Whipped Cream Difficulties

The NYT apparently decided they were going to use the run-up to Christmas to be cranky about guns.

I didn’t link to that Andrew Ross Sorkin piece the other day about using credit card purchases to (supposedly) flag possible mass shooters (and I won’t link it here) because:

1. Busy.
2. I felt like it got pretty thoroughly discussed and discredited on Twitter before I had a chance. Here’s one good example. The only thing I’d add that I really haven’t seen metioned elsewhere is: if you want to weaponize the financial system, don’t be surprised when the weapon is turned on you, Mr. Marijuana Dispensary Owner or Ms. Sex Worker.

In other gun news from the paper of record, they (and supposedly a congressional committee and “federal agencies”) seem to have it in for CZ USA. Why?

Three years ago, Sandy McDonald began finding the rifles, left behind by poachers, scattered near the dead rhinos he found in the game reserve he owns in Mozambique, just across the border from South Africa.
Mr. McDonald immediately recognized the weapons. They were .375-caliber Safari Classics, made by CZUB or just CZ, a firearms manufacturer based in the Czech Republic. Upon closer inspection, Mr. McDonald noticed something else on the rifles. Carved into the metal were the words “CZ-USA, Kansas City, KS,” suggesting that the weapons were from the American subsidiary of the arms company.

Yes: CZ rifles are supposedly ending up in the hands of poachers.

“Coming from a firearms background I recognized that these were rifles that are quite common in the U.S.,” Mr. McDonald said. “It left me wondering how they got out of the U.S. and into the hands of Mozambican poaching syndicates.”

How many CZ Safari Classics have you seen at the gun shop lately? “Quite common”? But I agree with Mr. McDonald: where are these rifles coming from, in such quantity that poachers appear to be just throwing them away? Are rhinos really so valuable that the rifles (which, remember, are imported) are basically disposable?

Neither CZ nor its American subsidiary has been accused of a crime by federal authorities.

…

But CZ officials said the guns that were found at poaching scenes were manufactured in the Czech Republic, not the United States. The company denied that any of the rifles came from its subsidiary in the United States — or that it had done anything wrong. And company officials said the weapons were legally sold to suppliers in Mozambique.
“Although the firearms were marked ‘CZ-USA,’ the U.S. entity CZ-USA had nothing to do with the rifles,” Petr Kallus, a company executive, wrote in a response to questions from The New York Times. “Rather, the marking ‘CZ-USA’ was applied to the rifles by CZUB as an international brand name only.”

You know, I don’t do a lot of hunting or poaching, especially of African game. However, I had the distinct impression from what I’ve read that many poachers are using surplus military weapons, like AK-47s, to do their dirty work. Not sporting rifles imported from the Czech Republic. Any poaching experts out there that can confirm this?

Next up: a few weeks ago, a guy held up two men in a New York City building, firing a shot during the holdup, and fled the scene. As he was running away, he ran into two NYPD officers. One of them gave chase. The suspect fired on the police officer, and the officer shot back.

And shot. And shot. And shot. All told, he expended 27 rounds and reloaded his Glock once. The officer eventually hit the suspect twice (in the neck and foot) disabling him.

The officer also hit five parked cars and one woman in the belly. A 12 year old girl was also hit by bullet fragments.

Unlike the two stories above, I think this is actually a fairly thoughtful and reasonable story: among other things, it talks about how difficult it is to shoot well under stress, especially with someone shooting back at you, and it doesn’t suggest the gentleman in question was a choir boy. (He was found with the gun and two kilos of coke.)

I don’t want to throw stones at the NYPD officer in question. I’m not sure my performance would have been much better in the same situation. On the other hand, I like to think I wouldn’t have been spraying shots on a crowded street, either.

John C. Cerar, a former deputy inspector who commanded the New York Police Department’s firearms and tactics section, said the way Officer Gomez shot while running was an anomaly in New York City, where officers are trained to control their fire.
“We tried to get police officers to be realistic that you’re better off firing from cover,” he said. “Less shots have to be fired if you’re in a good position. Shot placement is so much more important than the amount of shots fired.”

Two more things:

[The officer] had never fired his weapon in five years on the force, the police said.

Never? Not even in qualification?

The officers did not activate their body cameras during the incident.