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There’s been another ‘mass shooting,’ this at a manufacturing concern in Aurora, Illinois, last Friday. It has several dimensions, leading to the cynics among us to observe that the timing is suspect. For example, the killer was a prohibited possessor under federal law – and he had the Illinois Firearms Owner Identification Card. Yes, it’s a state where you have to be identified to the state as a gun owner.
The FOID program seems problematic. Here’s an offender, prohibited by a previous felony in another state who was known to Illinois LE for complaints that could include a trigger of the Lautenberg Amendment (misdemeanor domestic violence as a trigger to prohibited possessor status). Still, Illinois issued the card – revoked the card, didn’t collect his gun.
According to KREM Channel 2 in their report, “Like in many of the country's mass shootings, Friday's attack was carried out by a man with a violent criminal history who was armed with a gun he wasn't allowed to have.”
How someone with a felony conviction to have the FOID in Illinois should be a question except that it’s government “business as usual.” The one thing you can rely on is that they’ll screw it up – either intentionally, conspiratorially or, more likely, due to state incompetence. Bureaucracy at its finest. To hear the other side tell it, the solution is more infringement on non-prohibited possessors, non-felons – just like it always is.
It’s never “enforce existing laws like you’re supposed to.”
Adding to the outrageous nature of the attack, the report indicated that the offender set an ambush for responding officers, knowing the ‘active shooter’ (sic) response tactics. That led to a negative outcome for five police officers who first responded to the scene. It’s not Columbine anymore. The current mass killer has learned and adapted. There’s a lesson here.
Next, a photo is circulating around the internet. Is it real? Quien sabe? The photo purportedly depicts a door at the front of the facility, the scene where this latest criminal outrage occurred. There was a ‘gun buster’ sign – indicating it was a “gun free zone.” (sic)
We set ourselves up for this insanity by enforcing ‘murder empowerment zones’ and forcing more irrelevant regulations upon one of the most regulated aspects of life in America. It’s past time for gun owners to get back on offense.
Is anyone listening?
As correspondent Stephen Wenger notes, “most rapid mass murderers have either cleared background checks to acquire their guns or stolen them from relatives who have. And, while the murderer had been employed by this company for 15 years, its CEO claims that their own pre-employment background check also failed to turn up that felony conviction in Mississippi.”
Meanwhile, intoxicated with power, the Democrat Party has reinforced its reputation as the “Party of Infringement” – a term I’ve co-opted from Mr. Wenger and one I use on social media. Their answer to all problems, as it has been since the collectivist-statist shift in the 1960s, is “old Gun Control.” Like a political cartoon of the era, they resemble the patent medicine drummers of old, bringing out the same, tired, ineffective and proven negative prescription: prohibition of the private ownership, carry and use of firearms. They are driving on, “dancing in the blood of victims” as they celebrate another excuse to violate civil rights.
Meanwhile, back in the frozen Heartland, our range time is vastly limited. I’d received a package from Trijicon – a surprise – and saw they’d sent their new Trijicon Fiber Sights. Made for GLOCK pistols, the sights feature a thin front post (.110” wide) with a .06” fiber optic rod implanted therein. The black rear sight has a .125” notch, offering plenty of light along each side of the front sight when viewed from the rear sight notch. The rear sight is nicely rounded for carry but has a steep “hook” at the front for one-handed slide manipulation.
I had no pistol to add the sights to, but Legendary Lawman “Marshal” Chuck Haggard did – he did so and sent the attached images.
While I’m not a fiber optics guy, I’m glad to see the thinner front sight. Trijicon says the front sight is made to “promote fiber retention under stress.” The sights are provided with a red fiber installed in the front. A red and a green replacement fiber are both included and additional fiber replacement packs are available for purchase.
While he’d engaged in some dry practice with the new sights – and noted their visibility – it will be some time before he’s available to try them live fire. We look forward to his report.
- - Rich Grassi