Saturday snippets
Got some legal and non-legal items.
Wally World may be changing tack – after years of imposing self-checkout on customers, they are taking self-checkout of some stores.
According to the Webster-Kirkwood Times, the Shrewsbury Police Department responded to 509 calls from the Walmart location between January and May of last year. During the same period this year, after the self-checkouts were removed, those calls dropped to just 183. Arrests fell by more than half, from 108 to just 49.
The company is testing Scan & Go technology at select Sam’s Club locations. That model uses a mobile app to tally purchases in real-time, combining QR codes and AI to reduce shrink while offering speed and convenience to shoppers. Men’s Journal
Might remember the lady whose house was trashed during a stand-off between police and an escapee who took refuge in it – the city of McKinney, TX has been refusing to pay any damages due to sovereign immunity and her insurer refused to pay because it was city-caused damage and not covered. Well, the courts are seeing it otherwise. $60,000 worth.
Baker took the city to court after her house became the battleground for a high-stakes manhunt, reported WFAA. McKinney police unleashed tear gas, explosives, and tactical vehicles on the property while chasing a fugitive who had barricaded himself inside.
It has been up and down the court system, even the Supremes declining to hear it.
As for Baker, now living in Montana, she says the city’s legal fees ended up being more than what it owed her. “They have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees,” she said. “And they could have gotten off with paying me $60,000.” MoneyWise
SigSauer bought some interesting protection. Their P320 has had a reputation for years of being prone to accidental discharges, and they are facing numerous lawsuits, most laying part of the blame on the absence of an external safety (they are also alleged to fail a drop test frequently. Supposedly this was rectified in 2017 but incidents persist.)
Faced with mounting lawsuits over a popular pistol, New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer asked for — and got — protection in the form of a new state law that makes it harder to take the gunmaker to court.
Supporters in the Republican-led Legislature said the law was needed to help a major employer. The lawsuits say Sig Sauer’s P320 pistol can go off without the trigger being pulled, an allegation the company denies.
The law covers all gun manufacturers and federal firearm licensees in product liability claims regarding the “absence or presence” of four specific safety features. One of those features is an external mechanical safety that people suing Sig Sauer say should be standard on the P320, based on its design. Claims can still be filed over manufacturing defects. AP
PLCAA should protect SS from frivolous lawsuits – but accidental discharges due to design is a product defect, not a frivolous suit. But, apparently some of the suits allege that the absence of an external safety is in itself a defect, which IS untrue. Depending on the gun, I carry either way – but I have to admit a manual safety is comforting, and doesn’t slow things down any.
Captain Cook’s ship has been found. He was famously killed when he landed in Hawaii and naming them the Sandwich Islands (after the fell who supposedly invented them) but his ship, the HMS Endeavor, served on. She’s been positively identified and found in the harbor of Newport, RI.
After Cook’s death, the Endeavour returned to England, which went on to use it for transporting British troops and detaining prisoners during the American Revolutionary War. It was sold to private owners, who renamed the ship Lord Sandwich, and deliberately sunk in Newport Harbor in the midst of war in 1778. CBS News
Last but not least – Lou Christie (born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco – Whiz Wheel worthy!), who charted a few tunes (notably “Lightnin’ Strikes”) in the ’60s., died at the age of 82 in Pittsburgh, PA. One of ours – his performing career hit both before and after his stint in the Army which ended in 1965.
Christie died Wednesday, June 18, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania after a “short illness” according to the singer’s obituary. His death was announced by his family in an Instagram post. MassLive
Category: Society
“I have to admit a manual safety is comforting, and doesn’t slow things down any.”
I’m guessing you’re right handed.
Not so convenient for lefties…especially in compact guns with tiny little mechanical safeties on the wrong side of the gun.
If it’s Ambidextrous, great (and I do think the mechanical safety on the military version of the P320 is ambidextrous) but it also needs to be intuitive to use in case you go into vapor lock in the heat of an adrenaline filled violent encounter.
I like the 1911 style safety. It’s big, perfectly positioned for my thumb to just go there automatically, disengage it and rest there during firing. Plus it’s simple to add an ambidextrous safety to a 1911 if it didn’t come with it. I also have a CZ-82 with basically the same style of safety in the same location. 9mm Mak is a little wimpy for self-defense, but with hand-loaded, slightly “hot” 95gr Hornady XTPs that was my “deep cover” concealed carry gun for quite a while.
I’ve now got a Ruger LC-9 Pro (no mechanical safety) that serves that function even better (single stack so it’s thinner and easier to conceal, plus more powerful loads).
At any rate, I’m fine with guns with right handed mechanical safeties if they’re just range guns…and I have a few of those…but if it’s something I might carry, it’s either going to be an Ambo 1911 pattern safety, or no safety at all.
I carry safety off, including my Para-Ordnance Tac-Four back in the day. And, yes, I’m left-handed. I never cared much for traditional M1911s because of the thumb safety, and while ambidextrous safeties are readily available nowadays, I just find the M1911–as great a design as it is (“Two World Wars!”)–to be dated. The Para LDAs were a good refinement, offering double stack capacity and light double action mechanisms. My Tac-Four uses 13-round mags, though the 14-round P14 mags will work (much like a smaller Glock can take larger magazines: i.e., the G26 can take a 33-round G18 mag).
Speaking of Glocks, that’s what I currently carry (G17 Gen5), but I’m strongly considering getting an FN545 Tactical. On the one hand, it’ll be much heavier with spare mags. On the other hand, 18+1 rounds of .45 ACP ready to go with 54 rounds backup. A bit much for my job, perhaps, but the point is to present a hard target, and a big gun with plenty of spare mags might scare off some would-be thieves.
Haven’t been into a Wally World in nearly 30 years and that was only because I had just rescued a little pup and I needed a collar and some chow for him. Being as it was a Sunday in the South Small Town they were the only ones open. I was in the cashier staffed check out line with just a small buggy of items when the front end mgr came up to me and said “Sir, we have several self check out lines open.” Told her…”I don’t work here.”
Once again, taxpayers got stuck with the bill from stupid decisions made by politicians.
No one likes an accidental discharge…bet it from a firearm or a “gun”. If it’s from a manufacture’s defect, they should fix their problem. If it’s from other issues with a “gun”…seek help.
If Capt Cook had a taken some Spam Sammiches with him, they natives might not of kilt him. Or maybe they kilt him because he DID bring…Spam Sammiches?
Rest Easy, Lou…Thanks for the tunes. How many of us old farts wooed a young Ms Thang while dancing at the Sock Hop back in the day to your works? Slow Salute!
Walmart… you didn’t missed much there.
Lou graduated from Moon HS in Moon Twp. in 1962, IIRC. My sister was a sophomore there at the time. She knew him, everybody knew him!
Small community/communities in that area and Lou kept on performing shows until the end, I guess.
Wonder if he and Frankie Valli ever sang together.
Of course, the military was tired of having a high-capacity 9mm with iffy stopping power… so it spent a buttload of money to buy another high-capacity 9mm with iffy stopping power that has an accidental discharge problem and melts/burns in a fire. Good job! /sarc (Everybody wanted the Joint Combat Pistol– .45ACP, double action, double-stack mag, probably not plastic– but nertz to them… )
One word answer to that question as to why they stay with the 9mm. STANAG.
True. Even NATO was considering .45ACP lately (H&K lookin’ for more business) though…
I have limited experience with Sigs, I have a 938. Nice pocket sized 9mm in a 1911 format. Almost as small as a Ruger LCP. Hard to shoot well as it has a definite recoil due to the size and weight of the pistol. In my case it also broke twice. The recoil guide is a 2 piece guide. Mine separated during firing launching the rod portion down range to infinity and beyond I suppose. Rendered the gun in operable. After replacing the guide rod the slide failed at the very tip of the nose where the guide rod operates. The lip that holds the rod in place and presses against the recoil spring to cycle the gun broke off. Again gun, non functional. It’s now a safe queen and due to be sold off.
Sig kinda pissed me off when they came out on twitter and the CEO said those who complain about the 320 issues are antigun fudds. If there is a problem, fix it. There are plenty of videos of the gun firing in the holster without being handled. Makes me feel the complaints are justified. Denigrating critics doesn’t do it for me. As such I found I am no longer in need of a Sig product. Any Sig product.
I stopped buying any Colt when their CEO came out and said they no longer cared about the civilian market in the 90’s. 94 was the last year I bought a new Colt product and that was because of the AR ban from the clinton admin. They are also overpriced and under quality IMO with no real innovative guns in the last 40 to 60 years.
I may not want to cancel a company but if they disrespect or annoy me, I refuse to spend my money on their products.
When I started working for Brink’s back in 1970, guys were using Colt .38 Police positive wheel gun and S&W Mod 10 .38 4in pencil barrel wheel guns..
If the Sigs are accidentally discharging due to a design flaw, that is bad juju. I have a P365 and never had an issue with it. In fact, I have far too many pistols of different makes and never had a problem with any of them. And that’s with one in the tube and manual safety (well, except for my 1911). Still, guess I’ll stay away from the P320.
Anyway, I’ve found that if I follow the 4 rules of Glock safety, all is well:
Best advice I ever got. I’m not saying that Sig’s woes aren’t very real and dangerous. Just that there are a lot of folks out there who don’t follow (or even know) the simple Glock safety rules. When I went through my mandatory Nevada CCW class, our time at the range was eye-opening…and frankly, fucking terrifying. More than one of the people REqualifying barely knew which way to point the damn thing.
I have three Sigs, including 320c, which has a different mechanism than the 320. None have ever gone off on their own.
I remember when Glocks first came out in the US and there were numerous incidents when they somehow went off on their own. Or maybe they didn’t.
Our China mart went from 24 hours operations to 12 hours a day during COVID. After the outbreak they determined that 90% of their shrinkage was between 2200-0500. So now they are closed during that time.
At 0500 -0700 they are only open for seniors and people with disabilities.
Most of the theft then shifted to the self checkout. However it is very easy to catch people stealing there since there are 3-4 cameras are on every self checkout. The problem is having enough people to watch all the cameras. It then became a game of hiring more security vs hiring more checkout people. It turns out security people are more expensive then checkout people.
Walmart on Skibo outside Bragg, too (and for much the same reason– riff-raff out in the parking lot caused trouble and then people stole sh*t at those hours).
It would be interesting to know Costco’s (I shop there often) stats on “shrinkage and losses” vs everyone else.
They have a self-checkout section (6 or 8 “registers”) but they ALWAYS have someone there to watch/assist as needed.
And the registers are weight sensitive. You scan it, you’d best put it on the tray.
PLUS they have people at the exit to check/compare the receipt vs what’s in your cart.
I like the Walmart self checkout because I can take my time.
The machine takes cash. Plenty of assistance standing by in
case of problems and cameras everywhere in case YOU are
the problem.
Wish they would allow concealed carry though.
Our local Walmart is probably the most heavily armed in existence. They don’t ban firearms, but they do “ask nicely” to not carry. Went in there with MRS D a few weeks ago, I seemed to be the only one not packing. I said “damn, honey, I didn’t get the memo about “bring your gun to Walmart day””. Older gentleman walking by with a beautiful 1911 says “Gimme your email, I’ll make sure you’re included”.
The ones down my way just have signs asking people not to open carry. Super 1 supermarkets just west of here (Lafayette and beyond) have signs prohibiting the carrying of long guns. They’re a division of Texas-based Brookshire, and of course, this is the Sportsman’s Paradise, so I find it both amusing and oddly fitting. I can see some small-town Louisianans with their deer rifle strapped to their back riding their 4-wheeler to the store to pick up some beer and a pack of smokes.
Next time I go to walmart, I’ll look to see if there are don’t carry concealed signs. Never thought about it when I carry concealed there in Palm Beach County, Fl.
I think the question about carrying in a particular WalMart is a management or regional option.
Our Texas WalMarts (at least those I’ve been to) don’t have anything but “you can’t drink alcohol on these premises.” People open and conceal carry there.
Some places put the 30.07 signs up for no open carry, but allow concealed.
IIRC Mrs. Baker has gone to the Tx Supreme Court now with a good chance of success under Texas law.
Sig did fix something in the first P320s that could have allowed a discharge when dropped, but not the current ones.
I carried a P220 for years until practice ammo got too high. Drop-hammer safety was it.
I carry a P320 without a manual safety without fear. It only goes “bang” when I tell it to.
My home-brew holster covers the triggerguard so nothing can get to it.
I’ll admit, I like self-checkout. I don’t have to deal with an employee and can ensure my stuff is scanned correctly (reduced price bakery and other goods at Walmart don’t always have the original barcode covered, and if I’m paying full price for something, I’d rather it not expire today). I go to a lot of retailers, and some, like Burlington and Home Goods, have security in them. I don’t mind it, because every damned store has the manager’s office in a different corner or along a different wall and I can ask them instead of walking to where I think it is. But the presence of a uniformed guard wearing body armor is a bit much for a retailer whose target demographic is middle-class women. On the flip side, Walmart and a lot of supermarkets just employ off-duty police at certain hours, and Walmart has private security who even patrol the parking lots at stores around here. What really sucks is running into Walmart for a few items and finding self-checkout is closed and only one register is open. But retail theft, especially ORC, is so prevalent now, the stores have to do something. What I dislike, though, is the automatic assumption that everyone is trying to steal (or maybe it’s just my pride taking a hit when I feel like I’m being accused). A few years back, I spent something like $400 at Sam’s Club for a family gathering. I’d completely forgotten the three bags of chicken wings under the cart, though, and fortunately the receipt checker caught them. I made haste back to a register to pay for them. Honestly, if I’d have gotten to my truck and then saw them, I’d have gone back in to pay. If it was a $0.50 can of beans, I might not have bothered. A young couple was caught at Bass Pro trying to walk out with $5k worth of ammo they had hidden under their baby carrier. They left the ammo, but got away before police could arrive. Later, the cops found an ORC crew who’d stolen over $100k… Read more »
what is ORC?
Organized Retail Crime
Whiz Wheel®™ base score of 38 for Lou Christie. Could not find anything about him doing a duet with another name from that era, so:
Base score of 46 on Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (Franki Valli) –P.S., He’s still alive, aged 91.
Try the wheel on “ Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco”.
The Wheel did. That 38 is the base score for “Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco”
Sig’s woes are multifactorial which are evident, knowable, and preventable.
The disassembly disconnect, MIMed striker channels, not-enough-dissimilar cross model parts, tolerance stacking, poor QC, poor coatings and metal treatments…
I’m not saying they’re unsafe (only because they may or may not be litigious as a MF) but they tried to push too many novel production methods at the same time while focusing on the bottom line.
I’d like to think if Sig was still Sauer things might be a little different.
Remember them for who they were and move on.
Roh, can you cite your sources?
From what I read here, no court case has ever been proved:
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/heres-the-latest-on-the-lawsuits-against-sig-sauer-claiming-p320-pistols-are-unsafe/
Not anything specific. I’m going off of youtube videos as any hands-on haven’t experienced any issues.
Don’t have a dog in this fight neither. Just saying there’s better tools for the job, ones without baggage.
OK, that’s fair.
RIP Lou…