Snowflakes in Hell

Looks like we had our own incident in Philadelphia too. Lone gunman enters the Philadelphia Navy Yard Business Center and kills three people at a board meeting, then turns the gun on himself after a brief confrontation with Police.

UPDATE: Looks like the guy was a disgruntled investor from Newark, DE, who blamed the board for loss of his investment.  According to KYW, the weapon involved was an AK-47.  I can hear the editorials now “Clearly the blame can be squarely laid at the foot of Delaware’s inadequate gun laws that allow people have access to these deadly killing machines”.  Well, at least that’s how it would go if the board meeting was being held across the river in New Jersey.  Surely our Philadelphia media will use this as a reason to push for an across the board assault weapons ban in the state, even thought the weapon wasn’t purchased here, in all likelihood.

These are becoming incresingly more common, for people bent on suicide to go out in a blaze of glory. Carrying at work is not possible for most of us because of company policies against the practice, and social expectations in a business climate. But policies and social expectations aren’t going to protect anyone except the person who snaps and decides he wants to take a few hated coworkers with him.

I won’t advocate people risk getting themselves fired, but I’ve never understood why returning fire isn’t an acceptable means for dealing with workplace violence. You’ll never see that one in your company’s training video, I’d wager.

Michael Yon needs some help identifying what looks like some type of rocket launcher or recoilless rifle:

I’m pretty familiar with the world’s weapons sytems, but I have no idea. I’m prepared to say it’s a hack job.  I don’t think the Chinese or the Russians produce anything that looks like this.

h/t: Instapundit

Some photos of this weekend’s insane camping out in the cold and snow. We were on top of a mountain, about 2300 feet (which is high for Pennsylvania), so temperatures were close to 0 degrees F. I went with another blogger, who some of you might know, and met one of my coworkers and her husband up there. A few camping and shooting pictures here:

My coworker’s tent I nicknamed the Taj Mahal, because of its luxurious nature. The stove keeps it reasonably warm in side.

My coworker’s husband Steve packing the gear up at the end of the weekend. I owe him a Klondike Bar. I brought up a pack of them, buried them in the snow, then ended up skewering one of them with a bayonet as I poked around for them.
The best way to roast marshmallows is with a Mosin-Nagant bayonet. Nothing like mashmallows eaten with a hint of cosmoline and hoppes no 9. Mmmm.

Your host enjoying the last of his non-corrosive 5.45×39mm ammo fired out of the AK74. I have a whole crate that’s corrosive stuff, but, unlike with a surplus bolt action, you have to clean out the entire gas system, the flash hider, bolt and bolt carrier in addition to cleaning the barrel out. I had no idea they made 5.45×39mm with corrosive primers, and found out the hard way. I don’t win any fashion awards, clearly, but when in cold weather, if you’re going to shoot a commie gun, in a pinko caliber, you should wear a red army hat.

My AR-15 being shot by the mystery blogger. Maybe you can guess who this is?

I decided to take the Mosin-Nagant out into the cold so it could feel at home. Our mystery blogger had a lot of fun shooting it, despite the fact that the rifle brutalizes the shooter, much like the system that produced it. I’ve though about calling that soreness you feel the next morning after shooting that rifle “Stalin’s Revenge”.

Despite the casualty of a Klondike Bar, fun was had by all. Did a bit of hiking, including out onto the frozen lake, and a bit of dead reckoning through snow covered woods. Too much to drink Saturday night, combined with single digit temperatures makes for an interesting morning experience. Had to wait until the afternoon for the hangover to go away before heading out to the range. Both myself and the mystery blogger feel that arctic survival is a lot of fun, and would like to try it again sometime, perhaps for a more protracted amount of time. A bit of advise, though, about cold weather: water freezes. It’s a good idea to sleep with your drinking water, or when you get up in the morning thirsty, you’ll be screwed like I was. Fortunatly, the Taj Mahal had drinking water inside that wasn’t frozen, but I had to walk all the way over there with a dreadful hangover. Not fun! Because I was paranoid about carbon monoxide poisoning, I opted not to stay in the heated tent with my coworkers. Another bit of advise: 0 degree sleeping bags will keep you alive at 0 degrees, but they won’t keep you warm. It makes me want to try Alaska though sometime.

The Brady’s and their ilk are sure to jump on this tragedy before the bodies are even cold.  The press will want to play this up for the new Congress as well.

This highlights the importance of being armed where you’re legally able to be.  Details aren’t coming out yet, but it looks like an armed off-duty police officer may have saved a lot of lives.