Where's the cavalry?

Ten years ago, in the early morning of August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew howled into south Florida. Wind gusts were measured at 175 miles per hour--then the measuring instruments were blown away. The storm scored a direct hit on Homestead and Florida City, demolishing 25,000 homes and damaging another 100,000. Homestead Air Force Base was obliterated and never rebuilt. 700,000 people evacuated. Many just kept going since there was nothing to return to.

George Brown, a veteran, had never seen anything like it. But at least a shell was left of what used to be his home. He and his family, isolated from the outside world, began to gather their few remaining possessions. They placed their goods inside the roofless, windowless walls of their home and determined to survive until help came.

Marjorie Barber returned to her demolished home in the Goldcoaster Mobile Home RV Park. The entire park had been leveled. She enlisted the aid of her brother and set up a tent above the rubble. They salvaged what few possessions they could find, eating very little and drinking poison-tasting water. Little did they know that they would stay there for weeks, waiting for assistance.

Hastily assembled emergency crews were unable to cope with the destruction. An exasperated Kate Hale, the Dade County Emergency Management Director, called a news conference that was carried on national television. "Where the hell's the cavalry on this one?" she asked. Her outrage at the slow response of the Federal government to aid the victims was the catalyst to finally get things moving.

But it still took weeks, sometimes even months, for assistance to reach into the wasteland that was now south Florida. Those who wished to save their property and belongings were on their own.

Like vultures, the looters came. They moved from wrecked house to wrecked house, stealing anything of value. In some cases, the thieves turned violent, assaulting those who attempted to stop them.

George Brown kept his trusty shotgun handy. According to a recent article in the St. Petersburg Times, "when Brown spotted some thieves, he chased them away at gunpoint. 'They didn't want to talk to Mr. Twelve Gauge,' he said."

Marjorie Barber and her brother developed an impromptu strategy for safeguarding the few possessions left on their property. One slept while the other stayed awake, always with a gun at the ready. In fact, Marjorie Barber became a symbol of the survivors when a photograph of the gritty homeowner holding her shotgun was published in hundreds of newspapers and magazines. Eventually, National Geographic documented the strong-willed determination of the survivors by publishing the photograph.

Barber remembers one night when looters dropped by. She threatened to shoot them and they fled. "It gets to the point," she said, "when you've had everything taken away from you already, and then somebody comes in...and they want to take from you what little you have left, it brings out an instinct in you that you don't even know is there."

It was a scene that played itself out over and over. Many moved into tent cities for protection. The "cities" were patrolled and guarded by citizens with guns. In some instances, people remained there for months until the National Guard finally took control.

Liberty City. Watts. The Rodney King riots. The images burn in our minds. Gutted buildings, flames rising hundreds of feet in the air, automobiles shattered and overturned like toy cars. And on those same streets, roaming bands of thugs brutally beating and killing the unprotected.

Anyone who would disarm us would leave victims defenseless in the face of another such disaster.

Robert A. Waters' new book, Gun Save Lives: True Stories of Americans Defending Their Lives with Firearms, is available at http://www.robertwaters.net or through your local book store. Other articles from Mr. Waters can be read in his archives here: http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com/Waters.

QUOTES TO REMEMBER Most of us could get along better with much less government than we have; there are others though who seem to require lifelong shepherding from pre-natal care to the electric chair. It makes no sense to talk of self-government to a man who cannot even govern his own behavior. — Paul Kirchner

My son lived through Andrew. He kept a .45 on his hip for 2 wks.

A TV crew was interviewing a homeowner on camera, in the background looters were trying to steal his belongings!

In another instance, a semi filled w/ food drove down from NC. At a National Guard roadblock on US 1 near Allapattah Dr. they stopped the truck. The NG told the driver he was on his own from there south. They couldn't protect him from people rushing the truck. The driver turned around and came back to NC., with his load.

I lived in South Florida then, about 50 miles north of where the eye made landfall.

I was well aware of the people protecting their property with their guns until civilization returned. The police made an announcement just before the hurricane hit. They told us that once the winds exceeded 45 mph, we were on our own until all was quiet again. They would not come out for any emergency in the high winds.

Can't blame them, but then you have to be prepared to take care of yourself, don't you? Anyone who would deprive you of that capability is just plain stupid and/or evil.

I remember thinking that after that summer with hurricane Andrew in FL and the riots in CA that there would be no more nonsensical talk of gun control anymore. Who could have predicted the extent of the evil of our leaders.

I wasn't there for Andrew, but was around Petersburg, Indiana shortly after a tornado ripped through the town, destroyed homes, churches and a local school, and left seven of the folks there dead. Other storms had nailed other Indiana cities, so help was diluted more than otherwise might have been the case.

The town's water supply had been knocked out by flooding, so the National Guard brought in *water buffalo* tankers, and a local railroasd hauled in 10,000 gallon tank cars with water. Even a nearby budweiser brewery canned thousands of cans of water for local use.

About a week into the cleanup and recovery, somebody poured a gallon of paint thinner into one of the National Guard water trailers, and got some cleanup workers and kids sick as a result. I don't know why, and they were never caught.

But it's things like that which remind me what can happen when the lights go out and won't come back on, and make me glad most of my neighbors are about as well armed and equipped as I am.

-archy-/-

The Rodney King Riot in LA was nothing more than a blip on the social uprising scale, yet in spite of the efforts of police and fire crews, there were areas of the city which were completely beyond the control of law enforcement for about 48 hours. The armed citizen WAS the law in that region for that time.

A better lesson could not be learned, except by the liberal/socialist/"why can't we all just get along" crowd. The California legislature has since that time progressed a lot further down the road to producing a "gun-free Utopia" with the passage of about a dozen or so new laws designed soley for one purpose: To make it impossible for the law-abiding citizen to practise the 2nd Amendment.

Armalite AR-10 ... .50 cal Black Powder Kentucky Squirrel

Wish List: Barrett 50BMG (yeah, you heard me, screw you Feinswine! :-)

Well, I'd like a .50, but don't figure I really need one...though I'd prefer one of Pony Maples to one of Ronnie Barrett's....

MAK90, milled receiver
MAK91, milled receiver, 21-inch barrel, RPK butt
SAR-2, stamped receiver, 22 German magazines, SUIT sight on Weaver mount
National Match M1 Garand [USMC mods per Old Corps armory]
early issue Garand, 6-digit Serial Number, Springfield
Korean War era Garand, International Harvester
4 FAL-type rifle, 2 L1A1 Brit/Aussie, R1 and G1 FALs
M16A1 configuration AR15, built on PWA lower, with XM177 spare upper

French 1959 rifled musket, about .58 caliber
Smith breechloading Carbine, .58
1824 Harper's Ferry flintlock, 72 caliber smoothbore
1858 Remington revolver, muzzleloader, barrel cut to 5 inches
2 Finnish M28-30 Mosin-Nagant target/SK rifles, 7,62x53R
Finnish SVT Tokareva 7,62x53R Carbine

Winchester M1897 pump shotgun, 12 gauge, 28-inch barrel [TD]
3 Remington 870 shotguns, various barrel lengths, one with flashlight foreend, another folding stock shorty, third with rifle sights as slug gun. Usually carried in vehicles, all 12 gauge
Mossberg M9200 *Viking* semiauto shotgun, 12 gauge
Savage 24-C takedown .22/20 gauge survival combo gun

Norinco 320 semi-Uzi copy with suppressor threaded muzzlenut
k/31 *Suomi* 9mm machinepistol, several 71-round *Koskinen* drums
PPS43 *Sudarev* 7,62x25mm MP, 35-shot mags only [want Shpagin!]
1- 9mm Browning GP, C68 production, 82,000 rounds logged thru it since then
5- 1911A1/Argentine M27/Colt Commander, plus dad and grandad's Army .45 autopistols
1-DDR Makarova pistol, 1- Chinese PM, working on 9mm parabellum conversion for Makarov. Also Hungarian FEG in 9mm MAK
1- C96 Mauser *broomhandle* pistol with shoulder stock, 20 rd. magazine
.22 Lama 6-shot revolver [old, due for replacement]
.357 magnum M27 S&W revolver, 3½-inch barrel
.38 S&W *Victory* revolver
.38 S&W *bodyguard* revolver
Colt M1917 .45 revolver
S&W M1917/Brazilian M37 .45 revolver

Next projects: conversion of French MAS 49/56 semiauto rifle to use 25-round Mle 24/29 LMG magazines, maybe rebarrel to 6.5x55 Swedish cartridge.

Thinking about Calico M950 9mm autopistol with 50 or 100-round helical drum magazine...wouldn't that be nice in 9x18 Makarov chambering [no recoil/muzzle pull, plus noise suppressor...]

And various other assorted toys and goodies....

The California legislature has since that time progressed a lot further down the road to producing a "gun-free Utopia" with the passage of about a dozen or so new laws designed soley for one purpose: To make it impossible for the law-abiding citizen to practise the 2nd Amendment.

And that's the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, of course. That 200-year old imperfect but updated document is of course the contract between governed and government, and should that Second Amendment go out the window, so does all the rest of it....

From the lawful authority for a president and congress, to the very establishment of a United States- if the Californios want to tear it up and be done, fine. But once they doo, ALL laws that derive from constitutional authority are thereby also null and void....

And without a Constitution in force I will look forward to practicing Corruption of Blood upon their heirs and subjecting them to punishments both cruel and creatively unusual. Does a cement mixer truck with a few bowling balls and concrete blocks inside give you any ideas?

They've already surrendered their actual and moral authority, and the more they cheapen and degrade the constitution that protects them, the closer a day comes when bodies hanging from the utility poles will become commonplace. Not my problem; I don't figure on being there.

Long live free Texas!

-archy-/-

I envy (and drool over) your collection

'taint a planned collection so much as an accumulation gathered over the years, with repeats of things that have worked well for me, discards of those that haven't, and a few experiments and curiousities, plus family heirlooms, of course, and spares for other family members.

But if you care to get down to Texas one of these days, consider yourself invited to try a few out. Or maybe I can wander back up your way, where there's some pretty country I miss. Either way, I reckon a few good meals can be managed and some interesting conversation can be found.

My granddad's diary contains a grumble [circa 1925] that he had similarly accumulated more hardware than he really needed, since all a feller really needs is what he can swim a river with. Granddad was a practical sort, though there was no river within 125 miles of his Homestead Act plot of land- 640 acres.

Of course the old Grand-da didn't mention that the weight of the amount of ammo he had stockpiled would sink a battalion...

But I've come to figure that a person who knows what he's doing with them and likes to tinker can do well with as many shootin' irons as he has years. My 18-year-old son has not reached that point, though he's a fair hand with the Lee-Enfield he got from me for his 12th birthday [I'nm fond of them, too] and I'd need a few more to fill any such requirement myself.

It''s the proposed *one-gun-a-month* laws that concern me. That's really more than I need, but if such laws are passed, I'll comply with them as best as I can....

-archy-/-

Re: #9 I give up, What is it?
Regards
alfa6 ;>)

It's a Finnish L-39 Norsupyssy 20x139mm antitank rifle, firing a light cannon round [if you saw the German AA gun used for direct fire in Saving Private Ryan, it's the same cartridge] used for antiaircraft and light armoured vehicle use.

Though man-portable AT rifles are generally thought to be fairly useless against the frontal armour of serious main battle tanks, during 1939 the Finns faced an invasion by a million and a half Soviet troops supported by amphibious light tanks whose armor was thin enough that the then-new L39s chewed them to dollrags...the Finns other trick was to lure armoured vehicles onto frozen lakes [-40º winter that year; worst of the century] that were then dynamited, sending the vehicles to the bottom with their crews, A few days later, the ice would be re-frozen over, ready for a new batch of invaders unaware of the surprise waiting for them.

Though no tank-stopper, the 10-shot semiauto [some full-auto, and some 20-round magazines are still to be had] found later use too, first against armored Russian Stormovik attack planes, thenm by 1960s, against similarly armoured helicopter gunships- like Mi-24 gorbach, AKA NATO name HIND-D. The Finns even came up with a unique *fencepost* antiaircraft mount for the guns that could be easily fitted to a cut-down sapling, vehicle pintle mount, or honest-to God fencepost....

By 1960s, some had been sold through US dealers to CIA-supported Cuban exiles, who shot up a number of Communist-bloc vessels visiting Havana with them. And sunk at least two. As late as 1970, old Finnish *elephant guns* were still killing Communists.... Interestingly [for you, at least] one group doing so was Cuban exile group *Alpha 66*....

Similar German Solothurn was maybe a bit handier, with dismountable barrel, but L/39 seems more accurate. And nowadays would be just the ticket for chewing up light personnel carriers, armoured cars and vital equipment, as *antimaterial weapon*, though at around $35 per shot, more cost-effective means are to be preferred. But the small arms designs of Aimo Lahti, from his pistols to machine-rifle to l/39 AT cannon-rifle, are at least as well thought-out as those of American John M. Browning. They work.

*more L-39 *here*

-archy-/-

But if you care to get down to Texas one of these days, consider yourself invited to try a few out.

When I leave Alaska (looks like 2006 now) I'll be retiring in the southwest somewhere (NM, AZ, NV, TX.) I'll have to definitely take you up on the offer. :-)

We'll trade some FReepmail. And there'll be a Texas barbecue and a place for you to visit, if you care to use that as a base for checking out Lone Star possibilities.

I might have a line on some interesting NM locations, and there are a couple in Nevada you might want to think about. But Texas has some good neighbors, and there are places where the price is right.

Watch your mail for an archynote.

-archy-/-

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