Homeland Security has decided to do away with the color coded terrorism threat levels. Probably a good idea. We've been at Yellow for years. I've developed security plans for critical infrastructure facilities that were based on the colors, but the time for that has passed. They were put in place as a stopgap measure that seems to have stuck.
For the nation as a whole, it's hard to think that one threat level could be effective. When Los Angeles is under a verified threat, I'm pretty sure that Green River, Wyoming is pretty safe. I think that such color coding could be effective for individual cities, or perhaps specific parts of critical infrastructure and key resources.
DHS is phasing out the color code system between now and April. I'll take it off of here this weekend.
What's On Base?
This is not a line from Abbot and Costello, it's a question you ought to know the answer to if there is a military or government facility near your home.
Last night, the Army's Dugway Proving Ground, about 85 miles from Salt Lake City, was in "lockdown" for almost 12 hours for "an ongoing security operation" with no other information about why the employees who were supposed to leave at 5:30 were stuck there until the wee hours of the morning. Dugway is almost 800,000 acres, about the size of Rhode Island.
Much later, the Army revealed that a vial of VX nerve agent had been missing. It was found.
Knowing what kind of facility is near your home is not being paranoid, it simply gives you situational awareness and allows you to adjust your risk matrix so that you can be prepared for what might be unique to your area.
One That Got Away
Time for another gun I got rid of that I wish I still had. Back in probably 1987 or 88, I went to the local gun shop bound an determined to buy a Commando Mark 45
, a knock off of the Thompson. List price on it was $210 and I had the cash burning a hole in my pocket. Naturally, they did not have one anymore, so I had to get something. I ended up getting the Mossberg 500 Bullpup. 
If you are not familiar with the term "bullpup," it refers to a gun designed so that the receiver is actually in the stock, behind the trigger group. It allows for the effectiveness of a shoulder fired weapon, but the convenience of a stockless one. The Mossberg bullpup was heavy, bulky, and ugly as homemade sin, but it had a lot of character. I sold it a few years later, but I don't remember what I got for it or what I needed the money for. One recently sold on one of the gun auction sites for $535, so if I still had it, it would have been a good investment.
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