#shotguns explosives and devotion

[broidobe]

𝔠𝔩𝔬𝔴𝔫 𝔩𝔬𝔳𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔪𝔞𝔤𝔤𝔬𝔱 𝔪𝔞𝔶𝔥𝔢𝔪

requested by 🧸!

☾being in insane clown posse is already wild, but dating the entire original 1999 slipknot lineup? absolute insanity. between the face paint, the masks, and the nonstop antics, your life is a ridiculous blend of horrorcore and nu-metal chaos—but damn if it isn’t the most fun you’ve ever had☽

☾warnings: mild language, absolute chaos, fluff, poly nonsense☽

𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓰 ��𝓮𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 ᡣ𐭩 𝓸𝓷𝓵𝔂 𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝜗𝜚 𝓼𝓵𝓲𝓹𝓴𝓷𝓸𝓽

⁎⁺˳✧༚nu metal masterlist

there were a lot of strange things about being in a relationship with all nine members of slipknot. the first was the sheer volume of them—there were so many. a whole squad. an entire damn platoon of masked maniacs all devoted to you in some kind of insane, chaotic, yet weirdly functional relationship.

and then there was the fact that you, a proud juggalo, were technically dating some of icp’s biggest haters.

it was funny as hell. they talked shit about insane clown posse constantly, yet here you were, full face paint, hatchetman chain swinging, representing for the family—and also somehow tangled up in the limbs of slipknot’s original 1999 lineup. life was weird.

“i still can’t believe you’re down with the clown,” joey grumbled, arms crossed. “i feel like i’m being betrayed every time you bump ‘riddle box’ in the car.”

“yeah?” you teased, leaning against him. “and yet you still let me ride shotgun.”

joey muttered something under his breath, clearly flustered. victory.

on the couch, shawn threw an arm around your shoulder. “y’know, i was this close to drop-kicking you the first time i saw that face paint.”

“oh yeah? and now?”

“now i still wanna drop-kick you, but with love.” he squeezed your shoulder affectionately. “progress.”

“uh-huh.”

meanwhile, sid had already gotten into full clown mode, jabbing at corey. “hey, you’re just mad ‘cause juggalos actually got a sense of humor, unlike you angry metalheads.”

“excuse me?” corey shot back. “you’re in a band that literally throws kegs around and punches each other on stage.”

“exactly!” you grinned. “see, we got so much in common.”

“don’t lump us in with you damn juggalos,” paul cut in, shaking his head. “next thing you know, we’re gonna start drinking faygo and runnin’ around in clown paint.”

sid, without missing a beat, pulled a two-liter of redpop out of nowhere. “say less.”

“put that shit away before i kill you,” mick groaned from the corner, already regretting everything.

“too late!” you cackled, grabbing the bottle and shaking it up just enough to make the warning signs flash in everyone’s eyes.

“don’t you dare—” corey started, but it was too late.

the explosion of faygo was immediate, chaotic, and glorious. it sprayed across the room, soaking joey’s hoodie, splattering onto mick’s jeans, drenching sid completely—who, by the way, was loving it.

“FUCK YEAH, FAYGO SHOWERS, BABY!!” sid screamed, jumping onto the coffee table like this was a full-blown gathering of the juggalos.

“i hate all of you,” craig muttered, somehow still dry.

“i told you to put the bottle down,” corey groaned, wiping his face. “this is exactly why we hate you damn clowns.”

but you saw the twitch at the corner of his mouth. he was so close to laughing.

“aw, c’mon, slipknot,” you cooed, climbing into corey’s lap and smearing your paint-streaked cheek against his. “you love me.”

“you’re lucky i love you,” he grumbled.

joey, still dripping in soda, sighed. “i don’t know what’s worse, the faygo or the fact that i’m into this.”

“shh,” you patted his soaked hoodie. “just embrace the clown.”

paul groaned. mick looked like he wanted to throw you out a window. sid was thriving. all was right in the world.

[landoflustfulladies]

beyondthebcundary

her yelling about firepower constantly i think its an rpg or some shit but nah. shotty

Yeah, usually when people love "firepower" it's heavy weapons like machineguns or explosives, shotguns rarely seem to get that style of devotion.

[cutstuckmayhemofficialblog]

Cutstuck Mayhem: The Cannon Fodder

C.H.A.O.S Corporation keeps its global dominion using an immense military force, from basic infantry to hulking mutants. Let's meet 'em.

GRUNTS - The most basic unit in the C.H.A.O.S military. Trigger-happy red-eyed brutes infected with a mind-altering toxin. While they don't have remarkable intelligence or strength, they have a deadly loyalty to C.H.A.O.S Corporation, throwing themselves at the enemy in innumerable hordes. They're mostly outfitted with assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, or if they're especially unlucky, they'll be sent in with only their fists.

WAR-PIGS - A hulking wall of meat strapped into a combination gas mask and feeding funnel, the War-Pigs specialise in close-range combat. Their gigantic shotguns can blast holes in practically any surface, and if they run out of shells, a shoulder-barge will knock out even the most experienced fighter. Their one weakness is intelligence; they're not too bright, and since part of the War-Pig transmogrification process is replacing the vocal cords with a feeding tube, they can only speak in grunts and gestures.

JET SOLDATS - These extra-tall soldiers are decked out with jetpacks and heavy-duty welding masks, giving them an airborne edge in combat. Originally assigned to maintenance jobs, their assignments have evolved to accompany vehicle crews as added muscle, picking enemies off like smoke-belching vultures.

MACRO UNITS - Big bastards grown in cryonic vats, the Macro units are some of the most formidable members of C.H.A.O.S' military. Due to an oversight with the square-cube law, they're too large to breathe without a bulky respirator, and to increase their wrecking capabilities, they're packing a pair of hydraulic gauntlets. Small arms fire can barely penetrate their gigantic bodies, and it takes heavy explosives to even make a dent.

HEAVY GRUNTS - Ballistic vests, helmets and badass voice filters make these particular grunts a cut above the rest. They're usually deployed in defensive positions, as bulky armour isn't great versus a mobile target. The heavy grunts regularly use riot shields and batons, though there is nothing 'non-lethal' about their approach. The only real difference between a grunt and a heavy grunt is that one will at least get it over with quickly.

FREACS - The Frenzied Recon, Espionage and Assassination Corps, these cat-suited hunters are even more devoted to C.H.A.O.S than the common grunt. Special mutations allow them to climb on walls like night vision-goggled monkeys, and they can sense a heat signature from a mile away. Nothing interrupts their mission. If you hear them speak, you're either the one sending 'em into battle, or the one they're looking for.

HAZMAT GRUNTS - What with the astounding amount of toxic waste C.H.A.O.S industry produces, there's no wonder they need an entire detachment dedicated to getting rid of the stuff. Not technically a combat role, hazmat grunts are stationed in most scientific facilities, and any other situations where regular PPE won't cut it.

C.H.A.O.S AGENTS - These mysterious g-men are some of the highest in the corporation's ranks, donning an iconic pair of black sunglasses. They don't directly engage in combat, only overseeing plans unfold from minimum safe distance. Each one is outfitted with a trans-positional brace, allowing them to quickly teleport away in the event of an emergency.

[mzhydes-funtimes]

When you get this, list 5 songs you like to listen to, publish them, and send this ask to the last 10 people in your notifs!

I dont know the tumblr rules of etiquette on this so imma answer then dyah

Or fuck imma just list them here bc im going to forget midpost the rules

Last night i had dragonforce in my head and ouuhhhhhggggg it felt soo good to losten to them again, it was specifically the song Seasons

And fuck acoustic version has soo many accidentals bc the notes are in marcs singing "blind spot" where its really hard to not get it sharp or flat but you can song above and below that just fine

2 one of the more fun song by amaranthe is Boom!1 its fucking exciting as hell. For a bit of background there are 3 singers the main lead - Elizy Ryd, whos the female singer voice, Nils Molin whos the male singer voice, and (now formerly as he quit the band 2 years ago in 2022) GG6 or Henrik (not even gunna attempt his last name) with the scream metal vocals. This song is about gg6 and explosion and bombs and shit but it sounds soo good

And this song is mainly sung by gg6 with the main chorus done by nils, hell elise is barely in the song and shes like the main amaranthe person, but thats pretty cool tho, every singer has a song specifically devoted to them

3 This next one im not as obsessed with the artist but my god does it sound soo cool its called Fly With Me and it sounds like a fuckin space exploration song

Mmmm its just soo good

4 Sumo Syco Sleep Tight. Literally fuckin amazing ass song. First off the Singer made the band by herself, somehow got a major publisher to back her band, probably writes most of the songs herself, makes her music videos independently and yeah

With this song especially i swear ive heard it on the radio before and the coolest part is that she made the band wear blue during the music video and blue screened everything at the end and it looked soo fucking cool

Damn im at the fifth already damn whatever lets see here...

Oh! The pretty reckless Death By Rock and Roll. First off the singer is the same person who played cindy lou who from jim careys the grinch but now shes singing about sex drugs death and rock and roll. But like this song is so good tho

And if you combine this with Save Rock and Roll by fallout boy you get a fun story. But yeah uhh if you wanna make a statement to a party dont bring a shotgun, everyone else brought one

Im so sorry for going off like this i just love music so much i have so many notes on how to write scales and shit and know so much abojt music and my favorite artists its so hard NOT to ger excited and god i havent listened to these songs in so long it feels soo good to listen to them again like a part of me woke up again anyways gotta go finish the ask hope you enjoyed my rambling

[jessilyria]

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY SEASON 2

Hello! This covers everything from trailers, promo pics, interviews, and articles. Pics and links will be included. The info is in vague chronological order (as much as it can be.)

Needless to say, this post contains SPOILERS and is LONG ^‿^

If you’d like a non-spoilery version with just the basic facts please check out my Umbrella Academy Timeline.

***********************************************************************

According to Steve Blackman, season 2 is about second chances and the endgame is still to stop the 2019 apocalypse (X).

The opening scene of season 2:

The siblings arrive in the past at different times, but all in the same spot - an alleyway with some dumpsters which leads out onto a high-street. 

Noticeable locations on the high-street include a beauty salon for black people, and an electronics shop which later on closes down and becomes a base for the group.

The order they arrive in is the order the promo pictures were released: Ben & Klaus, Allison, Luther, Diego, Vanya, Five.

It will likely take a while before the whole team is reunited, and possibly longer before the siblings begin to meet the new characters: “It was several episodes before we all started to interact with each other” (X).

Ben & Klaus land in February 1960 (X). As Klaus is sober, his powers continue to develop and he uses them to impresses some people. (X)

"Klaus effectively starts the hippie movement off early by founding a cult whose philosophy is based on the lyrics of pop songs that have yet to be written. “Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to,” he tells one awed follower." (X)

"Destiny's Children! Let us commune with music." *starts whistling*

But Klaus isn’t as happy as he seems in this new life of cult stardom. “He can’t deal with the praise; it’s just become strangulating.” (X)

There’s also tension between Klaus and Ben, but its unknown whether this is because of the cult, because Klaus is "trying to rekindle his relationship with Dave" (X), or because Klaus’ evolved powers mean Ben can now possess him (X). Either way, Ben’s “determined not to be invisible to the ones he loves, willing to go further than ever before to make his presence known.” (X)

As Klaus is wearing the same outfit as the promo pics (and has a long beard which he later loses), its likely the following scene takes place early on.

Klaus: Now what? Ben: Remember when I told you the engine was overheating? Klaus: Yeah, well, being smart doesn't make you interesting. Ben: Neither does your beard.

Ben: You think I’m just going to keep following you everywhere for another three years? Klaus: Yeah, you are my ghost-bitch, remember?

*************************

Klaus: My skin was on fire! Ben: Good! I’ve got to get to San Francisco, I have unfinished business.

Allison is second to appear in 1961 (X). "Confused and looking for help, Allison walks into a diner and is greeted by a “Whites Only” sign, then chased across town by a group of white men until she finds sanctuary in a beauty parlour for Black women that doubles as a meeting place for civil-rights activists." (X)

Its been confirmed that the below image is from ep 1. (X)

Have you experienced discrimination by your employer?

She meets a man named Raymond Chestnut who is a “born leader with the smarts, gravitas, and confidence to never have to prove it to anyone. He has the innate ability to disarm you with a look, and is a devoted husband.” (X)

Luther appears on April 10th 1962 and lands on a dumpster.

He ends up working for Jack Ruby (X), a mysterious man who owns a nightclub (and who fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald after Oswald was in custody for JFK's assassination). Luther’s job involves being a driver, bouncer, and underground fighter.

Its been confirmed that the following scene is from ep 1. (X)

Diego appears on Sep 17th 1963. One of the first things he sees is a televised address from President JFK.

He ends up in an insane asylum for stalking Lee Harvey Oswald and spouting “delusional claims” about JFK’s assassination (X). Its here he meets Lila Pitts, “a chameleon who can be as brilliant or as clinically insane as the situation requires”. She’s also "unpredictable, mischievous" and "sarcastic" with a "twisted sense of humour." (X)

Vanya appears on Oct 12th 1963 (X). “She arrives and gets hit by a car, driven by a woman (Sissy). She smashes her head on the cement... She remembers her name, but nothing else.” (X)

She gets a job on a ranch as a live-in-nanny for Sissy, a "fearless, no nonsense Texas Mom" who "married young for all the wrong reasons" and is "eager to rediscover what love has to offer." (X)

Because she has forgotten her past traumas, Vanya is “much more confident and more in touch with her emotional self” (X). She forms a unique bond with Sissy’s son, Harlan, who is non-verbal (X). Its been confirmed that the following photos are from ep 1. (X)

Vanya: I wish I remembered something.
 Sissy: The doctor said it would take time. Don’t push yourself.

Vanya is also slowly discovering her powers on her own.

Five appears with Hazel on Nov 15th after witnessing the world going down in nuclear explosions.

Five: What was that? Hazel: The end of the world, November 25th 1963. Five: And where am I now? Hazel: Dallas, ten days earlier. Five: ...I need to find my family.

But of course its not going to be that easy, the Commission is still out there and “will hunt us down wherever and whenever we go.”

In the trailer we are introduced to the head of The Commission, a fish named Carmichael. He sends three Swedish assassins, Oscar, Axel, and Otto, to hunt down Five and the others.

At some point they acquire a milk-truck and one of them dresses as a milkman. On a location shoot, the Swedes were seen in their truck outside a house in an urban area. They check a map and one of them pumps a shotgun (X).

Whilst searching for his siblings Five encounters a man named Elliot, an "alien obsessive (who) witnesses The Umbrella Academy's separate arrivals." He agrees to help Five find the others. (X)

“3rd EVENT, April 10th 1962″ is above photos of Luther arriving, “September 17th 1963″ is above photos of Diego arriving, and the right column are photos of Vanya arriving still in her White Violin outfit.

Five manages to find Diego in the asylum and they have a conversation.

Five: Listen to me very closely, you gibbering moron. You are not going to do a goddamned thing. Diego: Why not? Five: Because we have to stop the apocalypse. Diego: But that doesn't happen for another 60 years. Five: Not that apocalypse, this is a... new one. It followed us.
 Diego: *begins laughing*

At some point after this the Swedes storm the asylum.

“Who are those guys?!”

Diego and Lila seem to make their escape from the Swedes and the asylum pretty quickly however. Its been confirmed that the below pic is from ep 2. (X)

Based on Diego’s outfit and length of beard, the following two scenes take place around the same time. First, a heated car conversation which Five crashes.

Diego: You don’t know anything about me! Lila: I know everything. You are an open book written for very dumb children. Diego: I am n-not trying to b-be a hero, okay? Lila: Then why are you doing this?
 Five: *appears in the backseat* Because he is an idiot. Lila: Who the hell are you? Five: Hi, I’m his loving brother. Diego: Who left me to rot in the nut-house. Five: To protect you from yourself.
 Lila: Thats quite sweet. Diego: Okay. Both of you. Out.

And second, a dark encounter with a familiar figure...

Reginald Hargreeves & Pogo

The summary for episode 2 also mentions that “an incident at the bar leads Luther to Vanya,” and ��Five finds an unsettling surprise in the film Hazel left behind,” which likely links to this image:

Its been confirmed that the following scene is from ep3 (X). Klaus is seen emerging from a river - now confirmed to be the River Ganges in India/Bangladesh which is considered sacred and purifying (X). Considering the series spans 10 days and is set in Dallas, this scene is very likely a flashback.

Note Ben in the background.

Klaus is also seen in similar attire in a wealthy looking house, which is potentially part of the commune where the cult operates.

Note Klaus no longer has his long beard.

And here’s Ben in what looks like a room in the same house. It's interesting to note that Ben (or the actor) is looking straight into the camera, implying its a first person point-of-view.

Apparently also in ep3 we have this delightful gem of Klaus being Klaus. (presumably theres a pool at the commune?).

Episode 3 also sees the Swedes chasing Vanya in a cornfield until she uses her powers to defend herself.

Thanks to this, Five is able to track Vanya down (X). It's been confirmed that the following pic is from episode 3. (X)

And based on Vanya's clothes, Five then takes her to a cafe to explain a few things.

Vanya: Are you gonna tell me what the hell's going on? Five: When you were a baby you were bought by an eccentric billionaire. He raised you in an elite academy with six other siblings with extrodinary powers, but in the year 2019 in order to avoid the apocalypse we jumped into a vortex and ended up being scattered throughout the timeline in Dallas, Texas. Vanya: ... Five: Any questions? Vanya: ... what do you mean the apocalypse?

At some point ollowing on from this (but unknown which ep) Luther and Vanya have this conversation:

Vanya: What caused the apocalypse? Luther: ... You did... but not alone. I was part of it, we all- Vanya: How? Luther: You got angry. Lost control, you... blew up the moon. It slammed into Earth wiping out everything.

In ep3 we see both Allison and Raymond actively involved in the protests against the segregation by taking part in a sit-in (X).

Allison: I’d like to be served, please.
 Waitress: *pointing to a Whites Only sign* Can’t you read, girl?
 Allison: Seven languages.
 Customer: Oh, you smart one, huh?
 *The door opens and many other blank protesters enter.*
 Allison: We’d like to be served, please.

However, it goes badly as "police brutally attack (the) peaceful protestors." (X).

The summary for ep3 says that “Allison reconnects with Klaus,” and in ep4 she is “searching frantically for Ray.” It seems, based on the following pics, that she finds Ray in jail and Klaus & Ben have a hand in getting him out.

Note the word "buearu" on the window and Ray in the background.

Based on Klaus' outfit, its sometime around this point he goes on a massive bender. We see him running with a bottle of whiskey, his gleeful cult following him, and dancing in a drinks aisle.

Note that Klaus is bleeding from his lip.

Following on from this, Klaus wakes up on Allisons floor, feeling worse for wear.

Ben: And how are we feeling this morning? Klaus: Ugh, peaches and cream, how are you? Ben: Curious. How many more rock bottoms are you going to have to hit before you start taking care of yourself?

In episode 4 “Vanya contends with a crisis at the farm.” Could this link to her developing romance as, despite Sissy still being with her husband (X), she and Vanya begin exploring a relationship?

The summary confirms that in ep4, “Five, Diego, and Lila crash a party at the Mexican consulate.” But the Swedes are still hot on their tail.

Note the third Swede in the background, chasing Five?

After surviving this, they return to their base. The following pic has been confirmed as happening in ep4 (X).

At some unknown point the Swedes (or two of them) also go after Allison, though it appears she fights back (and kills one of them?).

"They weren't here to sell vacuums!"

Also at some unknown point, Allison and Luther have a catch up. Based on Luthers partially healed face, this is after his conversation with Vanya in ep2.

Luther: We did it again… apparently.
 Allison: Did what again?
 Luther: Ended the world.

Also at some unknown point Vanya and Diego reconcile: “I don’t remember what I did, but I’m sorry, if that means anything,” Vanya tells Diego as he threateningly juggles a knife. “It does,” he responds, before accepting her as a confidant he can turn to for advice on how to handle his feelings for Lila. (X)

It appears that ep5 is when the whole family finally reunites. The episode summary explains how “summoned to an emergency meeting, the siblings hatch very different plans for how to spend their last 6 days on Earth.” (I have no idea what order the conversation goes in as each bit is a snippet from a different promo vid).

Five: Klaus, is Ben here? Klaus: No, unfortunately ghosts can’t time-travel. Ben: Are you kidding me?

Five: (I/We) really screwed the pooch on this one, the whole going back in time and getting stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is… we brought the end of the world back here with us. Klaus: Oh my god, again? My cult is gonna be so pissed. I told them we had until 2019. Five: We have until Monday.

Klaus: Is it Vanya? Allison: Klaus! Klaus: What? Its usually Vanya.

Vanya: None of us are supposed to be here, right? I mean, what if its us?

Luther: Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald. Diego: Hey, you're working for Jack Ruby! Klaus: Allison has been very involved in local politics. Allison: Okay, you started a cult! Ben: Thank you!

“We have to make it right again, before everyone and everything we know is dead.”

Following on from this, Klaus, Vanya and Allison have some bonding time in the beauty parlour.

Vanya: How do you guys deal with this? Allison: What? Vanya: I mean all of it. Time travel. Seeing the dead...?

Vanya: I’m gunna tell Sissy that I love her… I don’t want any secrets.
 Klaus: Yeah? Allison: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Yes. Cos, y’know, if, if its all going to go tits up the least I could do is be honest with my husband. Klaus: Oh… does that mean I have to face my cult? I just hate group breakups, thats why I stopped dating twins.

“Klaus, Vanya, and Allison end a moping session by dancing together to Twistin’ the Night Away.” (X). Its been confirmed that the following pic is from ep 5. (X)

In episode 6, “Dave visits Klaus’ compound” and “the siblings meet their father for dinner” in a Tiki bar. Its been confirmed that the following pic is from ep 6 (X).

An interview with the cast has them talking about ‘the elevator scene’ and how hard it was to shoot because everyone kept cracking up. (X)

Five: All right, quick run down. Luther; super strength, Klaus can commune with the dead, Allison can rumour anyone to do anything-
 Diego: Yeah except she never uses it.
 Allison: I heard a rumour you punched yourself in the face.
 *Diego punches himself in the face.*
 Reginald: *looking at Vanya* And you?
 Luther: Uh, maybe we don’t… take Vanya for a test drive.
 Klaus: Oh yeah thats probably not a good idea…
 Vanya: What, I think I can handle it.
 *Despite everyones protests, Vanya explodes a fruit bowl.*

Based on Luther and Klaus’ outfits, the following scenes also take place sometime around the same time (ep6/7).

First, Luther pulls up to a house in an urban area, he gets out the car and has a conversation with a man (X). This is the same house where the three Swedes were seen in their milk-truck at night.

Note the gun and flask on the seat.

Next, Allison and Raymond deal with a body (of a Swede?) while Klaus & Ben don’t help. The summary of ep6 also mentions that Allison gives Ray a peek at her powers, which is maybe why he’s on board to deal with a body.

But what's the big flash that startles them? Well it may have something to do with all this craziness:

Note the chairs and people on the ceiling.

It’s hard to tell but since Ben is there, this could be Klaus being thrown backwards? The outfit certainly looks similar.

In an interview, the cast talk about how the room had to be painted completely white (then returned to normal), and how nice it was for the character of Ben to be able to share a moment with Vanya (X). This implies Vanya looses control and Ben is able to talk her down.

At some unknown point, it looks like the siblings all return to the academy.

Note that the background behind Klaus implies he’s sat in the same seat that he did as a child.

An interview asked the question "You all eat 'brain' at a family dinner..." (X) and in a different interview the cast talk about the brain acid trip (X). Could this be when that happens?

Either way, things likely don’t run smoothy. “Reginald still proves just as capable of preying on their deepest insecurities, while somehow leaving them attacking each other instead of him.” (X)

The summary for ep7 mentions someone named Carl issuing a warning to Vanya, and in ep8 it states that the FBI torture her, so its most likely the following images are from this time:

The tape recorder is turned off...

The figure from behind slaps a cloth over Vanya’s face as she takes on the appearance of The White Violin.

“A dimly lit room... Vanya is strapped to a chair. The floor is soaked with water. At the moment she is being tortured for information... After an electric shock the lights on the ceiling begin to flicker. “‘Is she doing that?’ asks a fearful FBI agent.” (X)

Also in ep7, “Five travels to 1982 to carry out his new mission”. Theres a possibility that Luther is also involved in this as a promo pic has snow surrounding the house, which I don’t think would happen in November in Dallas?

Five: I need a spotter. Luther: What is that? Like a wingman?

The summary for ep8 includes the fact that “Diego discovers what causes the apocalypse.”

“Everything in our new lives is connected to the plot to assassinate the president. That can’t be a coincidence.”

The fact we see the gun Five was going to use to assassinate JFK, implies this scene takes place on Nov 22nd, 3 days before the apocalypse. And we know from the summaries that in ep8 “Five concocts a risky plan to intercept another version of himself.”

Old Five, young Five (who’s still really old Five), and Luther.

However this may not go to plan as the summary for ep9 says, “the Fives plot against each other.”

And the summary for episode 10 is: “reeling from the events at the Dealey Plaza, the siblings head to the farm to help save Harlan.”

MOMENTS I CAN’T PLACE:

Someone flips over a table in what looks like it could be a distillery. Based on outfit and hair this could possibly be Lila, Klaus, or (less likely) Diego. Five is also there.

A similar (the same?) person flips over while avoiding gunfire. There are targets and what looks like training equipment, and the person shooting is standing under a large umbrella.

If the flipping person is Lila, then this may link to what the summaries reveal about her arc: In ep5 she confronts her mother, in ep6 the Handler is mentioned (albeit talking to Five), and in ep9 she learns the truth about her parents…

Five sneaks through a room with a camera and lights. On the blackboard the word “Pogo” is written, implying this could be Reggies house and this room is where he is teaching and studying young Pogo.

Diego walks into a control room. It looks like there might be 2-way glass. Could this link to ep8 when Diego discovers what cases the apocalypse?

Five is seen in a building with wooden panels on the walls.

Based on the background of this shot of Carmichael, the building could be part of The Commission.

“You...”

Five gets buried in rubble. Aidan looks chill about it though.

***********************************************************************

Well done for making it all the way! 

I’ve tried to avoid speculation as much as possible and keep the language suggestive. I don’t know all the facts, I WILL have made errors, probably many! So please take all this with a suggestive grain of salt, I am just a hooman trying to use her squishy brain.

Please let me know if you spot any errors, think of anything else I can add, or if you want more info about any specific event ^‿^

[razieltwelve]

Beach House (Final Rose)

The lawnmower’s startup sequence engaged shortly after midnight. His processors cycled through several streams of incoming data effortlessly to narrow down the reason for his awakening. 

There.

His creator had posted drones around the perimeter of the beach house they were renting for their holiday. Those same drones had detected movement outside of the established norms. He took a handful of cycles to peruse the data and request further information.

The drones possessed more advanced sensors, but activating those might alert any intruders to their discovery. Instead, he relied on their passive sensor sweeps. The intruders were using advanced stealth technology, which had all but hidden their presence.

What they hadn’t accounted for was some of the local wildlife detecting them and responding accordingly. It was that wildlife that the drones had detected. The lawnmower issued and order, a passive sonar sweep at frequencies inaudible to both humans and Faunus.

The sonar sweep came back positive. Multiple intruders detected in an attack pattern designed to breach the beach house. A passive thermal scan revealed nothing. The lawnmower gave the mental equivalent of a frown. Thermal camouflage combined with visual camouflage. An Aura sweep would definitely be detected, so he withheld that order.

Instead, he alerted his creator and Thomas, the robotic polar bear that the kids had built. 

His creator was at his side in moments. Her fox ears twitched as she kept her Aura calm and steady. 

“I don’t know who leaked the location of our holiday, but we can worry about that after we deal with these guys.”

His creator’s wife joined them.

“I’ll go outside with Thomas and the lawnmower. Can you start trapping the inside. If they get past us...”

“I’ll be ready for them. They won’t get the kids.” His creator’s expression was devoid of its usual cheer. “I’ll give control over the rest of the drones to the lawnmower. Have Thomas go out first. He’ll draw their attention. If they’re smart enough to get this close, they’ll have a plan for you. Be careful. Once I’ve got this place trapped and shielded, I’ll lend support.”

“All right.”

His creator’s wife patted his chassis. “You’re with me.”

“Hey.” His creator gave him a sharp look. “Weapons free. No prisoners. Total war.”

The lawnmower processed the words. They were a very specific sequence, one that authorised him to do whatever he deemed necessary to safeguard his creator and her family. His weaponry was usually heavily limited to minimise property damage and permanent injury. Not anymore.

X     X     X

The lawnmower cut communications with Thomas. The robotic polar bear had already been briefed on the plan. Any further communication might be picked up if their opponents had sufficiently advanced scanners. Normally, the lawnmower made quite a bit of noise when moving around, but he had activated his stealth protocol.

A silencing field combined with multi-spectrum camouflage allowed him to get out of the house and into the garden without being detected. Of course, he doubted his stealth would last once the fight started. When the battle began, his opponents would undoubtedly abandon any attempt at stealth, which meant they would activate all of their sensory abilities to the maximum. Even his creator’s stealth protocols wouldn’t be able to completely conceal him.

It was a pity too that most of the drones he had access to on this trip were not suited for heavy combat. They had stunners and shields, but little in the way of heavy firepower. Oh well. He’d make do. Organics could be surprising fragile. The prongs on a stunner might not sharp enough to kill, but they could easily blind, and electric shocks at opportune moments could easily lead to openings he could exploit.

Not far off, Thomas lay in wait. With his heavily reinforced chassis and exterior built of energy- and force-absorbing materials, the robotic polar bear was ideally suited to draw enemy fire. Still, the lawnmower felt a stir of unease. His friend was sturdy, but their enemy would not have come here without proper preparations.

As his processor counted down the seconds until the operation commenced, he ran another passive sonar sweep. He fed the data to Thomas and overlaid it with his visual feed. Yes. If he looked closely enough, there were minute distortions in the air that matched the general locations of the objects the sonar sweep had picked up.

Three.

Two.

One.

Zero.

X     X     X

Thomas roared, a handful of powerful speakers built into his frame unleashing a torrent of hideously loud noise pitched at frequencies designed to deafen or disable Faunus and humans alike. At the same time, the drones floating in the air unleashed powerful sensor sweeps designed to overwhelm their opponents’ camouflage. When that failed to reveal them, the drones fired their stunners. Powerful currents of electricity surged down the cables attached to the stunners, revealing their foes.

Several dozen White Fang elites. 

Thomas charged forward and was greeted with a hell storm of fire. Heavy calibre slugs designed to tear through armoured Grimm and punch through reinforced concrete slammed into him. His inbuilt shields flared to fend off the assault only to fail a moment later beneath the sheer volume of fire. He staggered momentarily and then pressed on as the storm of gunfire ripped holes in his exterior and clanked off the reinforced interior casing that protected his most important components.

He closed in on his first opponent and swiped with one claw. With strength at least an order of magnitude greater than any bear, his blow smashed right through the Aura of his first opponent and ripped them in half. Panels along his side opened up and unleashed a salvo of buckshot into the White Fang around him. To his disappointment only two thirds of the weapons were able to successfully fire. He had already taken considerable damage.

Yet he was not concerned. Alone, he would have been picked off. His opponents outnumbered him, and his scanners indicated significant amounts of Aura in all of them. However, he was not alone.

X     X     X

The lawnmower catalogued the damage Thomas had already sustained with a mental frown. His friend had already taken serious damage despite his durability. Their opponents had come equipped for a war. Well, he would give them one.

He trundled up to the closest White Fang member and activated his primary close-combat weapon.

The shotgun was a much-loved close quarters weapon. He was equipped with twin automatic shotguns, each with a maximum firing rate of 300 rounds per minute. Rather than standard shells, he used tungsten tipped, fire-Dust composite shells. The tungsten would allow the heavy shell to punch through most body armour. However, upon impact, the fire-Dust that made up the bulk of the round would then be crushed against the tungsten tip resulting in immediate sublimation.

This in turn guaranteed a complete transfer of momentum from the shot to the target along with the creation of a literal cloud of molten material inside the target. In organics, this typically resulted in a successful centre mass hit simply evaporating the torso.

His opponent had impressive Aura reserves, several hundred times that of a civilian. In the span of three seconds, the lawnmower hit him a total of thirty of the tungsten, fire-Dust shells. His Aura withstood the dirty twenty-seven of the impacts before cracking. The three subsequent hits erased his torso and sent his limbs tumbling away.

Yet even before those limbs hit the ground, the lawnmower was already deploying more of his weapon systems. Nets flashed out. Aura could protect from explosions and gunshots, but nets could still be effective. However, instead of the usual shock the nets were designed to deliver, he upped the voltage by a factor of a hundred. That should be enough to incapacitate those he’d managed to hit. Once that occurred, it was easy to pour shotgun slugs into them until they ceased to be relevant.

In front of him, Thomas continued his assault, lashing out with mad abandon as missile pods in his back opened to fire their lethal cargo: clusters of mini-missiles designed to first overwhelm an opponent’s Aura before creating clouds of shrapnel that would shred flesh and pierce through body armour.

One of the White Fang managed to draw a bead on him, and the lawnmower braced for impact. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded against his side followed by several punishing impacts from anti-materiel weaponry. His shields, more substantial than Thomas’s, were able to bear the brunt of the impact whilst his smaller size allowed for more concentrated armour. Even so, a number of warning came up, and he devoted some of his systems to repair while ejecting one of his batteries.

The battery had overloaded due to the damage done to his shields. Tossing the useless battery aside, he had one of the drones rush to deliver him another as he diverted any additional power he had to his shields.

Someone leapt at him with a spear held high, and he took a trio of cycles to aim before shooting an electrified harpoon. His creator had originally intended it to be used to catch and stop vehicles, but it worked well enough to knock his opponent back. The angry flare of Aura informed him that his opponent was still combat capable, and he turned his twin automatic shotguns toward the White Fang member.

The night was lit up with the roar of his firepower, and his opponent staggered back under the barrage. They dodged in a desperate attempt to get clear, and he activated his tractor beam. He usually used it to manipulate tools or move bunches of leaves around. It wasn’t designed to stop someone with the Aura signature of an A Tier hunter, but it didn’t have to. It managed to trip them over, and his twin shotgun were able to lock on. His opponent did not survive the ensuing barrage.

The lawnmower directed some of the drones to ram themselves into the weaker members of the assault. He detonated the drones in the faces of the White Fang members. Most survived, but they were still blinded. In their moments of weakness, the lawnmower calmly fired a salvo of his own mini-missiles. Unable to dodge, many of them were killed outright in the ensuing explosions. Others staggered into the traps his creator had prepared earlier. Claymores might be relatively primitive, but they were incredibly effective against opponents without enough Aura to protect them. He had the drones handle the rest. Picking up a heavy rock and bashing someone over the head was hardly an efficient way of doing things, but the drones could do it well enough to opponents who were barely mobile and lacking in Aura.

Every now and then, his and Thomas’s attacks were joined by flashes of Aura as his creator’s wife discretely eliminated unsuspecting members of the White Fang with her Aura constructs. Good. She was keeping herself largely concealed. In the chaos it was doubtful that anyone would notice her attacks, so she should still be able to catch the most powerful members of the White Fang attack team off guard.

X     X     X

Thomas noted the damage he’d sustained. Two of his limbs were barely operational, and he was relying more on his inertial manipulators to move. However, he was still a large, heavy machine, which meant simply ramming his opponents was a completely viable option.

Most of them were already running low on Aura as his barrage of mini-missiles had been able to catch the majority. Furthermore, the lawnmower was laying down a hellish storm of fire with his shotguns. Hitting a target at long-range with the shotguns would have been difficult even for the lawnmower’s advanced fire control systems, but this was a phone booth fight with the majority of their opponents no further than fifteen feet away. The chaos also made it easy for their creator’s wife to strike without giving herself a way. A razor-thin Aura construct to the heart would be impossible for most organics to notice in the midst of the battle. Likewise, a noose tightening to slice a throat open would be easy to miss with explosions, gunfire, and lasers everywhere.

As a sword stabbed into his side and glanced off the reinforced armour around his power source, Thomas twisted and bashed his barely working front right limb into his attacker’s skull. His attacker flopped to the ground, and he took a split-second to gauge the distance before dropping several canisters of gas onto the ground.

With their full Auras, his opponents would simply have been able to ignore them. Running low, however, the poison gas stood a decent chance of working. Of course, he and the lawnmower would be fine. There was a flash of light. Good. The lawnmower was using his lasers. Lasers weren’t all that useful against a skilled and powerful opponent with their full Aura, but against someone without Aura, they could easily disable or kill.

Thomas lumbered forward, swatting aside on White Fang after another as they tried to shake off the effects of the gas. A few tried to get around him and the lawnmower only to come apart in clouds of gore as the lawnmower triggered the mines his creator had laid earlier in the day. 

As another White Fang faltered, only to be crushed beneath his bulk, Thomas considered the battle. They were doing well -

BOOM.

X     X     X

The lawnmower used his tractor beam to slow Thomas’s flight to a manageable level. The robotic polar bear slammed into a tree. One of his limbs broke off, and his chassis gave an ominous creak. Almost all of the White Fang were down, but the two that were left had made short work of the rest of the drones and had devastated the impromptu defences his creator had set up.

The lawnmower braced himself for battle. Both of the targets were at least S Tier with Aura signatures measured in tens of thousands the capacity of normal civilians. Simply put, he was not equipped for battle of this level. Nevertheless, he would continue to do his best.

He unleashed his shotguns again, only to have them dodged. Scowling, he switched to lasers. They were far faster but less able to do damage. The attacks were ignored, and he found himself crushed into the ground as his shields flared to halt an attack that would have turned a typical truck into a tin can. The pressure on his shields increased, and the ground gave way beneath him. This was enough force to reduce a house to kindling, and it was only increasing.

The other high-level White Fang headed for the house. The lawnmower bit back a curse. He was currently unable to intervene. Thomas shambled back onto his feet and fired a salvo of bullets that were dodged with contemptuous ease.

The lawnmower gave the mental equivalent of a sneer.

The would-be assassins were getting overconfident.

There was a reason his creator’s wife had yet to intervene.

X     X     X

Lumina had to fight the urge to wade into battle as the beach house’s defences were destroyed and both Thomas and the lawnmower found themselves on the receiving end of beat downs. Thomas was barely functional, and the lawnmower was only still in one piece thanks to the absurdly strong shields Vanille had given him.

But there was a reason for this.

In battle between S Tier individuals and higher, the first blow could often be the decisive one since people with that kind of power could generally warp combat in their favour so heavily that regaining the initiative became impossible.

As one of the assassins ran toward the house, Lumina readied her attack. It was a monomolecular ribbon of Aura reinforced with a full twenty percent of her total Aura reserves. Her target continued to rush forward, and Lumina struck. In a split-second, the ribbon wrapped around the White Fang member.

There was a brilliant flash as her opponent’s Aura flared to try to protect them, but Lumina gestured sharply. The ribbon tightened. Had the ribbon been wider, the Aura in it would not have been as densely concentrated. Her opponent, who was certainly skilled and powerful, had already instinctive deployed a dense, full-body protective shell of Aura.

It was actually more Aura than Lumina had put into the ribbon, which meant her opponent had some very impressive Aura reserves in their own right. But Lumina’s Aura was concentrated over a far smaller area. The result? Her Aura ribbon sliced through her opponent’s protective shell in a quarter of a second before tightening around them.

Lumina didn’t hesitate. She let the ribbon tighten completely, and her opponent fell to the ground in pieces.

With her opponent dead, Lumina turned her attention back to the lawnmower. His shields had finally given way, and his battered form flew threw the air. She used a sliver of her Aura to form a net to catch him. Despite the damage he’d taken, he continued to shell away with his shotguns and lasers. He even fired a few nets.

Her last opponent dodged all of the projectiles with ease. They were good. Very good. Just then, her communicator blinked. It was a signal from Vanille. Lumina took a step forward and gestured. Swords and spears of Aura rained down on her opponent.

Stifling pressure formed and then erupted outward - some form of air or gravity manipulation - and she leapt back to avoid the worst of the blast. Instinctively, she formed a sphere around herself, and just in time as her enemy launched a barrage of projectiles at her at super sonic speeds.

Lumina replied in kind only for her projectiles to be batted aside. Interesting. Why had her opponent dodged the lawnmower’s attacks? Was it to conserve power for fighting against her?

Lumina shook her head. She could worry about that later. Right now, she needed to keep her opponent occupied. She unleashed another barrage and then created a monomolecular net. Her opponent must have seen what had happened earlier, and they threw themselves clear.

Which was exactly what Vanille was waiting for.

X     X     X

Vanille took a split-second to check her aim. Having a binding rod that could transform into a rail gun was great.

X      X      X

Lumina bit back a smirk as her opponent’s Aura flared. A projectile slammed into her at roughly thirty times the speed of sound. The impact sent out a shockwave that would have knocked any normal person over, and the explosion that followed courtesy of the projectile’s exotic payload lit up the whole night.

Extending her senses, Lumina was only faintly surprised that her opponent was still alive. However, their Aura reserves were far lower than they had been. As her enemy struggled to get their bearings back, Lumina rained more Aura constructs down on her. They fought to fend off the assault, but Lumina wasn’t done. A tiny, incredibly thin snare formed and tangled around her opponent’s right ankle. She tightened it, and her opponent’s foot came off. They screamed, and their focuse wavered. A split-second later they went down, impaled by dozens of Aura constructed. Lumina beheaded them just to be sure.

“Any other threats?” she asked the lawnmower.

X      X      X

The lawnmower scanned the area. There was no point hiding anymore. His powerful active scanners swept over the surrounding terrain. There were no more remaining targets. However, just to be sure, he dispatched the few remaining drones into a defensive formation and had them run their own scans.

That done, he trundled toward Thomas. The polar bear was badly damaged, to the point that he could no longer move under his own power. The lawnmower stopped at his side and began repairs. They would have to acquire new components to get him fully operational again, but he should be able to fix Thomas up enough for the robotic polar bear to control his own movement again. Thankfully, his most important components had survived serious damage.

X      X      X

Author’s Notes

One of the best shots the White Fang had at Vanille. The attack team consisted of two S Tier or higher hunters, several A Tier or higher and everyone else was B Tier. However, Thomas is exceptionally tough, and the lawnmower was designed with anti-hunter combat in mind. The attack team was also put together with Lumina and Vanille in mind. They were not prepared for Thomas, the lawnmower, and a garden that had been trapped. Even without Thomas and the lawnmower, Lumina and Vanille could have won, but it would have been a tricky fight. 

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here or on Audible here.

[harveyjollyunit5]

Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 is a fast paced first person shooter released by Respawn in 2016. It's set during a war between the IMC and Militia forces, with some soldiers, Pilots, granted jumpkits (which allow double jumping, wallrunning and walljumping) and a neural link with a large mech known as a Titan. In the singleplayer campaign you play as Militia Rifleman (essentially a footsoldier) Jack Cooper. You're left behind presumed dead and must team up with BT-7274, a Titan whose Pilot was killed in action, to survive and strike back at the IMC. The story features some fantastic character writing, BT is almost entirely logical at the start and takes a while to adapt to Cooper's sarcasm. In a scene where Jack nearly falls to his death and BT catches him, BT learns the thumbs up, showing that he's far more than just a machine. By the midpoint, the two share a strong bond and Jack is promoted becomes BT's Pilot officially.

Titanfall 2 features a large variety of weapons in both the campaign and multiplayer modes for different ranges and playstyles. The secondary weapons include the P2016, a simple semi-automatic pistol, the RE-45, a fully automatic machine pistol and the Wingman, a heavy revolver. There are a much wider variety of primary weapons, including the Flatline, R201 and Hemlock assault rifles, the CAR, Alternator and R-97 submachine guns, the Spitfire and X-55 Devotion, the Kraber and Longbow sniper rifles, the EVA-08 and Mastiff shotguns and the EPG, EM-4 Cold War and R-6P Softball grenade launchers, among others. You also have a selection of Anti-Titan weapons, as small arms fire is ineffective against them. These include the Charge Rifle, MGL, LG-97 Thunderbolt, and Archer Rocket Launcher.

There are also a variety of attachments for most of these weapons, including weapon mods. Extended Magazine does exactly what you'd expect, Gunrunner allows hipfiring while sprinting, good for chasing down enemies, and Suppressor makes your weapon quieter while removing muzzle flash. There are also several weapon sights to tailor your weapon to your playstyle. Most offer wide sightplanes and a varying level of zoom, though the Threat Sight highlights enemies for easier kills, at the cost of a weapon mod slot.

Titans also have access to a few choices as far as weapons are concerned, including the Leadwall shotgun, PR-01 plasma railgun, T-203 thermite launcher and the Predator Cannon, a huge minigun.

Finally, there are several options for explosive ordnance, from the standard frag grenade to the satchel charge and Gravity Star

[smol-and-grumpy]

With All My Heart - P.02

This is the epilogue to Dear Dean.

Grant that I shall never seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, or to be loved as to love, with all my heart.

Pairing: Dean Winchester x OFC (Jamie Blum)

Warnings: Flangst

WC: 3430

A/N: A second epilogue is here! As always, thank you @themoonandotherslikeit​​ <3

You don’t think life could be any more miserable? Dig a hole in your backyard while it is raining. Sit in the hole while the water climbs up around your ankles. Pour cold mud down your shirt collar. Sit there for 48 hours. And so there is no danger of your dozing off, imagine that a guy is sneaking around waiting for a chance to club you on the head or set your house on fire. Get out of the hole, fill a suitcase full of rocks, pick it up, put a shotgun in your other hand, and walk on the muddiest road you can find. Fall flat on your face every few minutes, as you imagine big meteors streaking down to sock you. If you repeat this performance every three days, for several months, you may begin to understand why an infantryman gets out of breath, but you still won’t understand how he feels when things get tough. 

— Bill Mauldin, NM, cartoonist & writer for war newspaper Stars and Stripes

May 18th, 1946

Jamie’s fingers intertwined with his. She squeezed once, twice — a form of reassurance, Dean knew. His gaze was fixed in front of him, trying to pinpoint a dot in the distance, but the waves kept crashing in. His chest heaved as he took a deep breath too quickly.

It was a nice spring day. It was too warm for the season, and Jamie needed to get out of the house after last weekend when they celebrated Hope’s birthday. They had people coming around all the time and it made Dean uneasy. It was all new to him. He was still surprised that people cared about their daughter — their family — at all. He wasn’t used to it because he didn’t think that anyone ever cared about him at all except for Sammy. 

Jamie had suggested that they’d go to the beach. A month earlier, she came home with some fancy swimming trunks in hand, the kind that are skin tight with a belt around the hip and what not. They were apparently popular but what did he know? She assured him that they wouldn’t be going swimming anytime soon because she wouldn’t fit in her two-piece suit even if she tried, but she wanted him to have one when the time came. Dean was okay with that.

Yet, there they were, standing on a freaking beach, and Dean’s heart was thumping out of his chest. Jamie wanted to get away, to see the beach again even though she knew that Dean probably wanted to get as far away from any beaches, if he had a say in it. He also knew that he had to face it eventually, since Jamie loved the beach. 

“Ready when you are,” a soft voice whispered next to him, and he knew that she smiled up at him. He was just too lost in thought to even move his head to meet her eyes. His hands were sweating, too.

“Yeah,” Dean replied eventually. He tilted his head, looking down at her. 

Jamie wore a maternity dress, and he had his pants rolled up to his knees. They could hear Jameson playing peek-a-boo with Hope who sat on her uncles’ stomach some feet behind them. 

“Da-Da.” Dean could hear Hope say.

“Yes Hope, that’s Da-Da. We give them some time alone, huh? Where’s Hope? Where is my little Hope?” Jameson’s soothing voice faint in his ears. 

“Da-Da,” Hope said again.

Dean smiled. 

Hope was so attached to him. Maybe because she could feel that Jamie was pregnant and wanted more of his attention, which of course, Dean gave her. How could he ever say no to his little girl?

Dean turned the voices off because he really wanted to do this. Really wanted to be able to stand on a fucking beach and not freak the fuck out every damn time. Maybe not shit his pants, in the near future. Summer’s nearing and while he had an excuse last summer, with his legs still not healed enough, he knew that this summer, he had no excuses at all, except that he couldn’t fucking swim. 

Their toes dug in the sand. The fresh salty air breezed through their hair, and Dean thought that it was really fucking nice to be out in this weather, if his heart could stop beating out of his chest, that’d be fucking grand.

Dean closed his eyes, and Jamie tugged his hand back a little. He knew that she didn’t want to pressure him, probably even would tell him that they could blow it off, but he didn’t want to. He’d come this far. 

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes again.

*

The letter that was handed to Dean by Captain Mills read: “Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”

They were on deck of the ship crossing the channel. Dean read it carefully. Maybe, because he was itching to have something else to do other than to wait for a damn order to get off the cramped ship into a more cramped landing craft. Maybe, because it was a sign from home, something for him and his men to cling on. Maybe, he wanted to believe that he was doing something meaningful — if going into war and killing people can count as such. 

“In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.”

Dean snorted. Yeah, right. He knew that he is all that too or at least he could be, and his men are not far off. He was about willing to do anything that would get him back on American soil. The war has only started for him but already he was so sick of it.

“But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory! I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

Dean’s not a believer. Never been. If there has been a God, God sure as hell wouldn’t have taken their mother away from them. Sure as hell wouldn’t have let them grow up like they did. Eisenhower’s last words in the letter meant nothing to Dean. Still, he knew that some of his men were believers and when they sat down to pray together, Dean would find himself amongst them. He would do anything to make his men feel comfortable, to keep their morale up even if it meant for him to pray to a God that doesn’t exist in his eyes.

He sat back and fished out his cigarette tin from the pocket and lit one before he looked up at the sky. There were no stars and he wondered how Sammy’s holding up. He hoped that his brother was somewhere safe. 

He smoked one after another, before someone barked that they are going in. Dean popped in the last chewing gum he had with him before he climbed down the rope ladder into the LCV.

They were cramped in the LCV, soldiers almost sitting on top of each other, there were only enough space for two platoons and he was thankful that it was Cas’. They were sitting side by side, their backs resting against the cold metal of the LCV as it drove over waves. Dean chewed on the last gum he’d packed before he left for the channel crossing. Right about now he wished that he had packed more. Soldiers were getting sea sick, some were throwing up which then in turn triggered some kind of a puking chain. He chewed more aggressively, trying to suck in the minty fresh feeling of the gum and push the stretch of puke out of his taste buds. 

“You think the boys from Phase Two did a good job?” Cas asked him.

“I hope so,” Dean answered. 

Truth was, he didn’t know. The planes were to bombard the coastal strongholds, dropping bombs on the beach, creating craters for them to hide in. Yeah, Dean sure as hell hoped that they did their job.

“We’re here!” The pilot of the LCV shouted and Cas’ got up to talk to his men in the front. 

Dean looked around. “We’re too far from the beach!”

“Can’t go in any further!” The man shouted and when Dean looked again, he knew why.

It was madness. LCV were sinking further in the front, probably grazing some obstacles in the water. Soldiers were floating face down around them. The smell of gunpowder and explosives were penetrating. People were screaming, shells hissing around them. Soldiers that were still alive were calling out from the water and Dean shouted that they should help them, but his request was denied. “We are not allowed,” the pilot of the craft just said as he pushed the button for the deck to lower. Dean wanted to start an argument right then and there, but Cas put a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. Dean shrugged it off, fucking angry at everybody and everything as he bit on his tongue.

“Good luck boys!” The pilot said, lowering the landing deck. Dean looked at Cas, nodding at his friend who visibly paled, and Dean didn’t think he looked any different. 

As soon as the door were dropped low enough for the soldiers to get off, the machine guns began to tear them apart.

“Cas! Climb over the side, they’re shooting at us!” Dean called on the top of his lungs. “Everyone, get off the side!”

-

“Where the fuck are we?” Cas pressed into him as they found a hiding place behind an iron obstacle. 

Dean doesn’t know but there’s one thing he knew for sure. The bombers did nothing on this fucking beach. There was no crater, no fucking sign of a dropped shell. Nothing. 

Before Dean could answer, Mills was next to him too and upon realizing that Dean doesn’t even have a rifle because he abandoned his at the bottom of the sea, Mills ordered Dean to go get a new one. He climbed over dead bodies, the water underneath his hands was red and thick.

He somehow assembled half of his platoon, or what he assumed was half because he lost track of the number a long time ago. “Get the fuck off the beach! Move inland! Get off the beach! We’re getting murdered here!”

With their uniforms still wet, they fought their way inland and only after they defeated the Krauts in their coastal pill boxes, did they allow themselves to stop and breathe. It felt like Dean had been holding his breath for the whole time since they got off the LCV.

*

Dean took another deep breath and exhaled. Tears were in his eyes. He sniffed, before he opened his eyes again. His cheeks were wet and he brushed it away with the back of his hand that was not holding Jamie’s.

He didn’t have to look at her to know that she wasn’t looking up. He knew that she always found it hard to look at him whenever he cried. She told him once that she felt like her heart broke every time, and Dean couldn’t say that he didn’t feel the same way when he saw her tears. Instead she squeezed his hand. It was to let him know that she was there. Dean knew that, too.

There’s another inhale before he started to say something.

“Okay.” And then again with a sigh. “Okay.”

He took a step forward and dragged Jamie with him. 

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Stop.

He inhaled and exhaled. “I’m okay,” he said, to nobody in particular. Mostly to himself.

Jamie replied with a squeeze of his hand. 

Dean took another step. 

Another one and another. 

Until the waves crawled up the sand just below their toes. 

It was wet and sticky around their feet.

They stood there in silence, until the water reached around their toes, making them sink in lower into the sand. 

Dean chuckled, and when Jamie looked up at him, he was full on smiling down at her. “Thank you, Bambi.” 

June 1st, 1946

Hi Sammy,

Jamie’s having her last week at the nursing school, and I just put Hope to bed. There’s not much I can do, since Jameson went out for a date, so I thought I’d sit down to write to you. 

Jamie’s almost finished with her school. She has to drop out earlier because of her gigantic tummy (don’t tell her I said that, alright?) but they granted her a BSN degree anyway, because she apparently excelled in her studies. 

I accompanied her to her graduation last weekend and I can’t say that I wasn’t proud of my girl. Jamie would maybe tell you that I shed a tear, but there was just really something in my eye, I swear!

She introduced me to some of her classmates. The majority of them had loved ones in the war. I mean, that was no surprise, since we were so fucking many over there! One of the girls was there with her boyfriend. He asked me where I was stationed overseas, and I told him I was with the 116th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division and was fighting in Normandy.

“My brother was with the 29th too,” the guy said.

I didn’t say anything, didn’t want to know if I would have known him because I knew what would follow. 

“He didn’t make it back.” The man looked me up and down, as if he’s checking to see if I had scratches, scars or a missing limb from the war. “You were in the same Division. Yet, you are here and he’s not…. Huh.” 

I could see the tears welling up in his eyes, Sammy. I swallowed hard and suddenly, it felt too hard to breathe. There’s someone standing across from me who questioned my existence. As if I’m not doing enough of it on my own already. I could hear it in his voice, even if he didn’t say it. Something that sounded like “Why do you think you deserve to be here while my brother gave his life for this country.” Of course he didn’t say it like that, and I seriously couldn’t say anything else than “I’m sorry. I’m sure your brother fought bravely.” Jamie came along and dragged me away before it could get any more awkward.

Anyway, I try not to think about it too much. I’ve signed up for a business program, by the way. My boss at the garage was thinking that maybe I could take over one day. He’s a real great guy, Sam. He’d lost his son, who was fighting on Peleliu. Said I remind him of his son. I’m so thankful for the offer and yes, soon I’ll be studying Business on the GI Bill. I’m grateful for it, because I don’t know if we could cover the cost with our growing family.

Sam, Jamie took me to the beach. Can you imagine? I was terrified, not gonna lie, but it was good. I had to get over the fear eventually. It took me longer than I thought it would, though. All the while Jamie just waited, my hand in hers. I closed my eyes for a minute, thinking about what happened the last time I was at a beach, almost two years ago. I drowned out the voices and noises in my head, and when I opened my eyes again, all I saw was the beauty of the beach. The sand between my toes, the salt tinted breeze, the calmness of the waves. It was great. I think I finally made my peace with it. Took me fucking long enough.

Jamie bought me swimming trunks, by the way. Honestly, I wouldn’t even like to be caught dead in them, but I guess that’s what people wear nowadays, huh? Her dream would be that we could all go swimming one day, but you know that I can’t swim, right? Anyway, I really wanna be able to do that for her but she’s too big to teach me, so Jameson is giving me swimming lessons down by the lake. We always say that we’re going to the bar downtown, and I don’t think she really believes us but she never presses any further.

*

“Hi”, Jamie leaned against the door to the study in her flowery maternity dress, and her hair up into a bun. She smiled when Dean turned his attention to her.

“Hi.” He returned her smile.

“Sam?” 

“Yeah.” Dean nods. “I’ll be right with you.” 

She frowned. “No you won’t.” Jamie walked into the room and stood beside him so Dean could place his arm around her waist, his cheek rested against her belly as she cradled his cheek, one hand stroking the short hair at the back of his neck. “You take your time. I’m going to check on Hope and take a shower.”

He kissed her belly. “Okay, I’ll see you in bed.” 

She smiled before she walked out.

*

Jamie just came home, Sammy. I think I’ll draw a line here, too. My fingers are starting to hurt. I am thankful for the notebook. I really am. I think it’s easier for me to put my thoughts into words — to have an outlet for all the things that I have in my head. Even if I have people around me who had been through the same, they still didn’t go through what I went through. Jamie wasn’t a prisoner, and I am fucking thankful that she went home before shit got serious. I don’t even want to imagine what they would have done to her if they would have found her with me. I don’t even want to think of all the horrors, because it would only make me angry. 

You know, they have psychiatrists working for the Army. I tried it once, but they only said “Try to act normal then you will begin to think normal, too.” That’s like an hour of my life that I will never get back. Try acting normal. The fuck does that mean anyway?

Ah, I shouldn’t work myself up now. I need to calm down and honestly, I can’t wait to slip into the bed next to Jamie, maybe listen to what she has to say about her day, I like that. Like to listen to her everyday life, it makes me think that sometimes the world isn’t so cruel to me after all. Honestly I still don’t know how I deserve all this. Deserve to come home, have kids, be with my girl… I wish you could be here, Sam.

I miss you very much.

Good night.

Dean

*

Dean closes his notebook and walked into the bathroom as Jamie brushed her teeth. He took a toothbrush and squeezed some toothpaste on it before he brushed his own teeth, eyes Jamie through the little mirror screwed to the wall. He thought that she looked exhausted, more so tonight than on any other night. He’s worried about her. She needed to rest. Maybe he’d whisk her away the coming weekend and go somewhere just the two of them. 

“Stop staring,” Jamie said, spitting out toothpaste. She rinsed her brush, a playful frown on her face.

“I’m not.” He laughed when Jamie sent him a gaze with her lips curved into a grin before she walked out.

June 2nd, 1946

SAMMY THEY ARE COMING!

..To Be Continued.

@dean-winchesters-bacon​​ @beautifulbowleggedangel​​ @flamencodiva​​ @weepingwillowphoenix​​ @adoptdontshoppets​​ @fangirl-and-medstudent-help​​ @mrswhozeewhatsis​​ @katehuntington​ @mariekoukie6661​

[grafai-ai]

Because I’m tired of this...

Thanks for coming to my TED talk about the true orientations of some of the Baccano! characters.

Miria: She just really cares for Isaac and is devoted and likes being around him due to whatever happened when they were younger.

Isaac: Probably feels the same towards Miria. Both are too dumb to say it though and rather put on the act.

Firo: Hopeless.

Ennis: Doesn’t even know what love and sex are. It will probably take her another 50 years for her and Firo to consummate their relationship. It’s not even Asexual at this point. It’s just pure cluelessness over the concepts and probably only having a male point of view from all the old men she’s devoured over the years.

Chane: Starts out not knowing what true love and compassion is due to her upbringing. Claire helps her a little bit to understand that. 

Claire: Under the right circumstances he is bi as illustrated by that DS ending. Still greatly prefers women though.

Luck: Married to his job. Awkwardly serious around other people.

Berga: Probably had a shotgun marriage to Kalia. 

Keith: Doesn’t care about anyone other than Kate.

Rachel: More than likely the actual ace.

Tick: Demisexual/Demiromantic if you want real labels. Too emotionally stunted due to not actually having a childhood to go past having a puppy love-type crush...for now.

Maria: The same, but not as bad as Tick. I still say Walker is related to them somehow.

Ladd: He has some sort of PTSD from Leila’s death. Cares for Lua in his own...twisted way because he doesn’t want her to become like Leila. Also bi under the right circumstances given the DS ending. 

Lua: Ladd is pretty much the only thing keeping her alive right now.

Dallas: Does anyone remember those Funimation commentaries that joke that he has syphilis? Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the only time he get’s laid is in brothels. It doesn’t even sound like he has any heirs either. Even trash doesn’t deserve that.

Eve: Doesn’t have time for romance in her life even if she does seem to have a slight subtextual crush on Luck.

Huey: Just Monica. Willing to procreate with Renee for experiments only not for love.

Elmer: Doesn’t care who it is or what they are as long as it makes people happy! What I’m trying to say he’s probably pan. 

Graham: More hopeless than Firo.

Jacuzzi: To scared to do anything with anyone other than Nice. Also to keep his word about their promise as kids. Because he is like that.

Nice: Likes explosives and Jacuzzi too much.

[we-are-avenger]

Pyromancer’s Robot Army Challenge

Legion of the Forgotten Faith

Grunts: Acolytes-fervent and devoted, these machines are simply made but eager to prove their worth to their creator. Their reckless tactics is a demonstration of their devotion to their cause and a plea to ascend to a more specialized role. At their current stage they are cannon fodder who seek to overwhelm the enemy with their numbers and zeal. Besides their faith they are armed with a sidearm and electric mace.

Defenders: Bastions-Armored by both faith and steel, these machines are hulking bruisers capable of weathering the harshest of blows. When attacking, they act as shock troops, taking point and directing fire towards them and their massive energy shields instead of their less armored brethren. In regards to weaponry they have access to mounted cannons, gatling lasers, chainswords, and force hammers.

Assaults: Seraphim-Amongst the faithful, the seraphim are considered to be the elite amongst the legion. They specialize in independent operations, operating behind enemy lines, taking out key targets, and breaking stalemates. They have trained to utilize any type of weaponry but standard gear includes: energy rifle or shotgun, sidearm, bayonet, bandoleer of grenades, and energy sword. It’s further supplemented by heavier weapons such as a light machine gun or rocket launcher, use of jetpacks, and an overshield.

Speed Types: Zealots-Though all who serve in the legion will not hesitate to sacrifice themselves to further the legion’s cause, the zealot class believe that the best way to achieve this goal is through sacrifice. Armored only by faith, and filled with explosives, these machines rush recklessly into the field of battle intending to take out as many of the enemy with them. 

Melee Types: Red Hand-This unit is programmed to be able to operate alone for extended periods of time in order to seek out and eliminate key targets, gather information, and destroy important infrastructure. This necessitates the machine to be more independent minded than even the seraphim units. The Red Hands have access to cloaking technology and utilize melee weapons exclusively. While capable of wielding energy based weapons, most utilize vibroblades as the are less conspicuous. However, they’re most potent ability is not their combat prowess but they’re ability to decrypt and encrypt information. In fact, all communication sent from these units require a Throne level intelligence in order to access.

Captains: Throne- These units are responsible for coordinating the war effort of the lost legion. They’re very appearance ripped straight from scripture, they float above the battlefield, analyzing everything in sight and distributing orders to the masses below. Lacking any weapons the Throne is dedicated to calculating the best tactics to utilize during combat. However, they are heavily shielded making it rather difficult to neutralize. 

[shytyphoontheorist]

Advantages of Owning a Gun

Owning a gun, learning to shoot effectively, maintaining gun responsibility, and spending time at a gun range is incredibly rewarding.

You’re ready to buy a new gun, take the necessary safety lessons, and take a series of advanced training courses to become a more confident shooter. Even if you don’t have the latest tactical movements or advanced shooting skills, spending time in range and working on shooting skills is fun, liberating and good for your health. At the same time, you have the advantage of owning a weapon that involves improving your physical and mental health while experiencing an explosion. If you want to buy guns you can Buy Fire Arms Online.

Personal responsibility

Having a gun is a presence and responsible movement. There is no place for “mental vacation”. This means that you need to consider nearly a dozen gun storage locations, locking methods, accessible users, shipping methods, bullet storage locations, types of local permits or licenses to hold, and other essential things. You join a proud group of gun owners who are a little higher as supporters of national freedom and security. You can choose from various guns like, 9mm Gun For Sale.

Physical Discipline

Responsible and devoted gun owners like Bulk Shotgun Ammo and take the time to learn the correct way to play sports. From working on fine motor skills to hand-eye coordination, the physical controls learned through shooting sports can enhance a person’s learning ability and provide a positive exit for activity.

Trust

Shooting is a scary idea for anyone who has never fired a pistol. Therefore, it is essential to make sure that your first experience is fun and encouraging. This is an experience you’ll find on a top-notch gun range and fire guns like Semi Automatic 12 Gauge Shotguns For Sale. As you spend time in the shooting range, you’ll find that learning to shoot and gradually completing more advanced firearm training courses will increase your confidence.

Stress relief

Shooting is always an exhilarating experience, but for some reason, it combines the fun of adrenaline with high octane and has the calmness and concentration you need to feel to understand. Shots can cause the release of adrenaline into your system, which in turn leads to the liver to break down and the use of glycogen to nourish the muscles of the body. Simultaneously, the physical and mental discipline needed to take pictures consciously creates a sense of calm that can be offset even on the most stressful days.

Proud to own a gun

Today, gun owners both men and women take pride in owning guns like Left Hand Bolt Action Rifles For Sale but do not downplay this responsibility. Ownership of today’s guns can be enjoyed not only for protection but also for recreational shooting such as hunting and competition.

Owning and learning to shoot effectively might one day save your life and the lives of others. Hope it’s not true, but in the meantime, enjoy the positive benefits of owning a gun, and owning and shooting your gun gives you an overall sense of well-being. Make sure that it can have a lasting effect. If you want to buy guns you can Buy Gun Online Usa store.

[thistletongued]

Oh, Baby

Baby, you asked about the line between prose and poetry1 but I refuse to answer your question.

Baby, my body may be a temple, but I am the goddess to whom it is devoted; do not presume to tell me how I may decorate my altar. I am a flower planted in protest, a supernova in miniature, an infinite little thing. The flower queen of hell, thistletongued and blazing, Baby, and goddesses don’t speak in whispers - they scream2.

Baby, you look tired and I don’t know why - we may be a match made in perdition, may be made of the same black hole, may be coincident parts of some ancient and mysterious whole3, in any case we are a pretty looking sentence with no meaning. Inconsequent as the fleck of coffee staining the mug, as the skeletal nothing floating down the rocks up Crazy Woman Creek, drowning in the fog of my brain.

Baby, never bring a knife to a shotgun wedding. Skin made into armor and flesh made into war, and you’ll end up choosing the fauna of your next life4. Then where will the ones who know go? You are foolish and think you have autonomy, when in reality it’s the judges of normality that dictate the manner in which you bare your teeth and bare your throat.

Baby, there is waiting in the space of a breath, and you are water-wrinkled with tears. The sun begins to bleed and the moon begins to reign, because, Baby, ideology has no history, it is composed of itself. We will some time approach an unfinished sentence, but - and this “but” is a very strange bird5 - we are all shot through with stars. For now, though, my shoelace is untied, and I feel a kind of freedom.

1Howard Nemerov, Because You Asked about the Line Between Prose and Poetry 2Countess (to Liz), American Horror Story: Hotel 3Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children 4China Miéville, Three Moments of an Explosion 5Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance

This is a study, or a piece, or whatever, on prose that became poetry that became essay. It’s one of my proudest works.

[floridaprelaw-blog]

An Analysis Of National Gun Control Legislation In The United States

By Jaime Donis, Florida State University Class of 2022

February 17, 2020

In the 1930s, the United States was plagued with gang violence from Bonnie and Clyde to Al Capone. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration knew something had to be done about the gang violence. The office of U.S. Attorney General Homer Cummings started writing the suggested legislation.This led to the creation of the National Firearms Act of 1934[1]. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) put in place a tax on the making and transfer of the defined firearms in the act [2]. The NFA also had an occupational tax which taxed any person or entity that was involved with importing, manufacturing, and dealing with the firearms defined[2]. The NFA also required that every person possessing a firearm must register their firearm in their respective district of residence [2]. The firearms that the NFA had an impact on were fully-automatic firearms, known as machine guns, rifles that had an overall length under twenty-six inches, rifles with a barrel under sixteen inches,shotguns that had an overall length under twenty-six inches, shotguns with a barrel under eighteen inches, and firearm pieces that were aimed to suppress sound [3]. Any person who violated the payment of the two-hundred dollar tax that the NFA imposed on the transfer of a firearm could be fined up to two-thousand dollars and imprisoned for up to five years[1].

The Federal Firearms Act was enacted in 1938 and it set up a requirement that a federal license was must be obtained on gun manufacturers, importers, and those persons in the business of selling firearms [4]. The FFA also mandated that licensees maintain customer record and outlawed the transfer of firearms to convicted felons [4].

In 1939, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on United States v. Miller which upheld the NFA of 1934.Jack Miller and Frank Layton were charged with violating the NFA by an Arkansas federal district court. Miller and Layton were said to have been transporting shotgun with a barrel of twelve inches in length. Miller and Layton argued that the NFA violated their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. The Arkansas federal district court agreed and dismissed the case[5]. The Supreme Court reversed the district court’s decision in a new ruling.The ruling stated that a shotgun having a barrel less than eighteen inches long can not be said to have a reasonable relation to the maintaining of a well regulated militia, thus it cannot be said that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of citizens to bear such a weapon[6].

Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Junior, Lyndon B. Johnson enacted the Gun Control Act of 1968. The Gun Control Act repealed the FFA while also reenacting most of its provisions. The Gun Control Act (GCA)required that those wishing to conduct interstate transfers of firearms be prohibited unless the manufacturer, dealer, or importer was listened[7]. The GCA also banned the sale of firearms to minors, drug addicts, mentally incompetent persons, and convicted felons [8]. This ban of firearm ownership on certain groups of people is widely known as “prohibited persons.”

In 1968, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Haynes in Haynes v. United States. Haynes was charged with failure to register a firearm under the National Firearm Act. Haynes, being a convicted felon, argued that the requirement to register his firearm under the NFA violated his right of protection against self-incrimination[9]. The United States Supreme Court agreed with Haynes and ruled that the NFA’s requirements infringed on one’s right to protect oneself against self-incrimination[9]. This ruling resulted in the NFA being amended to only apply to those who are legally able to possess a firearm to avoid self-incrimination [10].

The Firearm Owners Protection Act was drafted by the National Rifle Association in 1979 and was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1986[11]. The Firearm Owners Protection Act, FOPA, included many revisions to the Gun Control Act of 1968. Under the GCA firearm dealers could be found in violation of the GCA if they failed to document transfers or sold guns to people they knew to be prohibited. Under FOPA, the bar that the ATF had to achieve when charging people with violating the GCA was raised to only being able to charge them if the ATF could prove that the dealers willingly to document transfers or willingly sold guns to those known as “prohibited persons” [11]. The FOPA prohibited a national registry of dealer records and allowed licensed dealers to sell somewhere they were not licensed as long as they were at a “gun show”[4]. The FOPA also enacted a limit on how frequently the ATF could inspect firearm dealers to look for any violations of the GCA to once per year unless the dealer had multiple infractions[11]. The FOPA also banned the manufacture and sale of new machine guns for civilians. The ban was an amendment added by the Democrats [11].The FOPA also gave those who sold guns as a hobby more protection. Under the GCA, unlicensed sellers were prohibited. According to constitution.org, “…four elements must be proven to establish ‘engaging in the business’ of dealing in firearms: 1. devotion of time, attention and labor to such dealings; 2. as a regular course or trade or business; 3. with the principal objective of livelihood and profit; 4. through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms” [12].

Set in motion by an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan that resulted in James Brady, President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, being injured, House of Representative Charles E. Schumer introduced the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that was ultimately passed on November 30, 1993  and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1933 [13]. The Brady Handgun Prevention Act, commonly known as the Brady Bill, placed a mandated five-day waiting period between purchases of firearms from licensed firearm dealers to conduct mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers. The Brady Bill required the state and local law-enforcement officials to perform the required background checks during the five-day waiting period [13]. In Printz v. United States (1997) it was established that the federal government could not require that state and local officials complete background checks[14]. This led to the creation of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, NICS, which was implemented in 1998. The NICS allowed for instant background checks within a few minutes. [13].

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was enacted in 1994[15]. Under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act there was a subsection titled Public Safety and Recreational; Firearms Use Protection Act which banned prohibited the manufacture, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines for ten years after the bill was passed. The bill didn’t interfere with the transfer or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons or large capacity ammunition magazines that were created prior to the enactment of the bill [15]. The bill expired in 2004 and several attempts to renew it have failed [16].

In 2003, the Tiahrt Amendments were passed. The Tiahrt Amendments are provisions that were attached to a US Department of Justice appropriations bill, sponsored by US Representative Todd Tiahrt [17]. The Tiahrt Amendments prohibited the ATF from releasing the data of firearm traces from being used by litigants, members of the public, cities, and states. Firearm trace data remained accessible to law enforcement officials when they had a connection with a specific criminal investigation or prosecution[17]. In 2008, Congress limited the Tiahrt Amendments and allowed the ATF to share firearm trace data with foreign law enforcement agencies, tribal law enforcement agencies, and federal agencies for reasons that fell under national security. Congress also allowed firearm trace data to be shared with law enforcement agencies and prosecutors while also allowing the ATF to publish annual aggregate data[18]. The Tiahrt Amendments also required that the ATF destroy gun purchase records of those who were approved gun ownership within twenty-four hours. The Tiahrt Amendments also prohibited the ATF from mandating gun dealers from performing a physical inventory of their firearms [18].

In 2005, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, PLCAA, which provided immunity to gun manufacturers and dealers from “qualified civil liability action.” Qualified civil liability action, according to Cornell Law School, refers to “…a civil action or proceeding or an administrative proceeding brought by any person against a manufacturer or seller of a qualified product, or a trade association, for damages, punitive damages, injunctive or declaratory relief, abatement, restitution, fines, or penalties, or other relief, resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of a qualified product by the person or a third party…”[19]. The PLCAA protected firearm dealers and manufacturers from civil suits that stemmed from criminal or unlawful misuse of their firearm, ammunition, or component of their firearm or ammunition that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce [19]. The PLCAA has six exemptions where it allows qualified civil liability actions. The first exemption is for actions that are brought against a seller or manufacture that knowingly violates a state or federal law, this applies to both the selling and marketing of a firearm or ammunition [20]. The second exemption is when action is brought against a seller who knows a firearm will be used for a crime and completes the transfer of ownership with that knowledge [20]. The third exemption is an action brought against a seller for negligence [20]. The fourth exemption is an action where there is an alleged breach of contract or warranty [20]. The fifth exemption is when action is brought from a design or manufacture defect [20]. The sixth exemption is any actions brought by the Attorney General when enforcing the Gun Control Act and the National Firearms Act [20].

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled under District of Columbia v. Heller that a handgun ban and a trigger lock requirement violate the Second Amendment when it is applied to self-defense. The District of Columbia v. Heller ruling broadened the court’s Second Amendment’s interpretation to allow the focusing on the right for states to defend itself from the previous established focusing on an individual’s Second Amendment right to possess a firearm without connection with service in a militia as established in United States v. Miller [21].

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case similar to District of Columbia v. Heller where a handgun ban was being decided if it was unconstitutional or not. In McDonald v. City of Chicago it was found that a handgun ban, in connection to self-defense, was unlawful and that the ban also applied to state and local governments [22].

________________________________________________________________

Jaime Donis is a junior at Florida State University pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Economics. He is minoring in law and society and plans on attending law school post-graduation. He has a strong interest in corporate and securities law along with economics.

________________________________________________________________

[1] “National Firearms Act of (1934) - Further Readings.” Further Readings - Control, Gun, Nfa, and Tax - JRank Articles, law.jrank.org/pages/8725/National-Firearms-Act-1934.html.

[2]“Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.” National Firearms Act | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/national-firearms-act.

[3]Nra-Ila. “ILA: National Firearms Act (NFA).” NRA, www.nraila.org/get-the-facts/national-firearms-act-nfa/.

[4]Grey, Sarah. “Key Federal Acts Regulating Firearms.” Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/federal-law/other-laws/key-federal-acts-regulating-firearms/.

[5]"United States v. Miller." Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/307us174. Accessed 29 Jan. 2020.

[6]“United States v. Miller.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/307/174.

[7]“Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.” Gun Control Act | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/gun-control-act.

[8] Waxman, Olivia B. “The Act That Changed America's Approach to Gun Control Laws.” Time, Time, 25 Feb. 2019, time.com/5429002/gun-control-act-history-1968/.

[9]Harlan Ii, John Marshall, and Supreme Court Of The United States. U.S. Reports: Haynes v. United States, 390 U.S. 85. 1967. Periodical. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/usrep390085/>.

[10] William F. Funk, Richard H. Seamon, Examples & explanations series: Administrative Law, Edition 3, Aspen Publishers, 2009, page 361-62

[11]“How the Firearm Owners Protection Act Gutted ATF Oversight of Gun Dealers.” The Trace, www.thetrace.org/rounds/firearm-owners-protection-act-atf-gun-dealers/.

[12] Hardy, David T. The Firearms Owners' Protection Act: A Historical and Legal Perspective. 1975, constitution.org/2ll/2ndschol/46hard.pdf.

[13] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Brady Law.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 Sept. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Brady-Law.

[14]“Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997).” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, 27 June 1997, www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-1478.ZS.html.

[15] Chu, Vivian S. “Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Legal Issues.” Congressional Research Service, 2013, fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42957.pdf.

[16] Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. “Effort to Renew Weapons Ban Falters on Hill.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Sept. 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/politics/effort-to-renew-weapons-ban-falters-on-hill.html.

[17]“Tiahrt Amendments.” Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/federal-law/other-laws/tiahrt-amendments/.

[18]Vetro, Alyssa, and JH Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Federal Amendments Increased Gun Sales Diverted to Criminals.” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 24 June 2015, www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2012/webster-milwaukee.html.

[19]“15 U.S. Code § 7903 - Definitions.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7903.

[20]Peck, Sarah Hernan. “When Can the Firearm Industry Be Sued?” Congressional Research Service, 24 Apr. 2019, fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/LSB10292.pdf.

[21]“DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, 26 June 2008, www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZS.html.

[22]“The Supreme Court & the Second Amendment.” Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/the-second-amendment/the-supreme-court-the-second-amendment/.

[thewaywedo33]

Wynonna Earp 2x05 Thoughts and Faves

I needed a little extra time to ruminate on this episode. It was billed as a game changer, and it certainly delivered.

I have to start my discussion of this episode with a full-disclosure: I’m not generally a huge fan of kids or pregnancy storylines in tv shows. Maybe it’s because I’ve watched a couple shows in my time that seemed to derail when they introduced the element; or perhaps it’s because I’m not really a kid person (except for my nieces and nephews, because they’re kind of awesome). It’s impossible to watch something and not have it affected by your own personal likes/dislikes/experiences. And so, for me, it’s inevitable that I view things through the lens of someone who’s always known kids aren’t for me.

So why am I starting out with this? Because I want it to be crystal clear how much it means when I say, I love that they are doing this. Let me repeat that. I LOVE that they wrote Melanie’s pregnancy into the show, and not just because I think as the face of the show she shouldn’t have to hide it. 

The way they handled the reveal tells me that if there is one tv show and creative team I trust to do a pregnancy storyline without sacrificing narrative and character elements, it’s Wynonna Earp. Who knows where this is going to go, but in 2017 you’re damn right a superhero can be pregnant and still kick-ass and drop the snark and one-liners like nobody’s business. A part of me thinks that, just maybe, if I previously had the opportunity to watch a quality show like Wynonna Earp handle a pregnancy storyline, I might not have such an aversion to it now. I’m along for the ride, and I have a sneaking suspicion it will be a good one.

Okay, moving on from that. I feel like we should know by now, and cease to be surprised by, Melanie Scrofano’s performances each week. We should know better, right? But she keeps knocking the material they give her out of the park. Goo-Infected Wynonna is a rollicking, tour de force who moves from manic glee to menacing threat, and back again, at the flip of a switch. The opening scene in the kitchen was a joy to watch. Bless Goo Wynonna’s special brand of crazy for giving us a glimpse of how truly terrifying a gleeful Wynonna without snark and self-deflecting sarcasm is. 

I’m going to save the Earp sister stuff for last here, so let’s hit on all of the Wynonna and Nicole stuff first, because I have a lot of feelings about it.

Someone asked me which things Wynonna said to (and about) Nicole and her relationship with Waverly I thought were actually true, and what was just the Goo messing with Nicole/Waverly. And here’s the thing, I think most of what Wynonna said was partially true in her own mind, at this point anyway. The exception being the insinuation that Waverly fakes it in bed with Nicole, because considering how often Wynonna interrupts the two of them/has seen the two of them get lost in each other, there’s no way she believes that. 

Also, let’s not act like Nicole Haught isn’t the most attentive and thorough lover on the planet, because you know she is. Everything about her personality screams that. And there’s no way the gravitational pull that is on constant display between Nicole and Waverly results in a less than satisfying physical relationship. 

The rest of her comments though? Wynonna does partially believe them, but I don’t think it’s personal to Nicole.

Wynonna has an issue with authority figures. Understandable, given her life experiences, but all the same, it’s a very real part of her makeup. Nedley (prior to the Season One finale), probation officers, foster homes, even the way she interacted with Dolls through most of the first half of Season One, make that clear. I fully believe Wynonna respects and overall likes Nicole, but she’s a cop; an authority figure, and Wynonna has very decided feelings about that. It would cause friction between the two of them whether or not Nicole and Waverly were dating, as evidenced by 1x07 and Wynonna’s switch to the ‘local flat-foot’ narrative when she gets upset. It’s her default setting with police and the like.

Wynonna can’t help but view Waverly and Nicole’s relationship through her own lens. She doesn’t do serious and committed relationships, and she struggles with emotional intimacy; of course she thinks their relationship is stifling for Waverly. “She’s dying underneath the weight of your expectations” might as well be about herself in regards to most people and situations in her life. It doesn’t mean that’s how Waverly feels about it. I think Wynonna knows that on some level, but she can’t separate the way she would feel in the same position. Same for her comment about Nicole being a ‘boring cop’. To Wynonna, she is somewhat boring as dating material, but then, Nicole doesn’t find Wynonna good dating material either, so they’re even.

I think Wynonna also feels threatened by Wavelrly’s relationship with Nicole. Her previous experience on this front is Champ. Let’s face it, Wynonna never really had to take him seriously. She knew, deep down, Waverly was aware of how unworthy he was, and that they weren’t a good fit. That’s not the case with Nicole. Nicole is steady, smart, devoted, and so obviously head over heels in love with Waverly, that I think Wynonna can’t help but fear being replaced in her sister’s life. Wynonna stating Nicole is not her sister’s keeper is telling, because Wynonna considers herself to hold that role. I’m pretty sure it’s the one thing she feels like she’s done right in a long time, when you take into account her past and the situation with Willa, and right now she feels like there’s competition.

Frankly, I love how they’ve set all this up between Wynonna and Nicole. I still think WynHaught Brotp is the name of the game, but they’re going to have to earn it through candid conversation, learning to trust each other fully, and time. 

There has to be an official ‘I love you’ between Waverly and Nicole coming. We’re running out of ways for Nicole to say it without using the actual words, and Waverly has only ever said it to Wynonna in the heat of a tense moment. I like the wait though. They got together fairly quick, and it was very sweet and earnest, but now we’re moving into something more solid and real where life encroaches on the happy little bubble things started in. Waverly is finally Goo free, it’s time for the two of them to address some things, get very honest, and finally exchange proper ‘I love you’s’. I don’t think we’re by any means out of the woods with angst yet (can you ever really be on a show like this?), but I think we have a special moment coming. The payoff will feel earned and so very worth it.

Favorite small moment of the episode alert: The way Nicole leans into Waverly’s touch after confessing she would shoot anyone for her, and Waverly responds “That’s really sweet”. The relief and overwhelming emotion Nicole feels the moment she realizes ‘her’ Waverly is back is palpable, because this is who she fell for.

Now on to the heart of the show, the Earp sisters. All of their scenes together this week were stellar. 

Of course Waverly is the one to save Wynonna from the Goo. The way she tells Wynonna she’s not enough to save her, in a slightly broken voice, is painful. Because she is enough. She’s the only one who can save Wynonna. We know because she does it over and over, without even realizing it. The faith Waverly has in Wynonna is unwavering and so beautiful, and without it, I think Wynonna would collapse under the weight of her own insecurities and doubt. Wynonna might bear the responsibility of the family curse, but there’s no way she succeeds without her sister. 

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a prior sister experience is the thing needed to defeat Mikshun. One that Waverly probably doesn’t have fond regards for, interestingly enough. At the end of the day, Waverly saved Wynonna and herself; brave little toaster indeed.

Regarding the final scene, all I can do is echo everyone’s applause, because it was so well done, and beautifully shot. When Waverly tells Wynonna she’s not alone it was one of the most powerful moments I’ve seen on tv in awhile. It doesn’t matter to me where the pregnancy storyline ultimately goes, if we get material like this between Waverly and Wynonna, how can it not be amazing? 

Rapid Fire Thoughts:

-This is the first Season 2 episode Waverly fully felt like Waverly. I think that’s a testament to Emily, Dominique, and the writers fully taking the time to understand the changes the Goo rendered in her. Like Haught, I’m happy to have her back.

“It was exhausting being inside of you, all that goodness.”  “You’ve got dark corners you haven’t explored yet.”  The ambiguity lives on. 

-Waverly shooting a shotgun is forever my aesthetic. “Frankly Lucado, the situation is balls” is now a top 5 favorite Waverly line, and that’s stiff competition. 

-The whole fight scene played amazingly well, with the action and Wavelry’s running commentary. The show shines in those moments, having a perfect balance of humor and action.

-I was actually starting to like Lucado and her antagonistic relationship with the Scooby gang, but that head explosion sure was something. It narratively made sense, but I’m glad we got the glorious fight scene before Lucado made her final bow.

-“It’s Tuesday.” Add Melanie’s “Good to know” to my growing pile of line delivery love. 

-The Order showing up with a bunch of dudes when what’s really needed is one competent woman to get the job done is the perfect representation of this show. I suspect Wynonna and The Order will have to work together more as the season goes on, but while they may have similar goals, their tactics will never align, and that’ll bring problems down the road.

-I find a strange sort of parallel between the way Wynonna asked Waverly “Did you do that?’ last week, and this week when she says “Look what you did to the woman you love.” She has such an older sister trying to stay calm while extremely worried tone during both lines.

-Jeremy continues to be a giant dork and I enjoy it.

-Who hurt Nicole Haught? Her reaction to Goo Wynonna’s comments makes me suspect she was previously in a relationship she thought was stable and committed, but the girlfriend burned everything down and made her feel overbearing on the way out.

-Doc and Dolls begrudging brotrain rolls on, and continues to be a surprising delight this season.

-”What do you mean ‘all of it’” - I’m glad they’re highlighting Kat’s excellent comedic timing.

-”Are those pants?” I couldn’t help but view this moment actually playing out as: “Hello fellow fully human person, I see you’re wearing pants, which I, also a fully human person not at all possessed by a Goo demon, wear.” 

Anyway, that’s it for this week. Can’t wait for 2x06. Maybe I’ll actually have coherent and cohesive thoughts about it, but with this show, I doubt it. It’s just too good.

[skriak]

SWAT 4 REVIEW

If you think about it, most shooters boil down to killing every target in the most efficient way possible. And while I certainly enjoy my share of mindless violence, every so often it’s nice to play something a bit different. SWAT 4 may still be a shooter where it’s possible to spray lead death at a target if you really want to, but ultimately the goal is to actually prevent death and dismemberment whenever possible.

You’re a SWAT commander in charge of four officers. They can be ordered around as a whole or given separate commands as two teams. Each level tasks you with capturing or killing all the suspects and rescuing all the civilians, and while the environments are static the exact placements of the NPCs is randomised every time you play. This is a slightly brilliant touch because it means you can’t just beat a mission through trial and error; you never know at first if the baddies are all clumped at one end or spread evenly throughout the map, so you’re forced to play it safe and not rush in.

Specifically, rushing in through doors is an absolute death sentence. About half the game is spent interacting with doors, using a quick and efficient context-sensitive menu system. You can tell your crew to pick locks, breach them explosively, lob a number of grenade types, look into the room beyond with a mirror and wedge a door so that nobody but your team can get through. So much of getting good at SWAT 4 depends on clearing a level methodically, controlling the situation as much as possible so that you always get the jump on the bad guys and not vice versa. Because although you have a lot of tricks at your disposal, death comes quickly and the suspects have a big advantage worth devoting a whole paragraph to.

You see, playing the game on anything but the easiest setting requires you to earn so many points in order to progress. Shooting a suspect who isn’t aiming a gun at you or a hostage will knock a significant chunk from your score, so even on the normal difficulty you only get a small margin of error. Sometimes all it takes to make a goon drop their gun is to run in and shout at him, but they’re much more likely to surrender if you drop their morale by breaching a door, blinding them with a flashbang and tasering them. Of course, it gets exponentially harder to make multiple suspects surrender, even if you plan your approach perfectly, so it’s just as important to keep as many of them on screen at once and be ready to put a round in their chest if somebody raises a weapon. The worst ones are those sneaky fucks who start lowering their gun to the floor only to try and pop a shot at you, but thankfully a perp who’s put their gun down will never pick it up again.

Minutes are spent planning an entry followed by a few frantic seconds where said plan can go wrong for a dozen different reasons. I’ve gone most of a level without my team taking any damage, only to have them all wiped out by one bugger hiding in a corner I forgot to check. The fact that levels can easily last half an hour and there are absolutely no checkpoints makes these moments frustrating, but ultimately it’s your fault if you squandered all your precious grenades in the first half of the building, or if you get penalised for one too many instances of unauthorised force. There’s a small degree of randomness in the enemy locations and whether or not each perp decides to surrender, but a skilled player can hugely reduce the chances of something going awry, and will be quick enough to kill anyone who gets uppity in the brief window of time between them raising their gun and putting a bullet in your officers. Even simple tricks like always sending in your underlings first can make a big difference, or using the beanbag shotgun as a non-lethal alternative to the regular weapons.

SWAT 4 is definitely a hard game but the varied difficulty levels give you as much or as little leeway as you want. The AI on your teammates is (crucially) quite impressive, since they’ll obey your commands to the letter and never chase a suspect out of the room unless instructed to. I do find it a bit fiddly to order each team to enter two separate doors simultaneously, though you get the hang of it. Some option to queue up a command then engage it on your mark would have been excellent. Other than that there are just a few quirks that may or may not be deliberate design choices, like how your guys don’t seem able to tell you who’s behind a door unless you’re not stood in the same room as them.

Honestly though, SWAT 4 has aged better than a lot of decade-old games, partially just because I’m not aware of many other similar titles. While it’s true that spending three hours trying to get the elite rank on the nightclub level came close to driving me mad, every failure taught me a lesson for next time. Even the seemingly tedious process of reporting every suspect, weapon and hostage you find is a nice touch, since it can either be a smug cataloguing of a job well done or a sombre reminder of how many people you got killed, and environmental details make each level feel distinct despite the fact you spend the whole campaign doing the same thing. I’m not surprised the game has maintained a cult following all these years, and it’s a lot easier to play now that GOG have added it to their store. So here’s hoping that word of mouth sells a few more copies of this little gem.

PS: Seriously, fuck those guys who pretend to surrender. My only regret is not blowing their heads off a second sooner.

And if you enjoyed this post, I have many other similarly fabulous game articles you might find pleasurable.  

Also try my SWAT 4 let’s play to see the game in action. Though I make no promises at being skilled.

[30roundrevolution]

A list of some of the current federal gun laws:

National Firearms Act ("NFA") (1934): Taxes the manufacture and transfer of, and mandates the registration of Title II weapons such as machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, heavy weapons, explosive ordnance, silencers, and disguised or improvised firearms.

Federal Firearms Act of 1938 ("FFA"): Requires that gun manufacturers, importers, and persons in the business of selling firearms have a Federal Firearms License (FFL). Prohibits the transfer of firearms to certain classes of persons, such as convicted felons.

Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (1968): Prohibited interstate trade in handguns, increased the minimum age to 21 for buying handguns.

Gun Control Act of 1968 ("GCA"): Focuses primarily on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers.

Firearm Owners Protection Act ("FOPA") (1986): Revised and partially repealed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Prohibited the sale to civilians of automatic firearms manufactured after the date of the law's passage. Required ATF approval of transfers of automatic firearms.

Undetectable Firearms Act (1988): Effectively criminalizes, with a few exceptions, the manufacture, importation, sale, shipment, delivery, possession, transfer, or receipt of firearms with less than 3.7 oz of metal content.

Gun-Free School Zones Act (1990): Prohibits unauthorized individuals from knowingly possessing a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.

Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (1993): Requires background checks on most firearm purchasers, depending on seller and venue.

Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (2005): Prevent firearms manufacturers and licensed dealers from being held liable for negligence when crimes have been committed with their products.

As for the “well regulated” quip...

At the outset we must understand that the individual right to keep and bear arms is not in spite of the mention of a militia but because of it. In other words, because the militia played a key role in the Founders’ minds, and is intended to play a key role even now, the right to possess arms, with which to gather in militia, “shall not be infringed.”

Think about what is conveyed by the term “militia.” In the majority opinion for District of Columbia v Heller (2008), Justice Antonin Scalia explained:

Unlike armies and navies, which Congress is given the power to create (“to raise . . . Armies”; “to provide . . . a Navy,” Art. I, §8, cls. 12–13), the militia is assumed by Article I already to be in existence. Congress is given the power to “provide for calling forth the militia,” §8, cl. 15; and the power not to create, but to “organiz[e]” it—and not to organize “a” militia, which is what one would expect if the militia were to be a federal creation, but to organize “the” militia, connoting a body already in existence, ibid., cl. 16. This is fully consistent with the ordinary definition of the militia as all able-bodied men. From that pool, Congress has plenary power to organize the units that will make up an effective fighting force.

Add to this the insights of Founding Father James Madison, who used Federalist 46 to explain that the American citizenry had within itself the authority to band together for purposes of repelling tyranny. He clearly stated that “ultimate authority…resides in the people alone.” And he explained that even a federal government fitted with a standing army will find itself unable to overcome the people, armed and banded together: “Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made. Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger.

Individuals who wish to dismiss Madison’s contention that we own arms for the purposes of repelling tyranny often suggest that Madison’s position is not realistic; that our standing army is too great to be withstood by average Americans. But those who say such things fail to understand how many average Americans own guns, and because of this, how deep the militia roster reaches.

Madison put it thus:

The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country.

Again, the emphasis on militia and repelling tyranny is not meant to incite offensive action but to assure a tyrannical government that average, armed Americans are capable of coming together to stop the encroachments upon liberty. But take away firearms or heavily restrict them via gun control and the militia is de-fanged, becoming nothing more than a group of men bound together with weapons consisting of stones, sticks, and verbal jabs.

Therefore, because a “well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, the right to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” In other words, the right to keep and bear arms is a surety that the militia will always pose enough resistance to keep the state free.

FIVE MINUTES APART. FIVE MINUTES.