RANDOM RAMBLINGS

There used to be some debate as to whether to own an AK-47 copy or an AR-15 type of rifle. The debate centered on the fact that the AK was a much more rugged and low maintenance firearm - there are verified stories of being able to kick open the bolt of a rusted-shut AK and being able to send lead downrange - but that the ammo was different from the NATO .223 (5.62 mm) round fired by the considerably higher-maintenance AR-15.

 

Now, however, we learn the happy news that Romania, having been a NATO member for some time produces AK clones firing the much more available NATO round; and these are available in "civilian legal" semi-auto versions as well. In a "Second Amendment emergency", NATO ammo would be much more easily available, but Hoppes #9 maybe not so much.

 

 

We learn from the news broadcasts that a certain police officer who was shot in the head by a cab driver is suing the company the driver was affiliated with for ten million dollars. The attorneys filing the suit say that the incident would "never have happened if (the company) had not given the driver the keys to a taxicab". 

 

We don't agree. First, there is nothing magical about a taxicab that makes it a superior platform from which to attack a law enforcement officer. Second, the taxicab in question was owned by a private individual who rented a fleet of cabs out to individual drivers. Third and possibly most importantly, before the shooter or anyone else can obtain the keys to a taxicab he or she must be investigated by the police, and the Chief of Police must sign off on his or her permit to drive a taxicab. Either the officer is going to have to name his own department as a co-defendant or the cab company might initiate a lawsuit against the police department for not conducting a sufficient background investigation. Either way, this is bound to get very nasty unless there is a settlement.

 

We support the wounded officer and his family; and no doubt the medical and other expenses involved in his recovery are going to be astronomical. But hiring a bloodsucker lawyer to go after the deepest pockets he can find on grounds however specious can only lead to a lot of unnecessary venom between the parties. So we hope the cab company and the officer can work something out. Otherwise things will get - and quite needlessly - very nasty, very rapidly. Lawyers are in general not so much after "justice for my client" as they are after 33.3 percent (plus fees).

 

Finally, the Alexandria Daily Poop predicts that Attorney General Eric Holder will either resign, be hounded out of office, impeached, or arrested for perjury some time between Midsummer's Day and Labor Day. Whatever, it will be good riddance to bad rubbish. Hope springs eternal, now, don't it?