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Mark Zuckerberg hired 16 bodyguards to protect him at home

I don't know what he pays them, but armed rent-a-cops around here get about $22 per hour. They're either "short" MPs, or cops close to retirement, looking at filling in the financial cracks before full-time retirement.

Usually only the shift supervisor is allowed to carry cocked-and-locked. Unless there's actual gunfire directed at them, the underlings have to wait for direct orders from their management to go hot. Illegal Mexicans with previous narco employment could be hired for at least $5/hour less, and they'd have much more trigger-time on different weapons from their earlier employers. I can't say they'd get many more hits, but their spray-and-pray style would give them a better chance.

Have any of these billionaires gone out with their troops to watch them in a live-fire exercise? Maybe fire some of the weapons themselves to get some idea of what's involved? Of course they still have to maintain their anti-gun creds, so they have to keep that stuff outside the media.

Around here, a couple of small, high-tech defense contractors hire top-notch proven operators by paying them 2x what the feds do for the best grade of contractors. And only on the recommendation of their current experienced operators. They also start the wining and dining a year before retirement, rather than getting a business card as they leave out-processing.

They have incipient knee, arm, and arthritis issues, but they're happy getting $500K per years while mostly sitting behind a desk, and watching the sensor system. They know they have at least one more ambush or infiltration left in them, at least, even if they'll have to use a cane after that. Meanwhile, they surf the internet while at work, looking for new gear and techniques that could improve the job. They also keep an eye on the "farm teams" for young talent with potential to advance faster than the government training syllabus would indicate.

More money, and less of a chance of being shipped to some fourth-world hellhole on short notice can be mighty appealing, especially if you are starting a family, and you can come home almost every night of the week. And don't have to paint the rocks white around your unit's area during a slow time.

Mr. Zuckerberg, are you sure you're getting the security you want for the money you're paying?

If this really happened, I am surprised no one returned fire. This is a wilderness area, someone must have been armed, if only for hunting.

No, that's California. Guns are strictly forbidden to the law-abiding. Mountain lions are protected, humans are expendable.

If that had been a pot plantation, the state would have arrested all the unarmed hikers.

why not just issue them billy clubs ?

The Michigan NG did just that after Kent State. Not billy clubs, but riot batons. Even in simulated "skins vs shirts" practice out of sight behind the armory, the brass saw how friendly skirmishing could quickly turn deadly with guys who were inspired to get the best performance out of their sticks.

The brass went with smaller and smaller sticks, which just brought the skirmishers closer to the punks, where it was easier to conceal a low blow to help convince punks it was time to go somewhere else.

As "designated marksman", I either carried the radio for the OIC in the center of the formation, along with a "hot" shotgun with bayonet if I had to intervene at some point in the line where my buddies were in a spot of trouble. As sniper, I had my sniper rifle, some "off the books" match-grade ammo, and my spotter and his spotter scope. We were nice and comfy in some strategic position, where we watched for bad guys equipped with more than just 2x4s and football helmets. An incendiary or explosive device, which the bad guys were already warned about, either got it detonated in their hand, or dropped with a round somewhere along their arm.

Actual firearms not only got the original punk dropped, but the same for anybody that tried to pick it up.

It's always fun and games until you run into someone who is much more skilled, and serous about things than you are.

True - but NG soldiers bring their own.

True, but only if you fear death more than court-martial. We were given five rounds in Basic when we guarded the main ammo supply point, but that was because nuclear weapons were stored in some of the bunkers. Even then, it would take an officer to order "lock and load", although a senior NCO could order it, if he actually saw his troops taking fire.

See troops, or police, walking around with an empty magazine well, and no pouches for more magazines, you know it is just for show, to make someone "feel safer". That includes those in charge, who see their own armed troops as more of a threat to their future careers than to the disarmed civilians they are supposed to be protecting.

The pogues prefer armed rent-a-cops to protect the powerful over regular American military, who are woefully undertrained, especially in eras when the military cannot afford ammo, like now. With my permit, which will probably become extinct in the next administration, I carry enough concealed handgun and extra ammo to either get me out of danger, or to provide me with a more capable weapon that some enemy no longer needs. Even then, it takes me about 3000 rounds a year, paid out of my own pocket, to keep my skills current with anything I might come across, whether it's just punching holes in paper, or using the same type of computerized live-fire ranges available to SOME police and troops.

Always special when top atty of the nation says the law shouldn’t be applied to law breakers

Don't debate, vote, and remove the laws from the books, if approved. Keep them there for selective enforcement, waiting for a knowing "wink" from the DOJ. Most of those "non-violent" crimes were plea-bargains from something much more serious, done to save a lot of time and money in trials, and giving the prosecution a "win" with minimal effort.

People must be taught that the fundamentally-transformed "prosecutorial discretion" now means looking the other way on serious crimes committed by the powerful and connected, while coming down hard on what used to be considered "chickensh!t" offenses committed by the little guys. Examples must be made, by the millions, if necessary.

But with selective non-enforcement, there will be a lot more people and jail space available to fill with "gun crimes" and "hate".

The "guilty" guns aren't locked away, they will slowly seep into the "right" hands. Rather, law-abiding owners will go to jail, while real criminals continue to take plea deals to drop the gun stuff as a freebie while bargaining down the rest of the crime.

She abuses 911 that way and she’ll be the one going to jail.

Almost all states and localities have laws against "abuse of 911". However, "swatting" (calling police on fear of a gun) is hinted as being encouraged, because "everybody knows" this gives the "law enforcers" a wink to go ahead and kill those people who own and carry guns due to the "loophole" of the Second Amendment.

While only a few federal LEOs, and almost none in the non-federal ranks approve or encourage "swatting", they keep silent, because they still have to make a living.

The high-ranking federal "czars" are just waiting for some dumb schmuck to become the unintentional poster child for "swatting gone bad".

I’d like her to have to spend thousands defending against this ridiculous lawsuit so she can see what other people have to go through because tort lawyers are the dems biggest financial supporters.

She'll either get an instant tax-free charitable foundation ruling, or this will be considered an "official duty-related offense", eligible for federal aid as part of "doing business". Ambulance-chasers will throw money at her.

Great, noob voters embrace the philosophy of hitler and thus his deserved fate.

They were never told that NSDAP (nickname: nazi) meant national socialist German workers party. It was NOT shorthand for the Republican Party, despite what they've been told from birth.

It had two of their favorite trigger words in it: "socialist" and "worker". Of course, "worker" isn't too popular among the millennials now, except those further down the ladder of equality, who have to support the new "best and brightest".

It’s an Uzi. With a barrel extender and what appears to be a silencer.

Possibly a once-legal semiauto Uzi carbine with 16" barrel, and a dummy suppressor to disguise the long, spindly barrel. Can only be sure by opening it up. It had to be extensively redesigned to prevent full-auto parts from being used for an illegal conversion.

Somebody with a $12 Jennings would not usually have a $15K (if transferable) Uzi. You could buy a lot more Jennings with that kind of money.

I had Joyce Carol Oates for one semester of Honors freshman English. She wasn't too tightly wrapped, even back in 1969. After the first semester, she decided it wasn't worth risking her sanity to commute from Windsor to Detroit. The American dollar was nice, but not at the risk of losing her socialist soul.

>>Take them out with________?

I think "Paris-style" is a trigger word for "unarmed".

***they are “designed to kill large numbers of people quickly.” ***

Why doesn't somebody design a hammer to "hit large numbers of nails quickly"? The entire world would benefit, and make the inventor richer than Soros.

What intersection did you say they wanted to build it at? It didn’t say in the article.

Fifteen Mile and Ryan.

I might have to rethink my opposition to UAVs overhead. BATFE has been flying small aircraft overhead around here odd intervals for months. A 12-hour orbit for a Reaper would be a piece of cake, and take fewer people.

Just mark out a few kill zones in sparsely-populated areas along the route, and mark them prominently on the ground with those programmable traffic signs. After seeing how the alphabet agencies BS'ed us about the DC sniper for so long, I feel safer having some zoomies watching from 15,000 feet.

Why did the Muslims pick a block in the middle of Christians who fled Iraq due to Muslim persecution?

The parcel is oddball, shaped like a pork chop. That's why it's never been developed, despite the fact that the main crossroads is covered with strip malls, drug stores, fast food, and lots of small Chaldean stores.

It's also one of Michigan's worst locations for fender-benders. Probably because it's the most densely-packed commercial area in Sterling Heights on the intersection of two medium-sized, but heavily-traveled, roads. And parking already sucks around there right now. I believe the current plans have about seven parking places on mosque property. The other 50-60 cars there for services will park in residential neighborhoods.

The cherry on top is that the property abuts a large Chaldean Catholic church, social hall, and catering company. The ringing of bells before Sunday Mass is tolerated, but not exactly welcomed. The minaret of the mosque must, by islamic law, be taller than any church steeple, so they can get a really bitchin' reverb for a mile around for the 5AM call to prayer.

Try opening a Rib Shack in Dearborn or Dearborn Heights to see a scared city government pour cold water on the project, and come up with lots of reasons to deny it (along with free speech in general).

This is basically as good an idea as opening a Pork Palace in Mecca, but with more congestion.

Attack the operator, not the weapon.

Corollary: drunken officers, troops, and factory workers neutralize any of your "miracle weapons", even if they are based on stolen military technology that actually works for sober troops.

If you develop a sober, professional military, they'll discover that surrender to the Americans or their allies is the only sure guarantee of survival.

Yes, but you can’t buy napalm and agent orange at the ranch store...

The nice thing about the Detroit flamethrower is that it uses E85 gas, available almost everywhere. Finally, a practical use for E85.

The only downside I see is that the fuel can soak in, but it won't adhere. Someone will have to invent a thickening agent, like is used in napalm, to help it stick. It could be sold in stores right next to the other automotive gas additives.

People are dying in Pkistan due to drinking restrictions during a heat wave. Treason.

Inshallah. The dead males are unwilling martyrs, but martyrs just the same. The females? Nobody sure if they even have souls.

Are farm animals exempt from this? Guys would hate to loose a favorite goat or sheep.

I agree, this is how they inspire their nutjobs to action.

I live in the Detroit area. Lots of Russians and chicom here working on H1Bs. I guess they come from parts of the world where STEM geniuses just grow on trees.

One thing I notice at the semi-large gun store I hang out at is that lots of people here on temporary visas come in droves to rent guns and try them out on the store's range. They may go on the range with a look of doubt on their faces, but everyone exits with a big smile, often to buy more ammo and range time.

So much for being traumatized by guns in America. People with green cards buy their AR-15s, handguns, and earn a CCW permit. They usually make disparaging comments about their former homelands while completing the sale, and how nobody better try that again with them. The next time they come to the range, they bring friends and relatives with them, along with a large supply of cheaper ammo to shoot.

So much for the horrible transformation of innocent people, living in "advanced countries" when they start working in Detroit. The unilateral disarmers among us, with their hired-but-probably-incompetent armed bodyguards, know they can't get very many usable endorsements from real immigrants, at least in these lines of work.

The downside is the author of the article just HAD to use the hackneyed line 'packing heat' sheesh..

The article was written for Noo Yawkers, what do you expect? :)