We tried to keep it quick this morning and failed. It wasn’t lack of thought, nor of mild disorientation as you can see.

The increased volume about the several issues contributed to the compilation, of course, since they are all sort of related in the stream of intentional messaging of varying volume, calibers and ranges and targets.

This is what had us going yesterday afternoon when we heard about the latest Trump shooting:

We had beeb working on a fun local story with connections to the campaign and the lcoal club scene, sort of. It had loud music and alcohol related texture which we have given up but still enjoy. So, we were going to go on about that and the arousal about pulling the liquor license for the Darma Lounge when Melissa, the Legal Section Intern waved her tablet around with the words about “shots fired down on the golf course at Mar a Lago” with a possible assailant apprehended after flight from the scene.

That derailed the Darna story, if not the darma of the afternoon.

The name of the shooter, or the person who was shot at, we are not sure- appeared after we had typed about five or six sentences and appended a picture, not of the shooter, but of the spokesman for the West Palm Sheriff’s Department. We appended it to the end of the notification and went back to more relaxing activities associated with Happy Hour as the confusion started about the latest attempt to slay a former President of the United States.

Hard to even type that on a flat screen, you know?

The guy they busted is a piece of work and his story- now too long for the morning edition- includes self-published works like we do at Socotra House, plus trips overseas like we used to do, and some apparent desire to change the world with direct personal action. Something which we also might also have been accused, though of course ours was virtuous,

The Secret Service image of the bags containing ceramic ballistic plates hung on the shrubs at the fence-line suggested defensive preparations for counter-fire, which led directly to discussion about the type of weapon recovered at the scene. And the title of the book and the picture of the author in Kiev, which is reminiscent of a trip we took to Moscow one time for something completely unrelated.

See? That was part of a related story about the other shooting over on Glebe yesterday morning, the one that had the pile of expended brass cartridges that demonstrated the Glock Switch technology the ATF folks have been warning us about is actually on the street eight blocks away.

Sound weird? You bet. The issue is about the little plastic parts being imported from China, or 3-D printed at home, that transforms an ordinary semi-automatic pistol into a full-auto mini-machine gun.

There are enough issues in that matter to fill this week. DeMille told us to mention, briefly, that what you hear on the public service clips is what they want you to hear about it. A Standard nine or ten-round magazine would be emptied in brief, loud “BRRRRRTT” squirting sound. Shorter than reading it, so the demonstration videos of extended blasts don’t show the drum-like contraption you would need to use to produce that sort of drama.

Not that even the short sound wouldn’t be an attention-getter. But probably not accurate much further than across the table, which is completely different than the “AK-47” style weapon the Secret Service was warning about at the golf course.

So, there it is. That is already more information than we can rationally process, but we suspect that might be exactly the point. We have already been told to wonder what the consequences of this will be on the campaign noise today? Ban guns to save Trump? Stay more than 500 yards away from shrub lines?

We would take action if we knew what it was.

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com