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I own five hand guns: a Ruger.22LR target pistol, a Smith & Wesson .38 Bodyguard five shot revolver with integrated red dot laser and no safety, a Berretta FS 9mm, and two collector oriented M1911s.

The Berretta and the 1911 offer the most stopping power, so forced to select only two, it would be these. Debbie also owns the S&W .38 and recently bought a Carl Walther 9mm, which she thinks is going to be a more comfortable option than the S&W “shorty” Bodyguard. Remember my personal safety motto “Unarmed Is Uninformed.”

My friend and Cato Institute scholar Roger Pilon shines light into a scary dark Supreme Court corner.

Roger warns, “As many of us feared, however, it appears that the focus of several of the justices, perhaps a majority, was less on the law than on the ‘dire consequences’ that would follow if the Court decided that the law was clear and that, accordingly, the government should lose.”

Roger is clear: “The Obama team wants policy to trump law.”

Roger concludes, “If consequences are indeed our concern, let’s focus on the most fundamental of them, starting with those that follow from abandoning the rule of law.”

Related video:

It’s easy to expect the worst from the Clintons, because that’s what you usually get. Kimberley A. Strassel of the WSJ asks, isn’t it about time we drop the fiction that the Clinton Foundation is a charity? From the WSJ, here is a list of just a few countries that have donated to the Foundation:

• United Arab Emirates gave between $1 million and $5 million in 2014.

• The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has given between $10 million and $25 million since the foundation was created in 1999.

• Qatar’s government committee preparing for the 2022 soccer World Cup gave between $250,000 and $500,000 in 2014. Qatar’s government had previously donated between $1 million and $5 million.

• Oman, which had made a donation previously, gave an undisclosed amount in 2014. Over time, Oman has given the foundation between $1 million and $5 million. Prior to last year, its donations fell in the same range.

Does the Democratic Party understand the challenges facing Hillary should she run for president in 2016, asks Ms. Strassel.

“It’s hard to label your GOP opponent anti-woman when the Clinton Foundation is funded by countries that bar women from voting and driving like Saudi Arabia. It’s hard to call your GOP opponent a heartless capitalist—out of tune with middle-class anxieties—when you owe your foundation’s soul to Canadian mining magnates and Ethiopian construction billionaires. And it’s hard to claim you will fix a burning world when you owe foundation gratitude to countries holding the fossil-fuel blowtorches.”

Summing it up perfectly is a quote from Michael Short, spokesman for Republican National Committee: “When that 3 a.m. phone call comes, do voters really want to have a president on the line who took truckloads of cash from other countries?”

After a veritable furor poured forth from second amendment supporters around the nation, the ATF has backed off its proposed ban on M855 “green tip” ammo, at least for now. The ATF statement said:

Thank you for your interest in ATF’s proposed framework for determining whether certain projectiles are “primarily intended for sporting purposes” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(17)(C). The informal comment period will close on Monday, March 16, 2015. ATF has already received more than 80,000 comments, which will be made publicly available as soon as practicable.

Although ATF endeavored to create a proposal that reflected a good faith interpretation of the law and balanced the interests of law enforcement, industry, and sportsmen, the vast majority of the comments received to date are critical of the framework, and include issues that deserve further study. Accordingly, ATF will not at this time seek to issue a final framework. After the close of the comment period, ATF will process the comments received, further evaluate the issues raised therein, and provide additional open and transparent process (for example, through additional proposals and opportunities for comment) before proceeding with any framework.

That’s not exactly a final resolution to the issue, but it shows that second amendment supporters are making themselves heard in Washington. The comment period is still open, and it’s important for firearms enthusiasts to keep the pressure on. Read this post for to see how you can do that.

From Beretta:

1301 Tactical: Ultimate Reliability for Home-Defense, Law-Enforcement

The 1301 is Beretta’s new gas operated semi-automatic shotgun designed for law-enforcement and home-defense.

Engineered to be ultra-reliable and easy to use, it has all the features that a modern tactical shotgun should offer—and more. And thanks to its compact size (barrel length: 18.5”), it is ideal for negotiating tight spaces as well as for being safely stored away when not needed.

Easy Operation, Plenty of Features

Right out of the box, the 1301 Tactical features an oversized charging handle, large textured bolt release and an oversized reversible safety button. This makes it easy to use under most weather or lighting conditions—your hands will always be able to positively and safely grip it and operate the controls. Also, the aggressive checkering on the fore-end and stock makes it easy to gain a secure grip even while wearing gloves. As far as sighting, the 1301 Tactical features a robust, protected ghost-ring system with an interchangeable front sight, giving the user the opportunity to adapt it to its intended use, whatever the conditions.

Easy Customization to Most Shooters’ NeedsEasy-Operation

Although perfect out of the box, this tactical shotgun is easily adaptable to most users’ needs, body type and shooting posture. The stock is adjustable for length of pull with provided spacers, so that you can ensure it will always come up naturally to your shoulder and point easily to where you are looking. Drop and cast are adjustable as well. And for extra flexibility in customization and accessorization, the receiver offers a MIL-STD 1913 Picatinny rail, making it a snap to add tactical accessories without any gunsmithing or modification to the shotgun.

Super-Fast-ShootingSuper-Fast Shooting

The integrated BLINK gas operating system, featuring a cross tube gas piston, allows the 1301 Tactical to cycle 36% faster than any other shotgun on the market. This also makes it ideal for three-gun tactical competitions: when shooting the 1301 Tactical, you will simply and objectively have an edge over your competitors. And regardless of the use, with a 1301 Tactical you will always know that you have the best of Beretta to rely upon—with its unmatched 500 years of experience, passion and know-how.

Also available is the 1301 Comp, a version of this shotgun optimized for 3-gun and tactical matches.

NOTE FOR U.S. CUSTOMERS: In conformance to federal law, the magazine-extension tube is available only as an after-market accessory that the customer may purchase separately and install.

In an article from the National Interest, Dominic Tierney, Foreign Policy Research Institute senior fellow, writes, ‘The rise of alien warfare has crippled America’s capacity at both waging war and making peace.”

Dominic Tierney concludes, ”The solution may seem obvious: less war and less nation building. And indeed Washington should set a higher bar before using force.”

I have long suggested the original Weinberger/Powell Doctrine as a place to start in terms of war making realism.

Yesterday Debbie and I watched Clint Eastwood’s excellent American Sniper. It occurs to me that if every American watched Sniper in conjunction with Black Hawk Down, Americans would have a much clearer picture of what Alien Warfare is all about. I think most will agree that such warfare indeed makes America less safe, less prosperous and less free.

Tierney writes:

IN 2011, the United States launched a new television show in Afghanistan called Sesame Garden. It was an Afghan-themed version of Sesame Streetdesigned to win local hearts and minds. Unfortunately, the producers had to cut the Count von Count character because Afghans had not heard of Dracula and could not comprehend the fangs.

The fate of the Count epitomizes the new Age of Alien Warfare—defined by U.S. military operations in culturally unknown environments. From the War of 1812 to today’s campaigns in the Middle East, both Washington’s enemies and the local populations have become steadily less familiar in terms of language, religion and social traditions. Alien warfare reached its apogee with the post-9/11 mission to refashion Afghanistan—a landlocked country seven thousand miles away, with a largely unknown culture and a literacy rate lower than that of America in 1650.

You can get a glimpse into a beautiful economy by looking back to the early 1920s. James Grant, founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, has written a book called The Forgotten Depression. In it he describes how an economic crash in 1921 cured itself mainly because the government did nothing. Sound advice indeed. Listen to Grant’s talk to the Cato Institute here:

How does Washington react to a crisis? By spending and growing big government in the form of the Department of Homeland Security. And then to keep the party going, it scares the wits out of the public with “tales of impending disaster, as if ISIS were about to wade ashore in Miami.”

Writing in NRO, the Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner asks the all-important question: Do we really need a Department of Homeland Security?  “From a national-security standpoint, the DHS is part of the problem, not the solution…. If one of the primary intelligence gaps before 9/11 was the failure of agencies to share information and coordinate activities, it is hard to see how more duplication and fragmentation makes things better.”

Furthermore, as Mr. Tanner points out, spending for DHS has tripled from $18 billion in 2002 to more than $54 billion last year. This from an agency that is viewed as among the most poorly managed agencies in Washington. Cobbling together disparate, unrelated agencies ranging from FEMA to the Fish and Wildlife Service, writes Mr. Tanner, is an invitation for failure.

Today, the DHS is involved in investigating everything from movie piracy to counterfeit sports jerseys to pickpocket cases in New Mexico. Read more here from Mr. Tanner, who asks whether another giant federal agency is needed to fight pickpockets, often at the expense of our civil liberties.

For an absurd example of abuse of power, all under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, read here the WSJ’s “Gumshoes at Fish and Wildlife go after Indian headdresses.”