Gladeite

The above trip looks fantastic. Kruger is a great park. I would do everything I could to avoid the Atlanta to Johannesburg leg on Delta. I think they are the worst airline for Africa travel. They charge an arm/leg for coach and also a first born for business class. Several years ago I tried to upgrade to business class in Dallas and they wanted $8000 each for my wife and I one way. Got to Atlanta and tried again and they quoted $11,000 each for a one way flight to Johannesburg. I refuse to fly that route again. I like DFW/Frankfurt route and just got back from the Doha route on Qatar. Love Qatar Airlines and they treat you like royalty in business class. I paid $5000 for round trip tickets from DFW to Windhoek, Namibia. It was 14 hours to Doha. 9 hour layover at a 4 star hotel that the airline paid for, 10 hour flight to Windhoek. Very good wines, impressive meals and the latest in business class comforts. Individual pods, big screen tv, pretty comfortable bed, etc... I have friends who fly Emirates and have good things to say about them.

Yes, go to Dallas Safari Club convention. It will be packed on Friday afternoon and Saturday. If possible, go on Thursday or Friday morning. You will get the most personalized attention and better info. I have been many times on shooting safaris. Mostly culling for parks, conservancies, etc... Prices are all over the place and dependent on what you want to do. I have been Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, etc..... The Serengeti is very nice and there are great lodges, photo safaris, game drives, etc... You pick your level of comfort. Zimbabwe is nice near Vic Falls and Hwange National Park. Zambia has nice resorts just across from the falls. I am not a South Africa fan. Crime has grown exponentially in the past, especially if you are unguided in Johannesburg or Cape Town. The national parks do not have any crime problems. They are well patrolled and Kruger is a great park.

I have all of my 2015 F150 wrapped with the exception of the roof. Same color as factory color. Did it because I hunt a lot and tend to get lots of mesquite scratches on my trucks which bites my ass when I trade them in. Now, the film has lots of scratches, but none have gone thru to the paint. I will take it off in the next year when I trade for a new one.

I have the Shield RMSc on my 365. Really helps with accuracy. Not very quick on dot pick up though. I "hear" the xl has a different grip angle? At 15 yards my RMR'd Gen 5 19 is much more accurate.

72000 miles. Secondary hunting/Colorado vehicle. Rarely put in 4wd on hunting trips and drove it to Colorado about 3 times a year. I think it got abused during March winter storm in Colorado. Drove thru that crazy storm from Steamboat that morning to Castle Rock where the 100+ car pile up was. Stopped at shelter for night. That next day at noon, those with 4x4 were allowed to gingerly go down the interstate to Colorado Springs where the ice had melted. Was in 4 high all the way from Steamboat to Colorado Springs. At one point I had the transfer case locked and pushing snow at 10 mph. It was intense. Only did 2 smart things that week. Bought new BFGs and loaded 500 lbs of sand over the rear wheels before we left. . Never had a bobble. Wanted to sell it when I had trouble, now $7500 later I feel like I need to keep it awhile.

My 2015 F150 4 x 4 had a transmission crap out this past week. Repair $4000, rebuilt $6000, and new transmission $7500. That sucks.

Not a politician but spend a couple of weeks in UK last month. Every Uber driver, restaurant worker, hotel employee and UK citizen I talked to was pro Brexit. The immigration into the country is bankrupting the country. The social services cannot handle the influx of new immigrants. UK has very strict immigration laws and leaving EU will allow them to revert back to their own system of handling immigration. Every article I read and protest I watched seemed to be of immigrants not wanting to register for visas or go back to their country of origin.

Africa in 9 days. Culling for a wildlife conservancy. There is a terrible drought in Namibia right now and I am thinning the herds and providing meat for the nearby villages.

550 can still get you in plenty of trouble. And you're invisible, which is nice. I love my 535i w/ M package. Sport+, paddle shifting and lots of speed. I am a former GT3 track guy and this BMW will do anything you want for a street car.

Thinking outside the box, why not Hollywood? He would be the perfect stand-in for Dylan on Modern Family.

If you can focus at distance, you will love red dot optics. It allows you to focus on the target(threat) which is ideal anyway. The first day I shot red dot, I thought I had just wasted $1500 on a milled gun and sight. Second day, I was way better and starting to figure it out. By the third day, my accuracy level improved to a level better than anything I could do with irons at any distance. Now, nothing I owns competes with my G19/RMR. This morning, for nostalgia sake and the glimmer of hope that my Wayne Novak built for me LW Commander would hold its own, I did speed drills, accuracy drills and an IDPA contest. It was not even close. The glock was 1/2 second faster to first shot, 50% more accurate and approximately 1 second per stage faster than the commander. I carry the 19/RMR every day. I carry appendix only and can't tell the difference. All of the new holsters these days are optics friendly already. I wear Garrett Industries, Tier 1 and T.rex Arms sidecar holsters. I switch out depending on what I am doing. Hiking, walking around the lake and in town, I usually wear the Garrett. Out to dinner, in town, working I prefer the Tier 1 followed closely by the T.rex . I do still carry a 30s at least once per week. It is the closest gun I have to keeping up with the 19 and it will sometimes conceal better depending on the shirt.

Moving on to something a little more modern. My everyday carry is the Gen 5 Glock 19 w/RMR. The RMR is a game changer in terms of pistol accuracy. It does not do much for shots less than 10 yards since in defensive situations, sights are not really relevant. But at distance, say 15-25 yards, iron sights cannot compete. There is a learning curve to RMR and once mastered, is better than irons. With irons, you eyes focus on one of 3 things, front sight, rear sight or target. And as you get older, it is harder to focus on the front sight. With RMR, just focus on the target. The dot will appear and that is where the bullet will hit. Practicing with an empty gun will also improve your trigger pull and give you instant feedback about jerking, pulling, anticipating. After 1000 rounds, my G19 is the most accurate gun I own. My standard test is the IDPA 5 x 5 Bill Drill. I have iron sighted G19s with fiber optics, custom made 1911s, Dan Wessons, Sig P365, etc... I have the lowest score with the RMR. My times are similar with guns I shoot a lot, but the RMR is the only one that does not have penalty seconds added for missed zones. It is the only gun that I shoot the drill cleanly and have my times match my other pistols. My times are less than 30 seconds which is the maximum allowed for advanced classes. So I am not the worlds greatest shot, but I shoot pretty good and have decades of experience. I just mailed off my p365's slide yesterday to get milled along with a new RMSc red dot. I should have it back next week. The working theory is that if I can get this compact 12 + 1 9mm to drive tacks like the Glock, I may work it into the rotation. Pictures to follow.

My office was just around the corner on Shoal Creek when this happened. I remember going over there to get a bagel next door and seeing the cars, crime scene tape, etc... Brings back memories.

The SRO's reaction to this emergency situation is common for untrained or poorly trained human beings who are placed in a life/death situations. Without repetition and muscle memory built in, most people will react poorly. Under severe stress, the human body will shut down. Blood will first leave the fingers/feet resulting in a loss of fine motor skills. As the stress continues, the blood will leave the arms/legs resulting in a paralysis. There will auditory exclusion which is the brain attempting interpret sounds differently than they are actually happening. The brain wants the sound to be anything but something deadly or scary and will work to make that logical. The ability to make even the simplest rational decision goes away. I believe this is what happened to this guy. He was a bottom of the barrel level police officer who was poorly trained and completely overmatched for the event that took place. I am a big fan of training school teachers, administrators to be first responders. They have a built-in care for the students that you will not find with a rent-a-cop who only took the job because nothing else was available. I am also in favor of sentries/teachers/administrators at controlled entrances to the campuses. I am in favor of them being armed but I am sure not everyone wants that. No problem with that. They still need to be trained to profile, and sound the alarm to shut down the schools. Electronic locks on every door that can be centrally controlled will be a great help.

Gunwerks is a custom rifle builder that specializes in long range weapons. Their rifles are $1,500 to $7,500 without the glass. You can order one online, have it built to your specifications and pay for with a credit card. The rifle must be shipped to a FFL for the transaction to be completed.

It's not that Obama lied, he just politicized a statement about guns. Yes, you can buy guns online. You can pay for it and instruct the seller to ship it to a FFL near you. The FFL will receive the gun, and you will have to physically go to that shop, present ID, fill out the paperwork and wait while the background check is completed. Yes, you can buy a machine gun online. You can look at the pictures, make a deal with the seller, pay for it and have it shipped to a Class III FFL dealer. You have to physically go to that dealer, fill out more paperwork and pay a transfer tax to the government. To the uninformed, his statement is interpreted that you can buy a gun online and get it shipped directly to you and that's all there is to it. This is pretty standard political bs. Obama knows better, he is just being a politician.

Surprisingly, banks are not very well defended. There were abut 3000 bank robberies last year. Only about 150 of these banks had guards. About a 5% chance of there being any resistance.

I do not have all of the answers to keeping kids safe. I do know that school districts across the U.S. are becoming much more safety conscious. From Denver: "Here in the Denver suburbs, the district has built what is likely the most sophisticated school security system in the country: installing locks that can be remotely controlled and cameras that track suspicious people; setting up a 24-hour dispatch center and a team of armed patrol officers; monitoring troubled students and their social media; getting training from world-renowned psychologists and former SWAT commanders; researching and investing, practicing and re-practicing, all to ensure that when the next significant threat comes, it is stopped before the worst happens again." $3 million annual budget, 127 people and 85,000 students. I also think schools should adopt apps that allow students to report suspicious activity to administration/security officials. The Denver area schools use Safe2Tell and I have used CrisisGo. They are pretty simple to use.

They may very well end up dead. Many of them commit suicide. I would rather them do it at home, in the woods by themselves, and not after shooting innocent children. My point remains that the typical predator would not engage if he thought he would get shot/killed before he could complete his action. Columbine- psychopath and his suicidal/depressed sidekick. Entered school during lunch hour when they knew officer left campus. Resource officer coming back from lunch does not have his glasses and misses gunman. Understandable since he had 20/300 vision. Committed suicide. Virginia Tech- No armed guards near shooter. Shooter had free reign for almost 2 hours. Committed suicide. Sandy Hook- Elementary school. No resistance. Committed suicide. Parkland- One resource officer paralyzed with fear. Shooter ran out with other students. Sutherland Springs- No resistance. Resident across the street shoots him as he leaves church. Santa Fe- Captured by resource officers after failing to commit suicide. Highlands Ranch - Private security guard captured 2 individuals.

A person who can spot/identify a threat approaching a campus. Does not have to be a SRO/security. Teachers, maintenance workers, bus drivers, anyone can have a radio and communicate to administration. A 5A district near me just purchased a $130,000 radio system that connects administration with fire/police, teachers, maintenance workers and bus drivers so communication is easy across the system. This makes sure a person can't get dropped off by Uber with a rifle case, walk up to the school and gain entry without someone noticing. Same thing with taking guns from vehicle and walking across the parking lot. The point is to have a perimeter early warning system with effective communication. There are private companies that train teachers every day. School districts hire these companies and they set up training days. They implement lock down procedures, active shooter training drills, force on force training, handgun safety, retention and use, etc... Parents should have a say in all this. It is their children at risk. Come up with a plan that they think works. The internet is full of articles that support just about any position you can think of. As a large business owner, father of two children in the workforce, security hobbyist and generally interested in the future, it is my opinion that there is a percentage of young males that do not see bright future, limited opportunities and have general apathy towards tomorrow. I would like to see training alternatives that gives them a sense of hope and optimism about the future. Absolutely nothing. I started typing about personal preferences and got carried away.

The CNN article takes a position, then crafts the data to support the position. Sound familiar? Of the 288, the vast majority of these are one on one, essentially murder over territory, affiliation, affection, drugs, what have you. These are young adults acting violently. This study also left out large countries such as Russia, China, Brazil, and smaller South American and African countries that have much higher rates of violence. I personally hate statistics since they are crafted by human beings that are predisposed to a position and get a reward for having the greatest number of people agreeing with that position. The bottom line is that there are too many mass shootings at our schools. A job guarantee is wrong. Technical schools and learning a trade outside of college is a step in the right direction. Our government has a hard time with the most basic of coverages: I don't see match making as a step in the right direction. I would be all for a restriction on video games, pornography, violence on TV for our young people. The brain is developing until the early 20s. Smoking, drinking, sex addictions typically start during the brain development stage. Personally, I am for: Hardened schools. Electronic locks, armed teachers, entry sentries, etc... A predator is not going to attack a school in the U.S. if they think they will be killed in the process. Technical schools to gain the attention of young people that does not involve the challenging/unlikely prospect of college. It is an argument for another day, but college is a waste of time/money and unaffordable for a large percentage of our population. Restrict first person shooter/violent games to 18+. Send all pornography to a restricted domains that require age verification to view. Make the minimum age for smoking to be 21. Legalize marijuana nationwide for the 21+ group.

The above article is well written and has interesting data, perspective and suggestions. It is a human being problem. Controlling/limiting guns is not the answer to this rare occurrence. Identifying/helping disaffected young men in this country can help lower the rate of violence. I am of the belief that in this population of 350 million, we are going to have a certain number of mass killings each year, at least one of which will be at a school. My children are grown and own their own. However, my oldest daughter(no pic) is a high school history teacher at a large campus with a high percentage of underperforming and disenchanted young men. I have spent time with her principal and fellow teachers to discuss safety measures. The school has 2 resource officers and one central entranceway. One officer is outside and monitors the parking lots, walkways and entrance to the campus. He is the early warning if a gun/case is spotted. The second officer is inside the doors monitoring the entrance. He has the ability to electronically lock the front door if he sees/communicated to that there is trouble coming. In my daughters room, there is a blackout shade that can be pulled over the window, and when the door is closed, it is locked. We have worked on fields of fire and where in the room she and her students can be safe from fire thru the windows. The teacher across the hall is a relatively young male that has a CHL and carries daily. A super ninja could probably find a way in and shoot up the school, but the average idiot will not be able to.

I don't think gun laws are going to make a difference. I am a gun owner, hunter, travel a lot, and have quite a bit of security experience. This is a human problem. Human beings are doing this all over the world. In the U.S., we have round the clock news coverage and instant information via the internet. These same types of killings or worse are happening frequently in Russia, China, India, Brazil and especially Africa, where the human life is pretty damn inexpensive. It just does not dominate the news cycle in other parts of the world like it does here. I have AR type rifles and shoot them occasionally. . If they were banned tomorrow, I would not care in the least. They are not necessary for any type of shooting, but there are millions of them in the U.S. that are safely carried or stored every day without anyone being in mortal danger. I am guessing, but less than 5 are used each year in a mass type killing here. 5 is too many, but I'm not sure gun control is the answer. In a small country, yes it can be done. In a country of 350 million, impossible. A gun ban is not going to happen. Gun control is trying to work and failing miserably. There are just too many guns too many millions of rounds of ammo, and supplies from all over the world. As a small example, semi-auto weapons are banned in many countries in Africa. It is quite easy to by an AK-47 for $25 in a major city. There are thousands of them laying around from internal and regional struggles. China stamps them out of metal plate for a few dollars each.(As a side note, the natives prefer the .303 from World War I. Bolt action, uses less ammo and more accurate.) It is a fact that schools are a soft target. Easy to penetrate, not much resistance and multiple targets. Comparing them to Fort Hood is silly. Any military installation is a hard target from the exterior. No idiot is going to be able to storm a military base and carry out a mass killing in the U.S. Hasan was in the military and killed within a no firearms zone. It was an attack from within and is an exception in the world of mass shootings. You can make it difficult to enter schools by limiting access, metal detectors, early warning sentries and other hard measures. It is expensive but the only realistic possibility. Another way is to profile every white male, 14-20 years old, from a broken home, socially awkward, wears black clothes and spends an excessive amount of time playing first person shooter games. This is not realistic, possible, lawful or worthy of discussion. Having a security guard on site does not guarantee safety. How well is he trained? How will he respond to the 0.0007% chance that there will be a violent encounter? Will he panic? It is imperative that our children are safe and secure. Since we are not going to get rid of guns and can't seem to profile troubled youths who may mean harm to others,(even though there are plenty of warning signs), I see the only answer as harder perimeters.

Having a poorly trained school resource officer on campus is not a deterrent. Even a highly trained one is problematic due to the extreme levels of boredom that come with the job. Being at the right place at the right time (Columbine), stress induced panic(Parkland) are contributing factors of resource officer ineffectiveness. You will not be able to get rid of guns effectively. Too much resistance, too hard to control/monitor in a country the size of the U.S. Mental health is a huge issue. There were huge warning signs available for almost all of the school related mass shootings. There are studies that show that first person shooter games also have an effect on the development of the brain. These young boys are desensitized to shooting/killing. Schools do not have to be armed fortresses, but restricted and controlled access that eliminates the possibility of a shooter gaining access to the students along with deadly consequences of attempting this action will stop it. Col. Dave Grossman has an excellent seminar on school shootings and a book that is worth the read: Assassination Generation: Video Games, Aggression and the Psychology of Killing. I spend quite a bit of time in the security arena and always looking for ways to stop this type of insanity.

Unfortunately, schools will have to stop being soft targets. All predators rely on the ability to hunt/hurt with little chance of getting hurt. Look at all predators in the animal kingdom and they feed on the young, weak and old. They will go out of their way to avoid confrontation with a similarly matched foe(pussy exception, it makes everything act crazy). Same with almost all mass shootings. Parkland, Sandy Hook, Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, New Zealand, Columbine(to an extent) all were soft targets with easy access points and little/no resistance. A poorly trained school resource officer is not going to protect a campus. To be come a hard target, schools will have to go to controlled access points, metal detectors and security guards at the entrance to stop a threat. Rounding up the semi-autos is a noble idea, but will not happen in my lifetime. Hardening the schools can happen now. Greater communication in the system about potential issues with students that are exhibiting irrational behavior(all school shootings) can be improved. Make lethal consequences a realistic possibllity at the schools and these types of activities will cease.