Random Nuclear Strikes

In Snohomish County, just north of the King County Socialist Republic, a call made to the local 911 call center has made the news this week.

A 14 year old girl calls 911 after hearing what she thinks is someone trying to break in. The call receiver takes the info and says that she’ll get an deputy out to her. After waiting 20 minutes, the girl calls back saying that she still hears someone trying to break in and that no officer has arrived. The 911 call taker once again says she’ll get someone out there and once again no deputy arrives.

The parents come home an hour after the girl’s first call to find her in hysterics and now the story is news.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, a deputy drove by twice, but never actually went up to the house. The house is down a driveway almost 1/4 of a mile long and cannot be seen from the road. The department is being accused of negligence.

John at Just Some Poor Schmuck is an employee in a 911 call center in Oregon. He reads this story and says that this is the end result of a failure to communicate. I find that explanation to be quite correct. As John states, calls of residents scared at noises are waaaay too common and sometimes tend to get downplayed by some folks in the business.

But that is only the first of three problems on both sides of the story. I’m not even going to get into response times because not only was there probably a communcation breakdown to the point that the deputy probably did not know or didn’t understand what exactly the call was about, but as you can probably tell by the brief description of the residence, the area is rather rural.

No, the second problem is that this girl has been taught to rely on complete strangers for her protection. As has been shown in every legal case pertaining to the duty of police agencies to protect the people in their jurisdictions, there actually is no statute stating that they have to do a damn thing when you call 911.

Your safety and protection is your job. The constables are just there to mark where the bodies ended up. I have spoken to officers who have had go and calm down fully grown males who have locked themselves in their own bathrooms with their portable phones and waited for officers to arrive. This is just disgusting to me. I told one of these stories at a casual party and was surprised to be called “scary” when I said that if the wife heard something that bothered her, I would arm myself and go check it out.

Which leads to the third problem in this scenario that, while hypothetical, is not far-fetched in the least: That if the girl had told the person at the 911 center who took her call that she had heard someone banging on the windows trying to get in and that she had armed herself in the event that they successfully made entry, you can bet your first born that said emergency call would have turned into a priority call and every deputy in the area would have gone code to the girls address.

At which point they would have disarmed her, called the parents and possibly had Child Protective Services talk to the parents about the dangers of leaving firearms out where the yoots could use them to protect themselves.

Sad.

So I guess I’ll have to say that I’m playing with my guns this weekend.

Care to hazard a guess at what arrived via the delivery truck yesterday? Care to guess again what has my undivided attention this morning?

Ahh, yes. I am now the happy owner of a JLD PTR-91 in .308 Winchester.

I had to pick it up from the FFL I did the transfer through and then go immediately to work. I only got a chance to ogle it for a few minutes at the store, seeing as how I was very short on time, and then had to spend 12 hours at work not being able to even look at it. Very frustrating.

But now I’m home and I’ve taken it apart and put it back together, and fiddled with this and that, and have come to two conclusions:

1. It needs new rear wood

2. I need to buy more ammo because this thing looks at though it is going to rock.

The previous owner replaced the cracked plastic stock with some wood off of a CETME that looks as though it was used to break rocks. Also, the threaded inserts which attach the wood to the buffer plate in the front of the rear stock are a little loose, which will be somewhat disconcerting to shoot on Saturday, I’m quite sure.

I’ve been looking at my “stock options” and have decided to stick with a non-retracting/folding piece. I am also looking at having to find a stock with a bit of extra length as it seems that I am built larger than what the designers were planning for.

That leads me to either have to have something customized in wood or, if I can find one for a decent price, purchase what I’ve seen called a “Namibian” stock, like this one.

It is an FAL shaped stock that fits on HK’s. With an extra inch in length already built in and it also being more accepting of the inch-and-a-half thick aftermarket recoil pads than the narrow factory HK furniture, this looks to be just the ticket.

The front wood is a gorgeous piece of hardwood that I cannot believe came matched with the rear piece. However, it will probably have to go as well. You see, I want a bipod, and the only way to get a decent one is to go with the wide forearm furniture, probably also in black, that accepts the sturdy factory bipod.

The rifle came with a surplus leather sling and cleaning kit, as well as a red dot optic and mount, and seven 20rd mags. The leather sling and cleaning kit are going into a box, the scope mount is going into the aluminum pile because it’s a B-Square and the BSA 30mm red dot may just end up on one of my 22s. I haven’t decided yet.

The mags are all aluminum; five are real HK manufacture and two are Rhinemetal made. The previous owner said that a couple of them like to try and double feed the last two rounds, so that’ll be one of the tasks I’ll have set for the range trip tomorrow.

All in all, I’m just about having a difficult time containing myself about the rifle and I cannot wait until I can get it out and functioning in that loverly battle rifle sort of way.

I haven’t function tested it yet, but I am willing to say that so far, this may be one instance where you CAN buy happiness. For $935 (shipping included).

By the time I’m done with this thing, you all will be experts in HK accessories. And I’ll be broke.

Okay, so for National Ammo Day this year I did something different and bought ammo I couldn’t shoot because I don’t have a gun in that caliber.

Of course, I’m rectifying that as we speak (grr, 10-day waiting period, grr.)

Anyhoo, I picked up about 100 rounds of the Cor-Bon .380 ACP, and then saw this bunch of Lapua. Lapua’s a nice reputable company, and I know I’ll need some practice ammo, and the price seemed good. What was not to like?

Well, the cartridges got here, and the cardboard boxes were close to falling apart. (No, I didn’t buy enough to get the wooden box.) More distressing, the cases are just ugly:

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