There are those who think that civilians should be allowed anything the government/military has, including tanks, RPGs, and even up to and including nuclear weapons (if you can afford them). But would that include Rocket Cats? Or Dove Bombs? A military manual from the early 1500s shows illustrations of doves and cats that seem to have some sort of rocket pack or small cannon attached to their backs. The text, which is in German, helpfully advises military commanders to use them to “set fire to a castle or city which you can’t get at otherwise.” The author, Franz Helm of Cologne, Germany, suggests that the idea is to affix a burning sack to the back of local cat. . .
which would then hopefully run home and hide itself in a place where it could ignite other flammable materials, sending the whole castle up in smoke. University of Pennsylvania research Mitch Fraas could find no evidence that birds or animals were actually used in this way, which he says is a good thing, as it’s “very unlikely the animals would run back to where they came from. More likely they’d set your own camp on fire.”
Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from San Antonio, Texas. Hidden Forest Elementary on the city’s North Side was placed on lockdown for about two hours on Tuesday due to a distraught woman in a home across the street who reportedly had a gun. According to police, she received some relationship-related news from a man she lived with, and the man then left the house, leaving her home alone. A family member reported to police that she had a gun and was suicidal, so the school was locked down, with no one allowed in or out. The lockdown also temporarily stopped voters from entering the school, which was being used as a polling place for the statewide primary election. It is unknown if any voters were trapped inside at the time. The woman was taken into custody after a two-hour standoff, and was held for a psychological evaluation. No criminal charges were filed.
Iowa is taking steps to legalize suppressors, which are currently prohibited to private ownership by state law. A bill just passed through the Iowa House by a vote of 83-16, and now needs to be approved by the Senate and the governor to become law. One of the representatives who voted against the bill in the House was Cindy Winckler from Davenport, who said, “When a gun is fired, the sound it makes is a warning signal to those around that weapon. And if we muzzle that sound, we have a chance to muffle that warning signal.” She used the example of a school shooting incident, where if an active shooter used a suppressor, she feared that not everyone would hear the shots and react to them. The bill’s sponsor, Matt Windschitl, said that not passing the law based on possible future crimes is dangerous thinking. He pointed to the 39 other states in which it’s legal to own a suppressor, and the lack of statistical data showing any increase in crime due to the ownership.
James at Montactical sent us this neat video of DIY Kryptek Camouflage for your AR (or anything else, really). He’s using an airbrush, and he says you can do it with rattle can, but I can tell you from experience that doing stuff like this with rattle cans is definitely something that will take a time or four to get solid, consistent results. Still, it’s pretty neat to see what you can do with a weekend to kill.
The press release headline reads, Do Children Need Protection From Bullets? A New Indiegogo Campaign Will See. BulletSafe, whose products have appeared in these pages in the past, is floating the idea of bulletproof panels for children’s backpacks, and they’re using Indiegogo to gauge the interest. The panels can reportedly stop up to a .44 Magnum, and are made from the same materials as BulletSafe’s NIJ level IIIA Bulletproof Vest. They’re 12×10 inches and weigh 1.25 pounds. The eventual retail price of the panels will be $99 plus shipping, but you can have one for $89 through the Indiegogo campaign.
New from Trijicon is the VCOG (Variable Combat Optical Gunsight). The VCOG is a 1-6×24 first focal plane optic, illuminated by LED instead of the tritium used in the ACOG. It uses a standard AA battery, has an integrated base with large thumbscrews, and has a big meaty focus knob that looks like it’d be easy to manipulate with cold hands or gloves.
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