a mush-brained mental patient. It’s because she’s an unpleasant idiot that makes those around her go through hell while she pretends that she’s not a moron.
So somehow there has to be a plan to move onto someone slightly less awful than Harris. But who? I’m going to reject the Michelle Obama theory and go directly to Oprah Winfrey. Yes, it’s definitely Oprah’s time. She combines many important qualities. She’s fat, she’s a woman, she’s black, she’s rich and she’s stupid. She’s got it all!
So as much as I’ve enjoyed the Biden years, I’m very excited to see Oprah replace Joe and lead this country into a future that staggers the imagination to visualize. Her stupidity and her popularity will usher in a new age where all we expect from our president is an afternoon time slot on ABC and book and diet recommendations for all of the women of America. A virtual golden age. So, then, Vice President Joy Behar? Oy!
