SPITFIRE:

 So I am a slow thinking - half Irish, retired forklift driver, - but stuff gets learned from time to time .. such as my COVID infection sucks all the way.

I've just watched a great doco made by Guy Martin about rebuilding a 75 year old WW2 Spitfire Mk 1. The man is a working diesel mechanic, - motorbike racing nutter, and all round OK bloke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxnGJsVPIFA

A small issue with becoming aged is that many start to treat you as an infant again and discount what you say .. so you don't need to keep offering pearls to the smelly pigs unless you think it's worth trying to enhance their quality of life.

- I had a distant memory of watching a Spitfire "dogfight" high above the English Fenland at my Mums village Parson Drove as a kid with my father .. BUT that could not be - as that would have to have been around 1950-55 - several years after the end of WW2.

- Maybe it was the spirit of some ghostly pilot sent out of the sky to befriend a young kid .. BOLLOCKS.

However - Guy Martin explained in his doco that these marvellous classic fighter aircraft remained in service with the RAF until 1955 - so their crews would still have been flying and training out of these East-Anglian airfields back then.

Purely in the interest of the historical accuracy - Guy demonstrates the power of a .50" Caliber Browning against a BMW car .. lovely.

Eight Of These On Many SPITFIRES ..

I'm no true flying enthusiast despite working at Air New Zealand for exactly 29 years .. but those wee planes sure are beautiful eh.

Marty K.

Advertising is MIND CONTROL:

To date The Honourable Police Minister Chris Hipkins has neither acknowleged or replied to my open letter about the new SEPARATE Firearms Unit. - He may have been busy with the weekend Labour Party Conference ..

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- 'We can fix this with More Gun Controls' ..

Voltaire 1694-1778  is somewhat well-known for once saying, "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

Advertising & 'Spin Doctoring' are of the same stuff as PROPAGANDA .. The key is repeat,repeat,repeat,repeat,repeat,repeat.repeat,repeat,repeat,repeat,repeat

I've realized that we Kiwis are so strongly bombarded with advertising for a reason .. this is why I stopped watching "free to air" Television a decade ago.

Eat Apples and become Beautiful ..

The New Zealand ASA Advertising Turnover 2021 report was released in April 2022. The advertising revenue across NZ main media was $3.195 Billion dollars for the 12 months ended 31 December 2021.

https://www.asa.co.nz/industry/asa-advertising-turnover-report/

These persuaders do not waste money - they spend dollars to make more.

The reason commercial and political "Greedies" spend large budgets on advertising, marketing, and on 'educating' public opinion - is that we ordinary people ARE much more influenced by this propaganda than we like to think.

- How much of what you believe is what you are told to think by others? - Opinions are emotional things sometimes changed by persuasion - whereas the facts always remain FACTS.

- You must have noticed how much Maori ''Te reo' is being required to be spoken on our media lately - and how we are being trained by a campaign, to think of New Zealand now as "Aotearoa" (the North Island - but Niu Tirini would be better historically).

My guess would be that currently around 95% of New Zealanders are emotionally ANTI-GUN .. because they have been bombarded with repeated angry statements that GUNS are the cause of CRIME - TERRORISM - DRUG ABUSE - SCHOOL ATROCITIES - SUICIDES - ANIMAL CRUELTY - POLITICAL INSTABILITY - & POLUTION .. We are told Guns are to blame.

The sad REALITY is that people are the cause of that horror listing above ..  but, of course - that is only a fact.

It is abberant behaviour by unstable, undisciplined, 'entitled' deluded & deranged greedy selfish nutters that results in aggressive violence - NOT any machine or useful tools owned by responsible law-abiding citizens.

BUT WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN - WHEN YOU HAND CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY TO MINORITY OWNED 'CORPORATES' WHOS SOLE AIM IS TO ENRICH THEMSELVES AT THE COST OF OTHERS?

Indeed the legislation in some lands insists that corporates do nothing that is not intended to take profit.

Marty K.

Wild Bill HICKOCKS' Watch & COLT Navy Percussion Revolvers:

 Ain't it strange that the older I get .. the more I fancy 'old stuff' .. maybe it isn't at all odd really ..

The stuff that legends are made of .. 

Davis Tutt went West to SPRINGFIELD Missouri from Yellville Marion County Arkansas where his family had been active in The TUTT-EVERETT WAR - and he stayed there (unmoving - except for a later change of cemetary plots) after the morning of July 21st 1865.

Wild Bill Hickock was from Illinois and had headed towards the Western sunset with a guilty conscience - thinking that he'd killed someone in a drunken fight.

These two Poker players were "friends" despite having fought on opposite sides in the Civil War - and the fable of their fight has plenty of "MAYBE's" in it's telling. - Did Hickock father a child with Tutts' sister? 

- Was Wild Bill's then woman friend  Susanna Moore responding too warmly to Tutts' chat-up lines?

Tutt cleaned-out Hickocks cash at the card table and took his watch as security (That's real friendly eh) until the debt was resolved - but he then set about displaying the watch publicly to further taunt & belittle 'Wild Bill'

These two Western macho nutters faced off at 75 yards around 10.00 a.m.(or some say, at 50 yards, - just before 6.p.m.) after more argument about the outstanding debt and more drinks - neither rooster backing down from their public disputing.

Was it about women? - was it about money? - was it about that damn watch being dangled from Tutts' belly? Or was it all of that and more - with both 'hard men' needing to save face in front of the whole town?

Both armed and capable men were still shouting at each other in the hope that one of them would back-off when Tutt is said to have drawn and fired. - Hickock is said to have steadied his cocked .36" COLT Navy Model on his forearm before sending it's lead ball between Tutts' ribs into his heart.

Some legendary shooting ...

Maybe: Hickock's Gun .. Serial No. 204685 is recorded as being made 

in 1868 - THREE years after the shooting. 

- Attributed as one of a Pair Carried By James Butler HICKOCK:

The Wikipedia page on this fabled shooting is well detailed:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hickok%E2%80%93Tutt_shootout

- There followed a three day manslaughter trial for William HAYCOCKE (!!) - the name Hickock had used in that town - where the four witnesses couldn't agree who fired first - who drew first - or if the dead Tutt had actually even fired a shot at all .. but the conclusion was not guilty, - as it had been a "FAIR FIGHT" provoked by Tutt flashing the watch around ..

No-one bothers to record what gun Davis Tutt was using .. is it likely it was that other 'America's Gun' - a Glock ???(bad joke) ...

The Watch ?  .. Doubtful .. But getting warm maybe .. Is this a 'Gold Cased' Waltham Repeater' watch?

Offered by 'LiveAuctioners': Open face vest pocket watch of Wild Bill Hickok. Marked on the inside J. B. Hickok. 1873. Chain drive key wind pocket watch by L. Desh, Glasgow, Scot. From Pine Ridge Reservation. The lot includes a signed letter re: the history of the watch. 1 3/4" D.

Maybe .. but the engraved date 1873 conflicts with the 1865 shooting date.

American History is a bit like that eh.

Many publications note that Wild Bill was carrying a S&W No. 2 Revolver when he was murdered while holding the famous "Dead Man's Hand" during a poker game in a Deadwood saloon in the Dakota Territory in on August 2, 1876, - according to a release from Rock Island Auction Company. 

A historic Smith & Wesson Model No. 2 Old Army Revolver owned by Wild Bill Hickok was offered by Rock Island Auction Company in its August Premier Auction,  August 26-28 2022.

- This would be the OLD MODEL in .32" Long Rimfire caliber ..

Haycocke-Hickock died in Deadwood in 1876, shot in the back of his head by Jack McCall .. who eventually was hanged for doing it.

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.. Are any of you interested in seeing a true craftsman making a FLINTLOCK RIFLE the old fashioned way - using jigs and machinery he built himself - from the raw materials to a fine tool?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_O1-chxAdk

MartyK.

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New 'Firearms Unit' .. Open Letter To The Responsible Minister:

 Dear Police Minister Hipkins,

On 12 November 2021 the previous Police Minister announced "the establishment of the new dedicated regulatory Firearms Unit to manage changes to the new arms regulatory system aimed at improving public safety by stopping firearms falling into the wrong hands, and reducing the risk of anyone becoming victims of firearms crime.” - "This dedicated unit will allow arms staff to focus on this work within a unit separate from, but still aligned to, Police.”

I understand Minister - that in order to take possession of and to handle any firearm - these firearms registrars and inspection / examination arms staff - being separate from the exempted sworn police will be required by the Amended Firearms Act of 1983 to possess a current Firearms Licence with appropriate ENDORSEMENTS.

For instance you no doubt will be aware that the 'B CATEGORY' Endorsement to possess or handle any pistol requires full membership of an approved PISTOL NEW ZEALAND Club and range attendence a minimum of 12 times every year following the initial more strictly controlled probationary period.

As Minister, you will know that anyone such as yourself with a record of having been arrested and charged with any violent offence will not qualify under the current regulations as 'FIT & PROPER' to obtain a Firearms Licence within New Zealand.

I am not aware to date of any such membership applications by recruits for this dedicated Firearms Unit - indeed I understand that the complex Application and lengthy interview process currently applied to obtaining or renewing Firearms Licences here will certainly prevent many staff members of this Unit becoming lawfully operational by the planned commencement date of this December - next month.

One further small point of law directly concerns the meaningful function of this new unit and the safety of the NZ Public - regarding the SERIAL NUMBERING and registration of High Capacity Magazines for MSSA Rifles such as those possessed by Endorsed Licenced Collectors and the New Zealand Police Service.

Will you please Minister reply and comment specifically regarding these considerations.

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This numbering & Registration of dangerous high capacity MSSA magazines - together with separate approved Secure Storage is required under the operation of the amended 1983 Act as an essential part of enhancing Public Safety in the event of  them falling into the wrong hands by LOSS or THEFT - I request information as to what progress your Department has made towards the proper numbering and REGISTRATION of the many thousands of magazines issued to police that may be found in their patrol vehicles and the premises occupied by serving officers? 

- Please release & publish the detail of series letter numbering registration sequences and locations allocated to permit the identification of these dangerous Public Safety items when found ..

My third & brief question is .. How much taxation revenue is allocated to the formation of this Separate Firearms Unit responsible for the controling and REGISTRATION of lawfully owned firearms and what is the amount Budgeted annualy for it's ongoing function maintaining the safety of the New Zealand population from firearms crime?

Thank you Minister for your urgent attention to my questions,

Marty K.