Category: Some Sick Puppies!

Arturo Guzmán Decena: Zeta-1 by WILL DABBS

Post author By Grumpy
Post date November 12, 2024
No Comments on Arturo Guzmán Decena: Zeta-1 by WILL DABBS

This is a still from the Roundhay Garden Scene, the world’s first motion picture. This tiny scrap of celluloid transformed entertainment in a way that profoundly shapes our culture today.

On October 14, 1888, Louis Le Prince released The Roundhay Garden Scene. With a run time of 2.11 seconds and starring Annie Hartley, Adolphe Le Prince, Joseph Whitley, and Sarah Whitley, this was the world’s first moving picture. The Roundhay Garden Scene changed the world. Here’s a link.

Dwayne Johnson is the most highly-paid actor in the world. This is The Rock celebrating Halloween with his family. Though I’ve never met him, Big Dwayne seems like a pretty cool guy.

Ours is a generation raised on movies. In 2020 the movie industry brought in $25.9 billion. That’s down from $35.3 billion the year before thanks to the Covid pandemic. The top four most successful actors in 2020 were Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Mark Wahlberg, and Ben Affleck. During that one year, The Rock pulled down a cool $87.5 million.

This is Christopher Markus. He co-wrote the screenplay for Avengers: End Game, Avengers: Infinity War, and Captain America: Civil War. His movies have grossed $9,367,535,948. My writing efforts have pulled in slightly less than that.

With those kinds of numbers, the movie industry can obviously afford top-grade talent. I am a professional writer. I bang out gun-related prose in exchange for ammo money. By contrast, the scriptwriters who drive these Hollywood blockbusters make some serious coin. For that kind of investment, Hollywood producers expect a quality product.

The villain makes the movie.

Everybody knows that a great movie turns on its villain. Vapid leading men are a dime a dozen, and hot girls with fake bosoms and a convincing scream are even cheaper. However, it takes talent to build a proper Bad Guy. Hannibal Lecter, Darth Vader, Agent Smith, the Joker, Voldemort, and Hans Gruber were some of the best.

Los Zetas is a militarized drug cartel renowned for their simply breathtaking appetite for violence.

Sometimes you trip over a story in the real world that is even more compelling than a Hollywood screenplay. As all good tales turn on their villains, that was what first caught my eye in this case. Today we will explore the short life and violent death of Z-1, Arturo Guzmán Decena. Guzmán Decena put the bloodthirsty in “bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartel”. He was the founder and leader of Los Zetas, some of the most soulless butchers on the planet.

Origin Story

Arturo Guzmán Decena viewed a military uniform as his opportunity to better his sordid lot in life.

Arturo Guzmán Decena was born into abject poverty in January of 1976 in Puebla, Mexico. In a world where nobody had anything, Decena saw military service as his ticket out of hell. Once he joined the Army he found that he had a knack for the business. His natural talent and capacity for aggression landed him a billet with the elite Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales or GAFE. This Mexican Army Special Forces unit specialized in COIN or counter-insurgency operations.

Arturo Guzmán Decena was a promising young soldier who quickly took to military life.

Guzmán Decena and his unit were trained by US Special Forces advisors and IDF (Israel Defense Force) contractors. Their mission was to find, fix, and eliminate major personalities in Mexican drug trafficking organizations. GAFE operators were extremely good at what they did.

These motivated young studs ultimately provided fertile ground for recruitment into the armies of the drug cartels.

More than 3,000 Zapatista rebels seized a number of border communities in the southern state of Chiapas in 1994. The insurgents were trying to make a statement against crushing poverty and the PRI (Institutional Revolution Party), the sole political party ruling Mexico at the time. The GAFE broke the back of the uprising in short order, killing 34 rebels and capturing three. The bodies were subsequently discovered discarded on a remote riverbank. Their noses and ears had been sliced off.

Some folks view griping about the police as a full-time job in America today. I’d suggest they check out the cops in other countries for a little perspective.

For all the vociferous whining about American Law Enforcement shortcomings, corruption among American cops is thankfully fairly rare. By contrast, cops in many foreign lands see bribery, extortion, and sometimes murder as a routine part of the job. In some parts of Mexico, bribes are viewed as “benefits” to supplement their otherwise modest salaries. However, before Arturo Guzmán Decena the lines separating the Good Guys from the Bad were still fairly clear-cut. Decena changed all that.

Greener Pastures

When Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the leader of the notorious Gulf Cartel, needed some muscle he just put a few of these guys on the payroll.

Arturo Guzmán Decena was one of the most effective GAFE operators. His star was rising. He was soon promoted to security chief and transferred to Miguel Aleman in the northern state of Tamaulipas. While there he met a proper villain named Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the leader of the thriving Gulf Cartel. In short order, Arturo Guzmán Decena, a highly-trained and ruthless member of the Mexican Army Special Forces, was in the drug lord’s employ.

The real problem is the money. With financing on the scale enjoyed by Mexican drug cartels pretty much anybody can be bought.

The man had some curious motivations. Mexican cops and soldiers at the time often turned a blind eye to drug shipments in exchange for a little folding cash. In this case, however, Guzmán Decena went full Dark Side. While the money was way better, this also meant the hard young warrior embraced life as a hunted fugitive.

The American thirst for illicit drugs is insatiable.

In retrospect, Mexico’s grinding slog toward democracy likely frightened him. With a true representative government came the real probability of accountability for all those sliced-off ears and noses. Guzmán Decena saw service with the cartels as the wave of the future.

It apparently wasn’t terribly difficult to find 38 Mexican SF operators willing to trade their GI fatigues in for the filthy-rich opulence of the thug life.

Once Guzmán Decena had tasted the good life he made a few phone calls. Not long after, he had recruited 38 fellow Special Forces operators to make up his happy troupe. Each man was assigned a unique Z-number. Guzmán Decena was Z-1 or Zeta 1. This cadre of trained killers became Los Zetas.

Scary-looking blokes like these changed the complexion of the Mexican drug wars.

It has been alleged that Guzmán Decena’s boss, Cárdenas Guillén, had the original idea. This is purportedly a transcript of a cell phone intercept made by the Mexican military that documents the birth of Los Zetas–

Cárdenas Guillén – “I want the best men. The best.”

Guzmán Decena – “What type of people do you need?”
Cárdenas Guillén – “The best-armed men that there are.”
Guzmán Decena – “These are only in the army.”

Cárdenas Guillén – “I want them.”

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Part of the success of Los Zetas stems from their willingness to do stuff like this.

Now that the Gulf Cartel had its own trained and equipped Specops unit, they exercised it. Z-1 and his troops collected outstanding debts, secured drug routes, and brutally exterminated the cartel’s enemies. They were fabulously successful. Cárdenas Guillén wielded his merry band of monsters to cement his grip on power.

This is Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. He would kill absolutely anybody he believed to be a threat to his power.

Ángel Salvador Gómez Herrera was a close friend of Cárdenas Guillén. He had even been named godfather of Cárdenas Guillén’s child. However, in this rarefied world of high-stakes professional criminals, the line between friend and rival can be thin. Cárdenas Guillén suspected that Gómez Herrera was becoming covetous of his empire. That warranted a phone call to Z-1.

Heed my advice and never accept the offer of a free ride from a Mexican drug lord. You’ll thank me later.

Immediately following the baptism of Cárdenas Guillén’s child, Gómez Herrera was invited to take a ride in the drug lord’s souped-up Dodge Durango. The newly-minted godfather sat in the passenger seat up front. Guzmán Decena had the seat behind him. The men exchanged laughs and basked in the moment following the infant’s baptism.

Then with little fanfare, Guzmán Decena drew his handgun and shot Gómez Herrera through the head. Mexican police later discovered his badly-decayed body discarded outside the town of Matamoros. In the aftermath of the execution, Guzmán Decena earned the nom de guerre “Mata Amigos” or “Friend Killer.” Apparently, he was good with that. The drug kingpin Cárdenas Guillén felt he had a buddy for life.

Eventually, Los Zetas felt that they didn’t really need the patronage of the Gulf Cartel any longer.

Eventually, Guzmán Decena and his fellow Special Forces operators came to appreciate that they really no longer needed the Gulf Cartel. They were accustomed to operating in hostile environments as a military unit and knew logistics, organization, and particularly extreme violence of action better than their soft decadent civilian bosses. As such Los Zetas took their show on the road.

These weapons were captured in an operation against Los Zetas. Notice at least four MG-42/MG-3 belt-fed machine guns. They didn’t pick those puppies up at an American gun show.

In short order, the military-regimented Zetas displaced the Sinaloans as the largest drug cartel in Mexico. However, as Putin is discovering to his detriment in Ukraine, the challenge is not seizing power, it is keeping it. As the original Zetas were captured or killed by rival drug organizations and the Mexican government, their replacements were not cut from the same hard stuff. Regardless, for a time, Los Zetas was the dominant drug cartel in Mexico.

All Good Things Come to an End

When Z-1 fell, he fell hard.

The life of a successful drug lord is both stressful and fraught with peril. On November 22, 2002, Guzmán Decena was taking a meal with a few of his soldiers at a restaurant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

Feeling the need to unwind, he knocked back some Chivas and snorted a line of cocaine before heading over to the home of Ana Bertha González Lagunes, one of his several handy mistresses. She lived only a few blocks distant. Wishing his dalliance to be uninterrupted, Guzmán Decena had his troops seal off the roads leading into the area.

The Mexican Army came down on Guzmán Decena like the fist of God.

Guzmán Decena apparently got his quick roll in the hay, but the disruption to the community was substantial. A local denizen saw the commotion for what it was and notified the Mexican authorities. The cops notified the nearby Mexican Army quick reaction force who descended upon the woman’s house. They found Guzmán Decena duly distracted and gunned him down like a dog. He was 26 years old.

The Rest of the Story

Systematically disassembling the leadership of these cartels is a Gordian chore.

Los Zetas did not take the execution of their flamboyant commander well. In the immediate aftermath, Zetas hitters kidnapped and murdered four members of the Office of the General Prosecutor near Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Mexican troops arrested Cárdenas Guillén, the head of the Gulf Cartel, in March of 2003.

The following year they bagged Z-2, Rogelio González Pizaña. Z-3, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, duly took his place. He fell in a shootout with the Mexican Navy in 2012. Chasing the Zetas was like playing Whack-a-Mole.

Despite his best efforts to cling to power, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén was eventually captured, extradited to the US, and convicted. He currently takes his mail at the maximum security penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The gory death of Arturo Guzmán Decena was the first real blow that the Mexican government landed against Los Zetas. While the organization came back like a hydra, Guzmán Decena’s killing made a serious dent. This story is ultimately a great tale of Good Guys beating Bad Guys, but there yet remain persistent rumors that the ruthless SF operator-turned-drug lord was actually murdered by his own troops on the orders of his former mentor Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. For a proper king, maintaining one’s kingdom can indeed be a full-time job.

Cops EVIL MF Grumpy's hall of Shame Hard Nosed Folks Both Good & Bad Some Scary thoughts Some Sick Puppies!

And Yes Missouri has the death penalty and is one of the few states that still regularly executes people.

Post author By Grumpy
Post date August 17, 2024
No Comments on And Yes Missouri has the death penalty and is one of the few states that still regularly executes people.

Grandmother strapped to wheelchair was forced to watch grave being dug before ex killed her: cops

Olivia LandA Missouri man with an alleged history of domestic abuse is accused of strapping his ex into a wheelchair and forcing her to watch him and his new girlfriend dig her grave before killing her, investigators said.

Tony Charboneau, 36, was charged with the murder of his former girlfriend, Amy Hogue, 43, and other crimes related to her death after she vanished on June 20, Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John Jones announced last week.

Charboneau supposedly got into an argument with Hogue, which led to him punching and stomping on her as she was leaving his home on the day she went missing, according to the probable cause arrest affidavit.

Charboneau and his current girlfriend, Brandi Luffy, then allegedly forced Hogue into a manual wheelchair and tied her arms and feet using ratchet straps, police said.

Luffy, 40, and Charboneau left Hogue strapped in the wheelchair while they gathered “shovels, tarps, pickax [sic], and a firearm,” cops said.

With the items and Hogue in the back of Charboneau’s car, the couple then allegedly drove from Charboneau’s home in Sullivan to a wooded area.

Once the pair found an isolated spot, Hogue was forced to watch while Charboneau dug a shallow grave, authorities said.

Charboneau then allegedly took Hogue out of the wheelchair and shot and killed her.

He “spent the rest of the day burying [sic] her in the grave, covering her with large rocks and tree limbs,” the affidavit said.

Luffy supposedly stayed with the car and served as a lookout for any passersby.

After leaving Hogue’s body in the makeshift grave, Charboneau and Luffy then burned the ratchet straps and tarp.

They also disposed of the victim’s purse in a river in nearby Jefferson County, police said.

Hogue — who had three children unrelated to Charboneau — was reported missing by her family around the time of the attack.

She appeared to have been trying to leave Charnoneau’s residence when she was attacked, Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“She was just ready to leave the residence, and that’s when the brutal assault took place,” he explained.

Hogue’s purse was found by authorities in mid-July, which was when “we realized she was probably dead,” Jacobsen added.

Charboneau was immediately a suspect due to his history of allegedly abusing Hogue — including a May 2023 incident when he supposedly hit her so hard from behind that she passed out, Jacobsen said.

Another case from October 2023 was also pending at the time of Hogue’s disappearance, Law & Crime reported.

After police found Hogue’s purse, they requested an arrest warrant based on the May 2023 incident and took Charboneau into custody on suspicion of murder.

Despite having their prime suspect in custody, the investigation initially struggled to gain ground due to the limitations of the rural area, Jacobsen told the Post-Dispatch.

“We are trying to piece this together with no cell service, so it’s hard to ping phones,” Jacobsen said.

“So it’s old school police work, knocking on doors, interviewing everybody that we encounter, executing search warrants. They are literally boots on the ground. No technology in God’s country. And with no cell service, you’re not leaving a digital footprint.”

On Aug. 2, Luffy admitted to helping Charboneau kill Hogue and dispose of her remains, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Investigators dug up Hogue’s remains, which were “partially decomposed with an obvious bullet wound” to the head, the document added.

In addition to first-degree murder, Charboneau was charged with domestic assault, kidnapping, abandonment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, prosecutors said.

Luffy was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, abandonment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

Both remain behind bars on $1 million cash-only bond.

“This crime is heinous, and it was pointless,” Jacobsen told KDSK of Hogue’s killing.

“That makes it even worse, the fact that she finally got enough and she was ready to leave and get away from this situation, and she was killed for it.”

The isolated area made it even harder for Hogue and other domestic violence victims to seek help, he added.

“There’s hardly any cell service here. So if you do need help, it’s pretty hard to get help. There’s a lot of things that could have changed in this situation,” he said.

Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John I. Jones IV said in a statement that his office would “not rest” until the suspects were brought to justice.

Hogue was remembered by her family as a loving mother and brand-new grandmother.

Hogue vanished just four days after her first grandson was born, her daughter-in-law wrote on the family’s GoFundMe page.

Because her son and his family live in Louisiana, Hogue never got to meet the baby before she was killed, the grieving relative added.

“She was a mother and my best friend. She did not deserve this,” Hogue’s son, Corbin Crider, wrote in a Facebook tribute.

“There are truly monsters in this world we live in,” he added.

Gear & Stuff Grumpy's hall of Shame Some Sick Puppies! You have to be kidding, right!?!

You have got to be kidding me !!!

Post author By Grumpy
Post date May 15, 2024
No Comments on You have got to be kidding me !!!

“In some markets, the blade creates an image of a weapon. I have in mind creating a tool that would be useful for cyclists. Cyclists have a need for specific tools but not necessarily a blade,” he said. “We already have a tool specifically for golfers.”

Last week, Mr Justice Saini blamed the “plague of knife crime” in Bristol and surrounding areas for the murder of 16-year-old Mikey Roynon, a talented teenage rapper stabbed in the neck at a house party in Bath.

The same week, a 15-year-old boy who stabbed another teenager in the heart in full view of pupils leaving a primary school in Leeds, was found guilty of murder.

It came amid reports of soaring demand for body armour for shopping centre security staff amid a 65% rise in violent and abusive incidents in the past two years.

Under UK law, a person can only carry a knife in public if it has a folding blade that is less than 3in (7.62cm) long.

For all other knives, it is illegal to carry them in public without a good reason, which can include needing the knife for work, wearing it as part of a national costume or for religious reasons, such as the curved kirpan knife carried by some Sikhs.

Elsener said Victorinox was responding to the tightening of regulations by developing blade-less tools for specific outdoor activities or sports.

Victorinox produces about 10m of the pocket tools each year. There are about 400 different types to choose from, including one that boasts 73 functions. They have even been carried into space by Nasa astronauts.

However, until now they have always had at least one blade.

The company has already had to adapt its products to tightened restrictions on carrying knives and in the aftermath of 9/11 the company’s sales fell by 30%.

Even in Switzerland, the home of the brand, there has been discussion about what people are permitted to carry. In 2016, there was a parliamentary debate about banning blades longer than 5cm. One MP even asked: “Will the famous Swiss army knife be forbidden?” The proposed amendment was dropped.

The Swiss army knife was first developed in Ibach, Switzerland, in 1891 and was orginally referred to as an Offiziersmesser, or officer’s knife, as the company had a contract to supply knives to the army.

The product was given the name Swiss army knife six years later.

All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Some Sick Puppies!

Upcoming ATF Rule Will Ban Most Private Gun Sales by JAMES WESLEY RAWLES

Post author By Grumpy
Post date April 16, 2024
No Comments on Upcoming ATF Rule Will Ban Most Private Gun Sales by JAMES WESLEY RAWLES

The ATF’s new re-definition of “Engaged in the Business” of selling firearms is expected to go into effect on or about May 15th. The ATF’s Final Rulemaking was announced on April 8, 2024. Ignoring the weight of public comment, and ignoring logic, this new set of rules (see text at the ATF website) could make advertising and selling just one gun at a profit without a FFL a felony criminal offense. Even worse, it shifts the burden of proof from the government to individuals. In effect, you will be assumed to be guilty unless you can prove that you made no profit. Given the ongoing onslaught of currency inflation, just breaking even after allowing for inflation could be deemed a “profit”.

This new rule, which is 466-pages long, stems from the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which broadened the definition of when someone is considered “engaged in the business”. Creepy Joe Biden signed this law on June 25, 2022. By abusing Chevron deference, the ATF’s minions then created this 466-page monstrosity, to wildly extrapolate just 73 words from the 1968 Gun Control Act into this lengthy set of rules.

There are some vague exemptions in the rule that redefine the term “personal collection” to clarify when people are not “engaged in the business” because they make only occasional sales to enhance a personal collection or for a hobby. But the rule also calls out exceptions to those exemptions. Fo example, the new rule transforms “occasional” into just one sale at a profit, to qualify for prosecution under a Federal felony! The ATF has warned: Willfully engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without a license is subject to a term of imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. They want to make everyone fearful of prosecution, and bow to their will.

Again, the burden of proof will shift from the government to individuals, to establish if the modern firearms they “occasionally” sell are part of a personal collection, and whether those sales are not intended to make a profit, but rather just to improve a collection.

The government use vague and ambiguous definitions where it suits them (like refusing to assign any number or frequency to the term “occasional”), but elsewhere in their rules they come down hard, with strict and picky definitions, to their advantage.

Absurdly, the word “sale” is redefined by the new rule, to include bartering between residents of the same state.

Even more absurdly, the ruling fabricates from thin air several new standards of “evidence” of criminal intent, none of which were mentioned in congressional legislation, such as:

Repetitively selling guns “…that are of the same or similar kind (i.e., make/manufacturer, model,
caliber/gauge, and action) and type…” — as proof of intent to be “engaged in the business”.

or,

Keeping a gun less than 30 days before reselling it — as proof of intent to be “engaged in the business”.

or,

including a factory box (“…persons who repetitively sell firearms in new condition or in like-new
condition in their original packaging…”) — as proof of intent to be “engaged in the business”.

or,

Keeping records of original cost versus sales price — as proof of intent to be “engaged in the business”.

The ATF rule includes this phrase: “…makes and maintains records to document, track, or calculate profits and losses from firearms repetitively purchased for resale.” It bears mention that keeping records is often needed for tax or insurance purposes, but the ATF sees this as further evidence of someone’s intent to be “engaged in the business”

Elsewhere in the same 466-page-long set of rules, we learn that a lack of original purchase cost records would make it almost impossible to prove that you didn’t later re-sell any particular gun at a higher price. Thus, it is a case of: “You are damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” So, from a practical standpoint, what are we expected to do? A.) Not keep records, but then be unable to document that we weren’t seeking a profit, or B.) Hide our cost basis records, and only reveal them if we are later charged with being “engaged in the business” without a license, to prove our innocence? This all flies in the face of the time-honored “innocent until proven guilty” principle in American jurisprudence.

Sadly, the DOJ’s comment period for the proposed rulemaking has come and gone, and this new set of rules may stand, even if the Supreme Court does away with Chevron deference, with the upcoming Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo case. We will simply have to live with it, most likely for several years.

INTRASTATE VERSUS INTERSTATE

By their very nature private party sales through local classified ads or at gun shows are intrastate (within a state) commerce. Buyers, sellers, and merchandise do not cross state lines. The Federal government only has constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. By effectively banning private party sales between residents of the same state, this new rule is a gross overreach of Federal authority. The ATF claims that they have authority because intrastate somehow magically “affect interstate commerce. I spelled out their illogical nonsense in a recent SurvivalBlog article, titled: Fencing In Federal Jurisdiction.

PRE-1899 GUNS ARE EXEMPT

Thankfully, pre-1899 antique guns and blackpowder replica guns are exempt from the new rules. Per the Gun Control Act of 1968, any gun with a frame or receiver made on or before December 31, 1898 is not considered a “firearm”, regardless of its chambering, ignition system, or configuration. With the exceptions of only short-barreled cartridge rifles or shotguns, or full-auto guns (per the National Firearms Act of 1934) all other “antiques” are outside of Federal jurisdiction. Note, however, that some state and local laws apply. Needless, to say, after this rule goes into effect I expect to see some brisk sales of my pre-1899 antiques and percussion black powder replicas, at Elk Creek Company. I invested in a big vault full of the right guns!

THE CLOCK IS TICKING!

I’ve warned SurvivalBlog readers about this upcoming rule for more than four years. (See: Preparing for a Private Gun Transfer Ban, posted in January 2019, and Some Very Bad Law: The ATF’s New “Engaged In The Business” Rule, posted in September 2023.) I hope that my readers bought what they needed for their collections, quietly. (Read: Sans papiers.)

Some advice for those of you who live in any of the 34 “free” (private party sales) states: You now have less than a month to buy any private party guns or lowers that you want, to round out your collection. The clock is ticking. Do your purchasing while it is still legal, and while there are still some willing sellers. After the rule goes into effect, most people will be frightened into compliance, and nearly all sales of modern (post-1898) guns will be shifted to FFL channels — which means filling out an ATF Form 4473, and submitting to an FBI background check. Gun shows as we now know them in the 34 free states will become a thing of the past. The selection of guns offered privately will become pitifully small. There will be just a handful, and your chance of finding a particular model variant will become almost nonexistent, unless you submit to the Federal paperwork and background check.

Bottom line: Unless this rule is suspended or overthrown by the courts, by June of 2024, all gun shows will resemble California gun shows, where any modern guns get transferred only through Federally-licensed “transfer dealers.” This deeply saddens and troubles me. Another nail has been added to the coffin of American liberty.

P.S. : A reminder that there were 15 shameless U.S. Senators with a “(R)” after their names who voted for the BSCA bill. They knew that this bill would end private sales of used guns. They were:

Roy Blunt, Missouri
Richard Burr, North Carolina
Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia
Bill Cassidy. Louisiana
Susan Collins, Maine
John Cornyn, Texas
Joni Ernst, Iowa
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
Mitch McConnell, Kentucky
Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
Rob Portman, Ohio
Mitt Romney, Utah
Thom Tillis, North Carolina
Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania
Todd Young, Indiana

All About Guns Some Sick Puppies!

Those bill collectors always know where you live.

Post author By Grumpy
Post date February 23, 2024
No Comments on Those bill collectors always know where you live.

Grumpy's hall of Shame Paint me surprised by this Some Sick Puppies! The Green Machine

Why Are US Military Bases so Dangerous?

Post author By Grumpy
Post date January 10, 2024
No Comments on Why Are US Military Bases so Dangerous?

All About Guns Some Sick Puppies!

I Inherit (and Defile) a Mint, Unfired WWII Pistol

Post author By Grumpy
Post date December 7, 2023
No Comments on I Inherit (and Defile) a Mint, *Unfired* WWII Pistol

Grumpy's hall of Shame Some Sick Puppies!

Good riddance – The hanging of the serial killer John Brown* happened 164 years ago today!

Post author By Grumpy
Post date December 2, 2023
No Comments on Good riddance – The hanging of the serial killer John Brown* happened 164 years ago today!

And yes my family did NOT ride for Mr. Lincoln! Grumpy

*The Pottawatomie massacre occurred on the night of May 24–25, 1856, in the Kansas Territory. In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces on May 21, and the telegraphed news of the severe attack on May 22 on Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, for speaking out against slavery in Kansas (“The Crime Against Kansas”), John Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers—some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles—made a violent reply. Just north of Pottawatomie Creek, in Franklin County, they killed five pro-slavery settlers, in front of their families. This soon became the most famous of the many violent episodes of the “Bleeding Kansas” period, during which a state-level civil war in the Kansas Territory was described as a “tragic prelude” to the American Civil War which soon followed. “Bleeding Kansas” involved conflicts between pro- and anti-slavery settlers over whether the Kansas Territory would enter the Union as a slave state or a free state. It is also John Brown’s most questionable act, both to his friends and his enemies. In the words of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, it was “a terrible remedy for a terrible malady.”^[1]^: 371

Background[edit]

John Brown was particularly affected by the sacking of Lawrence, in which the Douglas County Sheriff Samuel Jones on May 21st led a posse that destroyed the presses and type of the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom, Kansas’s two abolitionist newspapers, the fortified Free State Hotel, and the house of Charles Robinson. He was the free-state militia commander-in-chief and leader of the “free state” government, established in opposition to the “bogus” pro-slavery territorial government, based in Lecompton.

A Douglas County grand jury had ordered the attack because the hotel “had been used as a fortress” and an “arsenal” the previous winter, and the “seditious” newspapers were indicted because “they had urged the people to resist the enactments passed” by the territorial governor.^[2] The violence against abolitionists was accompanied by celebrations in the pro-slavery press, with writers such as Dr. John H Stringfellow of the Squatter Sovereign proclaiming that pro-slavery forces “are determined to repel this Northern invasion and make Kansas a Slave State; though our rivers should be covered with the blood of their victims and the carcasses of the Abolitionists should be so numerous in the territory as to breed disease and sickness, we will not be deterred from our purpose.”^[3]^: 162

Brown was outraged by both the violence of pro-slavery forces and by what he saw as a weak and cowardly response by the anti-slavery partisans and the Free State settlers, whom he described as “cowards, or worse”.^[3]^{: 163–166} In addition, two days before this massacre, Brown learned about the caning of abolitionist Charles Sumner by the pro-slavery Preston Brooks on the floor of Congress.^[4]^[5]^{[full citation needed]}

Attack[edit]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

A Free State company under the command of John Brown Jr. set out, and the Osawatomie company joined them. On the morning of May 22, 1856, they heard of the sack of Lawrence and the arrest of Deitzler, Brown, and Jenkins. However, they continued their march toward Lawrence, not knowing whether their assistance might still be needed, and encamped that night near the Ottawa Creek. They remained in the vicinity until the afternoon of May 23, at which time they decided to return home.

On May 23, John Sr. selected a party to go with him on a private expedition. John Jr. objected to their leaving his company, but seeing that his father was obdurate, acquiesced, telling him to “do nothing rash.” The company consisted of John Brown, four of his sons—Frederick, Owen, Salmon, and Oliver—Thomas Wiener, and James Townsley (who claimed later that he had been forced by Brown to participate in the incident), whom John had induced to carry the party in his wagon to their proposed field of operations.

Letter of Mahala Doyle to John Brown, when he was in jail awaiting execution, November 20, 1859: “Altho vengence is not mine, I confess, that I do feel gratified to hear that you ware stopt in your fiendish career at Harper’s Ferry, with the loss of your two sons, you can now appreciate my distress, in Kansas, when you then and there entered my house at midnight and arrested my husband and two boys and took them out of the yard and in cold blood shot them dead in my hearing, you cant say you done it to free our slaves, we had none and never expected to own one, but has only made me a poor disconsolate widow with helpless children while I feel for your folly. I do hope & trust that you will meet your just reward. O how it pained my Heart to hear the dying groans of my Husband and children if this scrawl give you any consolation you are welcome to it.
NB [postscript] my son John Doyle whose life I begged of (you) is now grown up and is very desirous to be at Charleston [Charles Town] on the day of your execution would certainly be there if his means would permit it, that he might adjust the rope around your neck if Gov. Wise would permit it.”^[6]

They encamped that night between two deep ravines on the edge of the timber, some distance to the right of the main traveled road. There they remained unobserved until the following evening of May 24. Some time after dark, the party left their place of hiding and proceeded on their “secret expedition”. Late in the evening, they called at the house of James P. Doyle and ordered him and his two adult sons, William and Drury, to go with them as prisoners. (Doyle’s 16-year-old son, John, who was not a member of the pro-slavery Law and Order Party, was spared after his mother pleaded for his life.) The three men were escorted by their captors out into the darkness, where Owen Brown and his brother Frederick killed them with broadswords. John Brown Sr. did not participate in the stabbing but fired a shot into the head of the fallen James Doyle to ensure he was dead.

Brown and his band then went to the house of Allen Wilkinson and ordered him out. He was slashed and stabbed to death by Henry Thompson and Theodore Wiener, possibly with help from Brown’s sons.^[3]^{: 172–173} From there, they crossed the Pottawatomie, and some time after midnight, forced their way into the cabin of James Harris at swordpoint. Harris had three house guests: John S. Wightman, Jerome Glanville, and William Sherman, the brother of Henry Sherman (“Dutch Henry”), a militant pro-slavery activist. Glanville and Harris were taken outside for interrogation and asked whether they had threatened Free State settlers, aided Border Ruffians from Missouri, or participated in the sack of Lawrence. Satisfied with their answers, Brown’s men let Glanville and Harris return to the cabin. William Sherman, however, was led to the edge of the creek and hacked to death with swords by Wiener, Thompson, and Brown’s sons.^[3]^: 177

Having learned at Harris’s cabin that “Dutch Henry”, their main target in the expedition, was away from home on the prairie, they ended the expedition and returned to the ravine where they had previously encamped. They rejoined the Osawatomie company on the night of May 25.^[3]^{[page needed]}

In the two years prior to the massacre, there had been eight killings in Kansas Territory attributable to slavery politics, and none in the vicinity of the massacre. Brown killed five in a single night, and the massacre was the match to the powder keg that precipitated the bloodiest period in “Bleeding Kansas” history, a three-month period of retaliatory raids and battles in which 29 people died.^[7]

Men killed during the massacre[edit]

James Doyle and his sons William and Drury
Allen Wilkinson
William Sherman

Impact[edit]

The Potawattomie massacre was called by William G. Cutler, author of the History of the State of Kansas (1883), the “crowning horror” of the whole Bleeding Kansas period. “The news of the horrid affair spread rapidly over the Territory, carrying with it a thrill of horror, such as the people, used as they had become to deeds of murder, had not felt before. …The news of the event had a deeper significance than appeared in the abstract atrocity of the act itself. …It meant that the policy of extermination or abject submission, so blatantly promulgated by the Pro-slavery press, and proclaimed by Pro-slavery speakers, had been adopted by their enemies, and was about to be enforced with appalling earnestness. It meant that there was a power opposed to the Pro-slavery aggressors, as cruel and unrelenting as themselves. It meant henceforth, swift retaliation—robbery for robbery—murder for murder— that “he who taketh the sword shall perish by the sword.”^[8]

Kansas Senator John James Ingalls in 1884 quoted with approval the judgment of a Free State settler: “He was the only man who comprehended the situation, and saw the absolute necessity for some such blow, and had the nerve to strike it.” This a result of the men killed being leaders in a conspiracy to “drive out, bum and kill; and that Potawatomie Creek was to be cleared of every man, woman and child who was for Kansas being a free State.”^[9]

According to Brown’s son Salmon, who participated, it was “the grandest thing that was ever done in Kansas”

All About Guns Grumpy's hall of Shame Some Sick Puppies! The Horror!

Let us hunt down this rascal that inflicted this desecration of such a Noble Weapon!

Post author By Grumpy
Post date October 6, 2023
No Comments on Let us hunt down this rascal that inflicted this desecration of such a Noble Weapon!

Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land Some Sick Puppies!

KPV Machine Gun – The Most Efficient Execution Tool Since the Guillotine by WILL DABBS

Post author By Grumpy
Post date September 18, 2023
No Comments on KPV Machine Gun – The Most Efficient Execution Tool Since the Guillotine by WILL DABBS

Kim Jong-un is an old school maniacal despot. They just don’t make them like him anymore.

The quad ZPU-4 anti-aircraft gun is one of Kim’s favorite execution tools.

Kim Jong-un was born in either 1982 or 1983. He stands five foot seven and weighs 290 pounds. At about thirty-six years old he is rumored to suffer from diabetes, hypertension, and gout. The supreme leader of North Korea is both a heavy cigarette smoker and a megalomaniacal psychopath. He commands the 4^th largest military on the planet.

I hate to descend into sophomoric anthropomorphism just to make fun of the guy, but he makes it so darn easy. Kim’s haircut makes him look like an obese hirsute mushroom.

Kim Jong-un’s extraordinary haircut has a name. They call it “Ambition.”

Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, was apparently an exceptionally gifted infant who was purportedly both ambulating and orating soon after leaving the delivery room.

Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, founded the modern North Korean communist state. Kim Il-sung’s official state biography says his birth was heralded by portents in the heavens. It also claims that he began walking at three weeks of age and started speaking three weeks after that. Wow.

Kim Jong-un’s dad was also said to be a musical savant. Apparently, his operatic efforts eclipsed lesser works like Mozart’s Idomeneo and Don Giovanni. All that and still such a snappy dresser.

Kim Jong-un’s father Kim Jong-il purportedly authored 1,500 books in three years while simultaneously composing six full operas. Giuseppe Verdi was not nearly so productive. According to his biography, Kim’s operas were the best in the history of music.

I always figured Satan invented the hamburger considering its more tantalizing attributes. The North Koreans claim it was actually Kim Jong-un’s remarkably constipated dad.

Kim Jong-il also supposedly invented the hamburger. He called it the “double bread with meat.” According to official press releases Kim Jong-il did not defecate and could control the weather with his mood.

It’s a good thing Kim Jong-il wasn’t born in America. Otherwise, Tiger Woods might have ended up being just some normal guy.

Kim Jong-un’s dad only played golf once, but state media reported that he had an exceptionally good day on the links. He reportedly shot 38 under par (25 strokes better than the standing world record) and landed a breathtaking eleven holes-in-one in that single game. Had I done that well I suppose I might have quit while I was ahead, too.

Any guy who could safely operate an automobile while most of the rest of us were struggling to master the flush toilet likely deserves his own nuclear arsenal.

Kim Jong-un purportedly began driving at age three and won his first yacht race at nine. He covertly attended a Swiss boarding school under the guise of being a wealthy businessman’s son. He was reportedly shy and quiet but a good friend with little interest in geopolitics. This remarkable prodigy currently commands 4,100 tanks, 500 combat vessels, and 730 tactical aircraft along with an estimated thirty to sixty operational nuclear warheads. His military still employs ZM-87 blinding lasers in contravention of UN protocol.

Don’t let the benevolent rotund Santa-like demeanor fool you, Kim Jong-un is a total nut job.

Someone who clearly believed himself a god sired this odd fat little man. As is so often the case, the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Crime and Punishment in the World of Kim Jong-un

Despite his obvious enthusiasm for wholesome American stuff like fast food, Kim Jong-un also likes to shred his enemies with crew-served weapons.

Since taking power following the death of his chronically constipated father in 2011 Kim Jong-un has executed around 340 people. The insular nature of his regime makes reliable information difficult to obtain. There was a rumor that he had executed a family member by stripping him naked and feeding him to ravenous dogs. This report has since been discredited. Apparently, he killed this uncle by strapping the poor man to a post and then chewing him to pieces with an antiaircraft gun. Of all the many-splendored ways to off another human being, fast-firing antiaircraft weapons seem undeniably novel.

Kim Jong-un’s ex-uncle Jang Song-thaek is shown here on the left along with Naguib Sawaris and, on the right, Kim Jong-il. Kim is rocking his classic signature American old person clothing ensemble.

The list of the condemned is indeed prodigious. Kim’s late uncle Jang Song-thaek was ganked for the catchall “Treachery.” For good measure, Kim Jong-un had his children, grandchildren, and sundry close relatives murdered as well.

Little makes a good public execution into a great public execution faster than a flamethrower.

O Sang-hon, the North Korean deputy security minister of the Ministry of People’s Security got sideways with Kim by supporting Kim’s uncle Jang Song-thaek. For this bit of poor judgment Kim had the man publically barbecued with a flamethrower.

In America making homemade porn movies just gets you some particularly repugnant diseases. In North Korea, the health risks are markedly greater.

Eleven members of a North Korean dance troupe were accused of producing a pornographic video. For their sins Kim had them secured downrange from crew-served automatic weapons and publically shot to pieces. The grand finale purportedly involved running over what remained of the eleven corpses with tracked armored vehicles until they literally became one with the earth.

Fraternal relationships are always complicated. Things are made all the more difficult when dad is a bloodthirsty dictator with a god complex who doesn’t poop. This is Kim Jong-un’s unfortunate older brother Kim Jong-nam.

Kim’s older brother Kim Jong-nam was originally the heir-apparent to his freak show of a dad. However, the elder Kim embarrassed his country in 2001 when he tried and failed to smuggle himself into Japan on a false passport to sample Tokyo Disneyland. After 2003 Kim Jong-nam lived in exile, sporadically condemning the government of his rotund sadist baby brother.

Kim Jong-un’s elder brother Kim Jong-nam died in a puddle of drool after being poisoned with VX nerve agent in a Malaysian airport.

In February of 2017 four North Korean assassins convinced Siti Aisyah of Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam that they were part of a TV prank. The hapless women subsequently smeared Kin Jong-nam’s face with VX nerve agent in the Kuala Lumpur airport. The elder Kim died in short order, and the four North Korean killers escaped back to Pyongyang.

Somnolence—The North Korean Unforgiveable Sin

Hyon Yong-chul was the second most powerful guy in North Korea until he fell asleep in a staff meeting.

In early April of 2015, Hyon Yong-chol was busy serving as North Korea’s Defense Minister, a position that made him the second most powerful man in the country. Before the month was out he was accused of a crime of lese-majeste. This French term literally translates, “to do wrong to majesty.” The formal infraction was “Failed to Carry Out Kim’s Instructions.”

Here we see Hyon on the left earning the death penalty. Imagine what might have happened to the guy had he cheated on his taxes or shoplifted gum.

He actually just fell asleep while Kim was speaking.

Let that be a lesson to you young people. Staying up too late binge-watching Netflix on a school night is very bad for you.

Apparently, Hyon’s inattention offended Kim in a serious way. Kim had Hyon taken to a military school outside Pyongyang and tied to a post. He then had the school’s students and staff mustered out on the firing range to spectate. Once the several hundred spectators were arrayed properly Kim gave the order and the fire from multiple antiaircraft weapons turned Hyon’s body into bloody goo.

The Guns

The ZPU-4 is a ubiquitous low-tech close-range antiaircraft system that enjoys widespread distribution throughout the former Soviet sphere of influence.

The consensus was that the tools used in these executions were likely quad-mount ZPU-4 antiaircraft weapons. These systems incorporate four different KPV (Krupnokalibernly Pulemyot Vladimirova) heavy machineguns firing a 14.5x114mm rounds at 600 rpm. To put that in perspective the .50-caliber cartridge fired by John Moses Browning’s M2 Heavy Barrel machinegun is 12.7x99mm. The KPV round carries roughly twice the muzzle energy of that fired by the American M2. The four gun ZPU-4 quad mount puts out an aggregate 2,400 rounds per minute.

Against modern airborne threats, the ZPU-4 is fairly obsolete and ineffective. The system’s true strength is as an antipersonnel weapon at modest ranges.

Development of the ZPU-4 began in the Soviet Union in 1945. The gun system entered service in 1949. The mount carries 1,200 linked rounds for each gun. The travel weight of the system on its wheeled mount is 3,990 pounds. The gun system is designed for close-in air defense against low-flying aircraft. The KPV has a maximum effective range of 3km horizontally and 2km vertically while remaining lethal out to 8km.

The 14.5mm KPV is a turret-mounted weapon on Warsaw Pact-era AFVs like this BTR-60.

In addition to towed antiaircraft mounts, the Soviets used the KPV on armored vehicles and naval patrol boats. In its vehicular configuration the gun has a shortened receiver, a heavier barrel jacket, and a longer fifty-round belt. The standard belt holds forty rounds. This gun is designated the KPVT or tankoviy (tank) version.

Mounting up a pair of KPVs in the back of your favorite Toyota farm truck turns the vehicle into a ubiquitous technical. A colleague who flew A10s in the first Gulf War tells me they brew up nicely when sprinkled with 30mm depleted uranium projectiles.

One of the more common applications of the KPV today is in dual mounts in the backs of civilian pickups. These vehicles are universally referred to as technicals. They are relatively inexpensive and highly mobile, making them the preferred weapons of terrorist and unconventional forces in many of your less well-funded war zones. A brace of KPV’s firing from the back of a pickup truck offers the modern sawed-off warlord with a great deal more downrange horsepower than might be afforded by man-portable weapons alone.

Denouement

Kim Jong-un may look like just another fun-loving man of the earth farmer. His megalomaniacal proclivities, however, make the man much more complicated.

It is easy to look down our long Roman noses at Kim given his many manifest psychotic eccentricities and wax judgmental over his choice of tools for executions of state. However, such events were spectator sports around the globe well into the 20^th century even in our own refined democratic culture. In 1903 a convicted murderer was hanged on the courthouse square in my placid little Southern town. Back then you could be accused, tried, sentenced, and executed at the county level. Oxford, Mississippi, sported a population of around 800 souls at the time, yet some 8,000 showed up from the surrounding environs to gawk.

Death by anti-aircraft gun might indeed be preferable to Old Sparky here. I’ve actually sat in one of these before. It wasn’t terribly comfortable.

Execution at point-blank range by a weapon system firing forty 60-gram high-velocity projectiles per second is likely a pretty placid way to go. I think given the choice I might choose obliteration by ZPU-4 over hanging or electrocution. It shouldn’t hurt long.

Under any other circumstance, this goofy rascal would just be some harmless fat guy with a weakness for ice cream and karaoke. Hand him the literal power over life and death, however, and it inevitably brings out his dark side.

North Korea is a monarchy by another name. While the less enlightened members of American society seem yet again to be swooning over the siren’s song of socialism, Kim Jong-un stands as another monotonous example of the inevitable end state of centralized power. Leftists think the reason communism has devolved into butchery every single time it has ever been tried is simply that those who attempted to craft this week’s workers’ utopia just didn’t do it correctly.

Despotic dictators share certain predictable common characteristics. Kim Jong-un is what we call down here in the Deep South a “Genuine Piece of Work.”

A 2007 psychiatric study of Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong-il found that all three men likely suffered from some toxic combination of the “Big Six” personality disorders. These included sadistic, antisocial, paranoid, narcissistic, schizoid, and schizotypal elements. In Kim Jong-un, we see a self-destructive yet unimposing soul raised by a lunatic and then granted unfettered power. In that context the remarkable creativity he exhibits when neutralizing threats to his sovereignty seems not terribly surprising.