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Comments and opinions expressed on THE KNIGHT SHIFT are those of Christopher Knight and not necessarily those of subjects discussed in this blog, of advertisers appearing on it or of any reasonable human being. Any correspondence/irate letters/lawsuit threats/Nigerian e-mail scams can be sent to theknightshift@gmail.com.
Is this a trend? If it is then I hope it's a growing one!
In the past few months I've found a number of young ladies - these are girls under twelve - who are not only gun enthusiasts but are also very adept with firearms. In every way pertaining to guns, from responsible gun handling to describing various ammo, each of these girls possesses more knowledge and expertise with firearms than most adults.
Here are a couple of examples. And as you can tell, these ladies also command extremely authoritative and articulate voices. No doubt a result of the confidence that they have gained from their gun ownership and use.
This first young woman, I discovered on Facebook from the ads for her father's VERY clever invention StopBox (note: I do not own a StopBox, but I do think it's pretty cool). Meet Emma Ervin, from the state of Washington. Current age: ten. Emma has been owning and using guns for most of her life. When she was seven she saved her allowance up to buy her first rifle. She has since gone on to be a much admired and respected competitive shooter. Emma is well versed in pistols (she currently packs a Glock as her gun of choice), rifles, carbines... pretty much anything short of a bazooka. Emma has a page devoted to her life and shooting career at the official StopBox site and her dad maintains an Instagram page with more videos of Emma in action.
Wait, did we say videos? Here is one of Emma, circa 7-8, explaining the four rules of handling guns safely:
Thank you for being you Emma!
This next young woman, I discovered her this week. Autumn Fry hails from Florida. She is presently eleven and a half. In another five or six years she may be dating. If that happens the guy taking her out had better come to her door with his hat in his hands, his hands in plain sight, and a TOTALLY cheerful disposition. Autumn is in her happy place with guns. She understands and appreciates their designs and mechanics more than most grown-ups. If you want a true education in firearms, you will find few instructors with as much expertise and pep as Autumn. She has a website called Autumn's Armory along with an Instagram page. And then there is the Autumn's Armory YouTube channel which as of this date has more than a quarter million subscribers. For a taste of what you're in for, here is Autumn's latest video, in which she demonstrates her love for a 44 Magnum:
Autumn, when the zombie apocalypse happens, I want to be wherever you and your family are.
And to the families of Emma and Autumn and every other young girl being taught to use firearms respectfully and responsibly: this blogger salutes you. You aren't only showing your little ladies how to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property. You are raising them up to have confidence and consideration. These girls are going to go far in life, and their parents have every right to be supremely proud of them.
I notice that all of the school shooters have been male. Never female.
Two things I can take away from this. The first is that based on this pattern it can be deduced that indeed there are drastic differences between men and women.
The second thing I take from this, is that there is something TERRIBLY wrong with how our society handles its young men.
The average boy once had a father, or at least a father figure, to look up to and learn values from. Values came from a lot of sources actually. The Boy Scouts, religious institutions, even teachers and principals. There was some authority figure who young men learned from. Learning everything from simple decency, to how to accord one’s self in honorable fashion with the opposite sex.
And then there is the basic psychological needs of young men. Needs to compete, to “prove himself”. Needs to achieve. Needs for wisdom and learning. The need for self restraint from falling to the lesser aspects of human nature. These used to be virtues of what was called “chivalry”.
From all of these and more, we prepared young men for their roles in the larger world.
We used to anyway.
Want to know what I blame this latest school shooting on?
I blame modern liberalism.
Our young men are increasingly without a father figure. There is rarely anyone to tell them what is right and what is wrong. The fathers among us should be going to bat for their children’s very souls… and they are failing.
Young men are denied the right to explore moral certainties… because in our “modern” world there are no moral absolutes, at all. How can there be? When our children grow up being taught that innocent life can be vacuum aspirated out of the womb.
Young men today no longer play “cops and robbers”. The “child experts” took away all of the toy guns. They apparently never grasped that such childhood playtime was actually instilling the VALUE of good versus bad.
All of these have been taken away from young men and instead they are over-medicated, under-educated, and have it constantly drilled into them that their natural hard-wired instincts rather than being benevolently curbed, are instead “toxic masculinity” to be punished.
We do all of these and more to our boys and young men.
And we dare lay blame on the damned GUN when another massacre happens?
We have DESTROYED what it means to be a man of virtue and character, that we were supposed to be teaching our young people.
And I can think of no more responsible parties for it, than those who adhere to modern liberalism.
Several years ago as a college student, I was minoring in secondary education. The intended plan was since I couldn't hack it in computer programming (with visions of being a millionaire like the guys who made Doom in my head) that I should focus on something I was actually good at: history, and teaching it.
The discussion in class one day turned to student discipline and keeping order in the classroom. Naturally it went on a tangent about school shootings. And I suggested arming the teachers with taser weapons.
It's a wonder I didn't get banished from Elon University right then and there, the notion was so radical and attacked. But this was before Columbine. Now? The thought of a non-lethal stun device seems almost quaint.
Under no circumstance is the Second Amendment to be violated. Some may not like it, but the right to keep and bear arms is the absolute final deterrent against government becoming all-powerful and consuming, and that is what the Founders intended. But schools, whether public or private, are special environments where immediate accessibility to a firearm may not universally be for the best. And yet, armed attacks on students and teachers continue. I could deviate a bit about the true cause of such atrocities, but that's for another post.
So... what is to be done? Because advertising that a school is a "gun-free zone" does not work, has not worked and will never work to deter a bad guy from storming the premises with a firearm and the intent to hurt and kill others.
Here, then, is my proposal:
Give those teachers who opt to be armed the right to do so, provided that they pass extensive background check and pass a mandatory training program tailored to address school violence and the responsibilities that will come with having a loaded weapon on standby in the classroom.
Install a lockbox in each classroom. Secured with a real key, not a combination lock. Only the teacher of that room and the principal will have a copy of the key, with another copy kept at the main office and retrievable by authorized personnel or law enforcement requesting the key through proper channels.
Teachers who choose to bring their firearms to school will be required to check them in at the office every morning, retrieve the key for their classroom's lockbox, and upon arrival at their classroom will immediately secure the gun in the lockbox.
At the end of the day each teacher opting to have a firearm available will remove the gun from the lockbox, sign the gun out at the office, and return the key.
The gun is kept out of ready reach but in a worst case scenario will still be within immediate grasp of the teacher. There is also a log kept of which members of the faculty are armed for that particular day.
It's as responsible and accountable a system as I've been able to conceive. Maybe more learned and wiser minds in regard to school safety can come up with something better. If so, I for one would appreciate knowing what it is.
But merely announcing that a school doesn't allow guns, with nice neat placards announcing as much to visitors entering the building, isn't going to save lives. Not from a lunatic whose only thought is to wipe out as many innocent lives as possible before the cops or deputies finally arrive. In this imperfect world, seconds count when help is still minutes away.
And people like David Hogg (whose fifteen minutes of fame are WAY past finished) need to recognize the reality of the situation. If they want completely safe schools, then "good feelings" aren't going to accomplish anything. Knowing that there are armed teachers and other staff on campus, who will fire back with deadly force if absolutely need be...
The psychological value alone in that merits considering arming teachers with appropriate weaponry, to be used as a last resort.
The greatest president of the past half-century - at least - and he kept a sidearm during his time in the Oval Office.
I don't care what your political persuasion, you gotta admit: that is severely hardcore.
The New York Daily News has an eye-opening story revealing something that until now only members of the Secret Service were aware of: that Ronald Reagan not only believed in the Second Amendment, he actively practiced it. Specifically, he had a .38 pistol nearby as a personal firearm during his time as President of the United States. He especially hid it in a briefcase as he traveled on Air Force One.
The article by Brad Meltzer goes into detail about what other presidents have carried with them. George H.W. Bush toted his driver's license around, and Clinton had a photo of Hillary and Chelsea (no comment). Obama carries a Blackberry but no wallet and no money which is why he's sometimes asked to borrow some (again, no comment).
But no one among the occupants of the White House during the past thirty years or so has done it as bad-a$$ as Reagan did.
Anyhoo, it's a very neat article if you're at all interested in presidential history. Kinda makes you wonder what else is still out there waiting to be discovered.
And then there's this: 4D printing! Objects which are manufactured in 3D "folded-up", then are allowed to self-assemble themselves. One possible use mentioned is being able to buy furniture packed-flat from a store, bring it home and then take it out of the box and watch it put itself together. More serious applications could be for building construction in hazardous situations.
No doubt parents across the country will be happy to know about 4D printing. It will potentially bring an end to those most dreaded of words found on just about every toy or game box: "some assembly required"!
Defense Distributed has made a lot of headlines lately about the Liberator: a firearm which is completely fabricated by "3D printing", apart from the firing pin. I think the success of this gun already is that it's got politicians like Charles Schumer and Steve Israel all steamed-up about it. Schumer wants 3D printed guns to be outlawed completely.
The thing is, politicos like Schumer can't figure out how to pull that off. 3D printing will soon be a household implement and if it can be drawn up on a computer, anyone will be able to produce a fully-functioning model right on their desktop. The computer doesn't care if it's a replacement part for a kitchen appliance or an action figure or a real working handgun. The barn door has been thrown wide open and there's no getting that horse back inside.
As of this writing, Defense Distributed's site has "gone dark".
But less than five minutes after reading about the government having the Liberator pulled from the web, I had downloaded the gun. And not once, but twice.
Here's how I did it, and how anybody else can as well:
Download µTorrent if you don't have it already (it's a free download) and run the install. Any other torrent client should work too. I found the Liberator files on The Pirate Bay. There are two torrents for it so far: here's #1 and here's #2. If either of those can't be found just do a search for "liberator" and "gun": I got those two results at once. The file size is 2.02 megabytes (such a tiny thing for something so much fuss about).
And then... just download your Liberator files! If you possess a 3D printer you can start making your Liberator pistol immediately.
I downloaded the file from each of those two torrents. It is on my hard drive. It is also on at least two USB drives that I've copied it too. I can e-mail the file to anyone, anywhere in the world. I could even set up a torrent on my own and allow people to download it from me directly.
In fact, it is happening right now. Not by me, but by other people. Lots and lots of other people.
Shutting down the Defense Distributed website was just about the worst thing that the United States federal government could have done, if it didn't want the Liberator to get into the wild. By trying to outlaw it, the feds have made it so that practically everyone can want it. Defense Distributed could not have asked for better publicity for and dissemination of its product!
I'll be damned if (Lord willing) I get blessed with children and I put them in a government-run school.
They're not here yet. But I already love them too much than to subject them to the insanity of a modern public school. And few things exemplify that madness more than do zero-tolerance policies.
(Hey, I ran for school board once. It can't be said that I never tried to make the public schools better. But things won't going to get better until more people get up the gumption to tell the bureaucrats "ENOUGH!")
Two stories demonstrating my point. The first is about seven-year old Christopher Marshall of Suffolk, Virginia. He was suspended from his elementary school last week per a policy of "zero tolerance".
Yeah, you read that right. That's all that little Christopher was doing.
From the story at WAVY.com...
Seven-year-old Christopher Marshall says he was playing with another
student in class Friday, when the teacher at Driver Elementary asked
them to stop pointing pencils at each other.
"When I asked him
about it, he said, 'Well I was being a Marine and the other guy was
being a bad guy,'" said Paul Marshall, the boy's father. "It's as simple
as that."
Christopher's father was a Marine for many years. He thinks school leaders overreacted.
"A
pencil is a weapon when it is pointed at someone in a threatening way
and gun noises are made," said Bethanne Bradshaw, a spokesperson for
Suffolk Public Schools.
The Suffolk school system has a "zero
tolerance policy" when it comes to weapons. And, Bradshaw admits, that
policy has tightened up in recent years because of widely publicized
school shootings.
"Some children would consider it threatening,
who are scared about shootings in schools or shootings in the
community," said Bradshaw. "Kids don't think about 'Cowboys and Indians'
anymore, they think about drive-by shootings and murders and everything
they see on television news every day."
And then there is the tale of Eagle Scout, honor student, devout Christian and model young man Cole Withrow from Princeton, a small town near Raleigh here in North Carolina. Cole had been skeet shooting and accidentally left his shotgun in his vehicle when he came to school late last month. Cole realized his error and sought to do the right thing: he went to the office and called his mom to come and take the gun out and away from the campus. Unfortunately one of the staff at Princeton High School overheard the call and alerted the police.
Cole Withrow with his sister Hannah Walker
Cole was arrested on felony charges and expelled. He will not walk with his classmates at graduation in a few weeks. All for trying to do the right thing in the matter. For trying to do what his faith and his vows as a Boy Scout would have him to do.
Cole will be allowed to graduate, just not from his own school. His family is fighting for Cole's right to be with his classmates.
Is it paranoia? Is it laziness? Is it intentional conditioning of the kids on the part of the public school educators and administrators? For whatever reason it is, this kind of thing has gone on... and continues to go on... for far too long.
Somebody educate me: how do people like Dianne Feinstein get elected to anything whatsoever? Feinstein shouldn't be trusted with city sanitation manager, much less United States Senator.
Speaking to an audience of 500 people in her hometown of San Francisco, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that game publishers need to make voluntary actions to avoid glorifying guns and violence following the Newtown elementary school massacre in December.
She noted that Congress would take action if the industry didn’t do something, according to the Associated Press.
“If Sandy Hook doesn’t [make game publishers change] … then maybe we have to proceed, but that is in the future,” said Feinstein.
She went on to claim that video games play “a very negative role for young people, and the industry ought to take note of that.”
I am going to posit something: that the Founding Fathers had exceedingly prescient foresight when they wrote the Second Amendment. If nothing else it is a last resort deterrent against the machinations of the power mad and the direly insane. The latter of which is represented by Dianne Feinstein and too many others in the halls of Congress.
No, I'm not suggesting anything. Just stating that We The People are our own best scare tactic that should give pause to the truly evil.
EDIT 11:35 p.m. EST: It's not about Dianne Feinstein per se, but Kotaku has posted a terrific and timely piece by Christian Allen. Allen has worked on the Ghost Recon franchise as well as Halo: Reach and many other successful video game projects. Titled "I'm a Game Designer. I'm a Gun Owner. It's Time To End All This 'Us vs. Them'", his essay delves into his life-long experience with firearms and his involvement with producing many violent video games. There's some harsh language so be warned. Interestingly, much of it is aimed (no pun intended) at the National Rifle Association...
In two months' time DEFCAD has garnered more than three thousand visits an hour and nearly a quarter-million downloads. What makes up the bulk of that traffic?
Guns, guns, guns. Parts for guns. Accessories like suppressors. Ammo casings for NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms and rifles. Even combat munitions like hand grenades.
And they all work too.
Provided you've a 3D printer, the right materials and a few other items that can be bought at most any hardware store, you or anybody else can spend a nice relaxing evening or weekend putting together a small arsenal in your home office.
Sorta brings whole new meaning to desktop publishing a magazine, huh?
I just downloaded a .22 single-shot pistol from DEFCAD, designed by a user named "caboose". The entire ZIPped-up file was over half a megabyte. I don't possess a 3D printing setup but in the future, that will probably be a standard appliance in many homes. I may take a stab at it then, if not sooner.
There's an intriguing article at Venture Beat about DEFCAD, including an interview with site founder Cody Wilson. Among other things he notes that DEFCAD is getting lots of visits from foreign countries. Might we speculate that at least some of that is from places with stringent gun control?
Why smuggle in weapons for your revolution when you can just get it off the Internet?
'Course, this will probably mean that 3D printers are soon to become a restricted technology. But hey, "when 3D prototyping is outlawed..."
Just when you'd think that the Department of Homeland Security could not possibly prove it's the most useless U.S. government agency in the history of anything... they release this:
So if a carbine-wielding madman bursts into your office or school and starts shooting up the place, fend him off with a pair of scissors! Unless he also has a rock because, you know, rock beats scissors.
Taking this video to its logical extreme, the safest elementary school in America is whichever one gets to have this guy as its School Resource Officer...
No mention in the video about protecting yourself against a gunman with, y'know, a gun.
Senator Dianne Feinstein - a person who exemplifies the absolute worst that an elected official could possibly be - is trying to ram through another gun control bill on Capitol Hill. It would take away dang nearly every firearm that We The People have as articulated in the Second Amendment... EXCEPT for her own and those of other government officials.
So lemme get this straight: Feinstein, who owns a pistol or two herself, wants legislation that will prohibit the "little people" from having guns but also wants to keep her own.
I am trying to be a man of polite society so I will refrain from using the word that many will be tempted to use in describing Feinstein. I can at least say with no small degree of accuracy "rank hypocrisy".
And then from the D.C. area there is the story of a man who several days ago came across a pack of pit bulls trying to maul a little boy to death.
The man fired his handgun at the dogs, saving his young neighbor's life.
Handgun and rifle magazines are selling out at Wal-Mart and other retailers and the prices for them are soaring on eBay and other sites. One gun shop in Charlotte did more than $1 million in sales yesterday: the most it's had in over half a century of business. With the increasing likelihood that the Obama Administration and too much of Congress are going to attempt restrictions on guns and magazines, people are gettin' it while the gettin's good.
So I can't help but think: a magazine isn't much more than a metal box with a spring. Come to think of it, that's all a magazine is. I could very easily manufacture a rough but working magazine - holding as much ammo as I wish - in a machine shop. Apart from the spring, EVERYTHING that I'd need to produce a magazine in an hour or so's time is within ready reach of me.
Hey, I've made knives. Making parts for guns would be the next logical step. And there are many with far greater skills who could produce not just the magazines but full-working guns, and possibly mass-produce them at that.
I'm guessing that if government restrictions are placed on firearms and magazines, that there will be a vast underground market for those produced in home shops etc. And every one of them will be unregistered and untraceable.
The realm of 3-D printing is one that continues to bear watching. A few months ago there was some legal action taken by Games Workshop in regard to a printable 3-D version of one of the company's more iconic models. At the time I remarked that the "Dreadnought" in question was worse than lame, that it was craptacular. I quietly wondered how long would it be before the quality of this kind of thing would catch-up to traditional molding and casting.
Ooh-boy...
From computer scientists at Harvard University comes some new software that will let you print highly-detailed and fully-ARTICULATED action figures! And it's pretty insane how the software does it too: it takes an animated 3-D character and automatically figures out where all the movable joints will be, and figures-in how to manufacture those joints in a real-world model. In other words you could take a picture of Shrek and turn him into a fully poseable toy. Or print your own Star Wars: Clone Wars action figures. Which no doubt Lucasfilm's licensing department would have something to say about that (and you thought Games Workshop's lawyers were bad...). But all the same, the Harvard thinkin' dudes are planning to make their software available commercially. Eventually. Click on the link above for some groovy pics and video of the process in action.
And then there's this lil' application of 3-D printing that's sure to put gun control nuts into conniption fits: The world's first 3-D printed gun.
Yes, it really works too.
Apart from the chamber (which remains solid metal), this .22-caliber pistol is entirely printed plastic. It fires 200 rounds with no apparent wear or damage to the weapon. It was manufactured with an older 3-D printer and about $30 of resin, but its gunsmith - who goes by the Internet nom de plume "HaveBlue" - reckons that it could be made for as little as ten bucks.
So in the very near future, it may not be that big of a hassle to go out and buy a guy at all. Just download the 3-D model from a website like The Pirate Bay or Demonoid and in a few hours time you'll have a fully-functional firearm to defend your home and loved ones with. And with the cost of 3-D printers dropping to the point where one can be sitting in your living room...
I can already envision some politicians are going to hear about this and decide "something must be done about it, think of the childrun...!"
When 3-D printers are outlawed, only outlaws will have 3-D printers :-P
A few days ago, roughly a mile or so from where I'm writing these words, there was a home break-in. A husband and wife were murdered. They are being laid to rest today.
I did not know the family, but I know lots of people who do. I have heard nothing but very good things about Doug and Ladonna French. They leave behind two children, including one who was at home during the robbery and barely escaped. As of this writing, no one has been arrested.
In light of this, I'm feeling led to say something that really shouldn't have to be said...
You really are your own best protection. No offense to the men and women serving in law enforcement, but in the real world they can't possibly be a 100% effective safeguard against criminal wrongdoing. Call 911 and it's going to be at least 5 minutes, in the vast majority of situations, before a sheriff's deputy or police officer can arrive at your house. A lot can happen in that time. A lot of bad. Happening toward you.
A person who is breaking into your house will not care about legal niceties. A person breaking into your house will not care about how much money it will cost you to defend yourself in court. A person breaking into your house will not care how many attorneys you will have to hire. A person breaking into your house will not care that you might get arrested for a firearms charge. A person breaking into your house will not care that you might be in jail for a day or so.
And neither should you.
You can always replace money. You can never replace a loved one. You can never replace your own life either.
It sounds cliche, but it's true: an armed society is a polite society. It's a documented fact that places with higher gun ownership by those with property enjoy statistically and considerably lower crime rates.
If anyone breaks into my house, I will defend myself and my loved ones, with deadly force. And I don't give a flying rat's ass how much it will personally cost me.
Remember folks: it is better to be judged by twelve than to be carried out by six.
What is it about food that brings out more than the usual looniness from government? Remember when California tried to impose the "snack tax"? And before that it was President Reagan who sought to have ketchup officially deemed a vegetable.
Now the squabbling between the Obama Administration and the Republican-held Congress has made it so that pizza is to be classified as a vegetable. The article is nigh worth reading, if only because it is the first (and I pray last time) that this blogger has ever agreed with the food Nazis at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (hey, a stopped clock is right twice a day...)
"[S]ound/gas absorbing materials manufactured from Chore Boy copper cleaning pads, along with fiberglass insulation, constitute a silencer.
Therefore, it is illegal for an individual to replace deteriorated material within an already- registered suppressor without an approved ATF Form 1, 'Application to Make and Register a Firearm,'" along with a "$200.00 making tax" and "a 'no-marking' variance...since there is no viable area in which to apply a serial number to the sound-absorbing material."
The article further states that "The original letter included a question about the owner of a legally owned silencer having a reserve of such pads. In case, you know, they needed to clean something. According to the ATF that would be considered a "stockpile" and considered an illegal act."
So in the BATF's eyes, there is an illegal stockpile of munitions, ohhh... inside the cabinet beneath every kitchen sink in America.
I wouldn't put it past the BATF to seek warrants to invade private property on those measly grounds.
Here's what really raised my eyebrows: this is apparently a STATEWIDE suspension, and not merely along the North Carolina coast. In other words, folks around Sylva, Waynesville and other fine places waaay out in the North Carolina mountains are also affected by the gun rights suspension... even though it's extremely doubtful that they will be affected by Earl in the least bit.
What the hell is Governor Perdue thinking?!
I would like for someone to show me where this is just a matter for the coastal areas. But even if that were the case, it does not make me feel the least bit comfortable that Perdue has taken it upon herself to say that the Second Amendment no longer applies, regardless of how big or small an area is affected by Earl.
And then the woman has the gall to say that those who decide to ride it out are "on your own". So what are they supposed to use to defend themselves against potential looters? Like the guy in Aliens suggested: "harsh language"?
This woman hasn't a clue. Like too damn many other elected officials in this country.
Robert Chojecki, a fella out of Herne, Germany, went to his doctor because he had been suffering severe headaches for a year and didn't know why.
So his physician took some x-rays of Chojecki's head... and found a bullet nestled between his skin and his skull.
It had been there for five years. At the time Chojecki, now 35, thought that he had either bumped his head or been hit by a firecracker during a New Years celebration. But apparently the 22-caliber bullet came from a bullet that had been fired during the same festivities (note to self: stop firing guns at parties).
Call them "Pistol Pops"? European inventors(?) Florian Jenett and Valentin Beinroth have come up with popsicles that look like actual handguns! It started when they made life-like guns out of ice a few years ago. But last year they began flavoring their creations with Coke, licorice, and cherry.
(These guys should bring their product to market here in the states. I bet they'd be a huge hit at pro-Second Amendment events!)
Hit the link above for more photos of these tasty trigger-happy treats.
And here's the full text, in case it goes down the proverbial "memory hole" (or if you're too lazy to hit the link)...
Remington Shotguns Solicitation Number: EDOOIG-10-000004 Agency: Department of Education Office: Contracts & Acquisitions Management Location: Contracts (All ED Components)
Synopsis: Added: Mar 08, 2010 10:39 am
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts. The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010. Interested sources must submit detailed technical capabilities and any other information that demonstrates their ability to meet the requirements above, no later than March 12, 2010 at 12 PM, E.S.T. Any quotes must be submitted electronically to the attention of Holly.Le@ed.gov, Contract Specialist (Contract Operations Group), with a concurrent copy to Sherese.Lewis@ed.gov, Contracting Officer (Contract Operations Group). The following clauses are applicable to this requirement:
52-212-1 Instruction to Offerors - Commercial Items 52.212-2 Evaluation - Commercial Items 52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications - Commercial Items 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required Implementing Statutes or Executive Orders - Commercial Items
In accordance with 52.212-2, the fill-in applicable to this requirement is below: 52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items. As prescribed in 12.301(c), the Contracting Officer may insert a provision substantially as follows: Evaluation-Commercial Items (Jan 1999)
(a) The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers: (i) Technical Capability (ii) Price In accordance with 52.212-5, the following clauses are applicable to this requirement: 52.225-1 Buy American Act - Supplies (February 2009) 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Central
New equipment only; no remanufactured products. No partial shipments Offer must be good for 30 calendar days after submission. Offerors must have current Central Contractor Registration (CCR) at the time offer is submitted. Information can be found at www.ccr.gov. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items. The Government will award a commercial item purchase order to the offeror with the most advantageous offer to the government. All offerors must submit their best price and delivery capabilities.
Place of Delivery: U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General c/o: Gary Pawlak, Special Agent
500 West Madison Street - Suite 1414 Chicago, IL 60661
Contracting Office Address: 550 12th Street, SW, 7th Floor Washington, District of Columbia 20202
Okay so... anyone wanna speculate as to what this is about?
