Gunnie Dream

I had a gun dream last night.  It wasn't one of those dreams where you have to pull your gun to defend yourself and it won't come out of the holster or every round has a malfunction of some sort.

This was actually a good dream.

I was back in basic training, and it was day one of Basic Rifle Marksmanship.  But instead of handing me an M16A1 that was older than I was, the armorer was handing out the M41A pulse rifles from Aliens. I was going over the weapon, the trigger, the sights, the grenade launcher, when I looked at the selector switch.

It had three settings:

1. Click
2. Boom!
3. Awwww  Yeaaahhhhhh!

Too bad I woke up before we got to the range.  I was looking forward to that.

Musings

CNN is running a piece on "Stand Your Ground" laws, and gives four cases where they have been exercised to protect people from prosecution or to acquit them:

• A mentally handicapped young man was shot and killed at a restaurant drive-thru after a close call between him and a car became violent.  The shooter maintains that he thought the man had a weapon and meant to do him harm.  He has not been charged with a crime.
• A man shot and killed someone who rushed into his trailer after asking for a drink of water.  The shooter maintains that the man was threatening his wife when it happened.  The man who was shot had contact with the police earlier in the evening, and they believed he was intoxicated.  An autopsy showed that the man had a skull fracture, which might explain his behavior.
• A man shot and killed a teenager after a group of young men broke into his home looking for snack food.  The man maintains that after he had subdued the group of teenagers, one of them lunged at him and he shot him.  He was prosecuted, but acquitted by a jury.
• A man learned that someone was robbing his car, grabbed a knife, and gave chase.  When he confronted the robber, the robber swung a bag full of car radios at him, and the man stabbed the robber in the chest, killing him. He was charged with a crime, but a judge dismissed the charges.  That dismissal is under appeal.

CNN goes on to express editorial opinions, drawing on the opinions of a law professor at Loyola, several prosecutors, and police officers to assert that the laws being examined are bad.

Here is my opinion, and please keep in mind that I am far from being a lawyer:

Where I have a right to be, I have a right to defend myself.  To go with that right, I have a responsibility to stand before the law if my judgement is wrong.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?  If only it was.

In two of the cases above, the cases of the man defending his wife and the man who stabbed the thief, the situations are very clear cut to me.  When confronted with someone acting aggressively and not giving you time to think, you react.  A man who rushes a woman in her home or turns around and swings a heavy object at its owner is presenting a clear threat, and in both cases, I have no doubt that the people who defended their lives did so with good reason. In the case of the man with the skull fracture, the homeowners had no way to know that he was hurt.  All they could know was that he appeared to be trying to harm them.

The other two, on the other hand, are much more murky.  The case in Texas basically comes down to who you believe, the man with the shotgun or the youths who broke into his home?  Did he execute a boy or even just have a negligent discharge while pointing his shotgun at a home intruder who had surrendered?  Or did he shoot a teenager who initiated an attack against him after initially surrendering?

The Arizona case is also difficult for me, because I've been on both sides of it.  I've almost run over people because one or both of us weren't watching where we were going, and I've almost been run over.  It doesn't help that the shooter maintains that the man he shot had a pipe or some other weapon, and none was ever found.  Did he take the time to load his pistol and then shoot the man out of malice or fear?

The calls to use a deadly weapon to cause non-deadly injuries are of course specious.  I carry a gun to stop a threat in the most effective way I know.  I am under no illusions about my skills, reflexes, and capabilities to do much more than center mass shots when I am under stress.  Center mass shots on humans tend to be fatal.  After the fact questions about why a person was killed instead of wounded are unrealistic.

Would CNN and the academics, police, and prosecutors who are complaining about these laws prefer that we second guess ourselves when confronted with danger?  Is it preferable that a woman be harmed in her own home while her husband try to figure out why she is being attacked?  Is it preferable for a man to be bludgeoned with a bag of electronics while he tries to decide if he is really in danger?  Should a man with his pregnant fiance in the car wait until they are actually being harmed before he reacts?

I guess where I'm getting at is that "Stand Your Ground" laws have a place in our society, but we have to remember that our rights come with responsibilities.  We have a responsibility to use deadly force only when absolutely necessary, and we can aid ourselves in that by not letting ourselves be rushed into the decision to use it.  Stay aware of what's going on around you and you won't fall into non-thinking reflexes.  But we also have the right to defend ourselves when we feel threatened, no matter where we may find ourselves. 

To me, there is only one answer:  I am going home to my family every night, and we are going to be safe in our home.  What that costs me and someone who threatens me is much less important to me than that simple goal.

Rough Few Days in Kentucky

Not for me, although Irish Woman has been working me like a rented mule.  There has been a lot of shootings in the local news, and I thought I'd give y'all my dva kopeka.

• A Louisville man is in custody custody after shooting two other people in a car they were all travelling in.  Since the only picture the news has of one of the victims is a mug shot, for the moment, I'll notch this one up to possible criminal-on-criminal violence.  Only other possibility I can see is self-defense if the shooter was grabbed and stuffed in the car for some reason.  I use that off-ramp to go to Knob Creek.
• A Louisville police officer shot someone this weekend.  Not a lot of details on this yet, but the person who got shot survived and was arrested.  Irish Woman drives by the Cannon's Lane exit on I-64 every morning.
• A woman was hit by gunfire after two men started shooting at each other in the parking lot of a business.  The two shooters ran away and are being sought by police.  I chalk this one up to being in a bad neighborhood and not having a chance to duck.  There are no details on this, but it sounds like she was just struck by a stray bullet when two assholes started blazing away at each other.  I take this tone when describing the two guys with guns because if it's a legitimate shoot, one of them (the one defending his life) would more than likely have stuck around.  My gut tells me this was more criminal-on-criminal foolishness, and the lady just happened to be there.  No word on whether the men actually hit each other.  One of my hardware stores is across the street from there.
• A man in Guston, Kentucky, is dead after the son-in-law of his girlfriend shot him with a shotgun.  The man had decided that he wasn't going to let his girlfriend walk way from him after a domestic dispute, so he crashed his car into a mobile home and forced his way inside, where he met Mr. Buckshot.  Not going to celebrate this one, but I'm not exactly going to weep over it either.
• A 13 month old child is dead in Radcliff, Kentucky, after being shot in the head by a 3 year old sibling.  This one has me seeing red through a tunnel.  I know people who vehemently argue with me that it's quite all right to leave a loaded gun in drawers, on shelves, even under furniture when there are small children around and unsupervised.  Their reasoning seems to boil down to "I told them to leave it alone, and they know better than to do something I told them not to".  I need to print off the details of this one and just hand it out.  

So what do we have here?  One probable criminal-on-criminal shooting, an officer involved shooting, a self-defense shooting, a lady who was in the line of fire unexpectedly, and a child dead because of stupidity.  In several of those cases, they happened at places that I or Irish Woman frequently pass through.  One hits close to home because I have kids, I have guns, and I try to be responsible with both of them.  The self-defense reminds me that I can have the safest, most stable home in the world, but I'm only a couple of levels of separation away from other people who might come to us for help and have someone who views other people as objects follow them.

All of these situations happened unexpectedly.  I'm sure that the young soldier from Fort Knox didn't think he would be shooting someone this weekend, and I'm absolutely certain that the parents of that child didn't put the gun out in hopes that the three year old would find it.  The person who called 911 about the dead people in the car most likely was just trying to get through their day, same as I do when I drive by that intersection.  The woman who got shot just minding her business in the parking lot of a store didn't expect to be rushed to the emergency room this afternoon.

Life throws things at us, and while we can't be on high alert all the time, there are some things we should keep in mind:

• No matter how high you put it, no matter how well you hide it, they will climb and they will uncover it.  A child will figure out how to work the trigger on a double action pistol.  A child will figure out how to work the slide on a shotgun.  A child will figure out how to work the selector switch on a rifle.  They are curious, they are geniuses when it comes to mechanical items, and a child that young CANNOT BE TAUGHT TO NOT TOUCH SOMETHING EVERY TIME, ALL THE TIME. I very much support and practice the keeping of firearms for self-defense, but leaving a loaded gun out where a young child can get to it unsupervised is irresponsible and stupid.  Get an easy-for-an-adult gun safe and keep your children out of the ER, morgue, and Michael Bloomberg's radar. 
• Be aware of your surroundings as much as you can.  Like I mentioned, we go to several of the areas where these shootings happened.  Louisville is a relatively peaceful city for its size, and we still had all of these shootings in different areas this weekend.  Keep your head, and watch what's going on around you.  Remember, there is no such place as a place where bad things don't happen.  Assholes have cars now, and some of them come from 'nice' neighborhoods.
• Know when to take yourself up a notch.  If a family member is coming to your home for shelter from an abusive relationship, take the time to arm yourself and be watchful before they show up to continue whatever it was that caused their partner to run.  And no matter where you are going, if it is legal to do so, carry your gun and know how and when to use it.

I'll end by saying that this set of shootings is an anomaly in this area.  Like I said, Louisville isn't that bad crime and violence wise, especially when compared to other cities in the South and Mid-West.  It just goes to show that bad things can happen anywhere. We owe it to ourselves and our families to use our heads and be prepared for the curve balls that are always being thrown.

Update - Edited to update the link on the officer involved shooting.  Looks like the guy not only got shot, but also got introduced to a land shark.  Oh, and BTW, not only was he shot along the route that Irish Woman usually takes to work, he robbed one of the gas stations I use.  Either I go a lot of places in Louisville and happen to go a lot of places where these people got shot, or I'm a jinx.

Repeat after me

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

A man and his wife are being treated for gunshot wounds after he shot himself in the hand with a pistol, the bullet passed through him, and then it struck his wife in the leg.   This negligent discharge happened during a handgun safety course at a residence in Virginia.  The instructor reports that he had left the room when the gun discharged.

Let's see here:

• Rule 1 violation - Why was a loaded gun being handled at someone's house during firearms safety instruction? Why was live ammunition even in the room?
• Rule 2 violation - The guy muzzled himself and his wife.
• Rule 3 violation - Unless the gun malfunctioned, it didn't "just go off"
• I'm sure there's a rule 4 violation in here somewhere, but I can't articulate it, so I'll give him a pass on that one. 
• Why were inexperienced shooters being left alone with a loaded gun?

Ladies and gentlemen, this wasn't a "stupid accident".   A "stupid accident" is when a normally responsible driver hits a patch of black ice and slides into a bus stop.  A "stupid accident" would have been if the gun was faulty and discharged on its own.  Based on what I can see here, I don't call this an "accident".  I call this "negligence stacking".  There was live ammunition in the gun during non-firing training, there wasn't proper supervision of a new shooter, the shooter pointed the gun at himself and his wife, and he probably had his finger on the trigger.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've said it before:  We will not be judged based on our most responsible and safe gun owners.  We will be judged by the mistakes, negligence, and damage done by those who are not responsible and safe.  We owe it to ourselves to be safe and to police up those who have a lapse in judgement.

Update - Jake does an excellent job summing up the situation.

Review Follow-Up - CZ-82 Holster from Michael's Custom Holsters

This time last year, I got my first custom made holster.  It was a basic high-rise pancake model from Michael, and it looked and felt wonderful:

Brand New Front

Brand New Back

I've been wearing this holster regularly for a year, and I have to say that it's held up surprisingly well.

One year on, front
This is the color of leather I prefer.

The opening is still stiff and snug

Belt loop

Belt loop

Back, one year on

Reverse of belt loop

As you can see, the leather is aging to a nice brown, and it should continue to darken as time goes on. On advice from Michael, I have used saddle soap and SnowSeal to clean and treat the leather.  The holster continues to be very stiff where it needs to be, but the belt loops have worn in to allow a gun belt to run through them without losing their grip.  Basically, it's easier to get the holster on, but once I have it set, it doesn't move until I move it.  

The holster grips the gun very well. If anything, it grips it better now than it did when it was brand new, as the leather has molded itself to the pistol.  The rough back has held up very well, but there is a very slight touch of wear where the belt runs against it.

As you can see, the construction of the holster is holding up extremely well  The stitching on the back has no sign of fraying or wearing out.  The layers of leather are all holding together very well, and like I said, it's become more comfortable and usable as time has gone on.

Normally when I do a review, I try to find a few things I like and a few things that could be improved, but in this case, I can't find anything amiss.  The comfort, looks, construction, and usability of this holster are all excellent.  I would definitely recommend Michael to anyone who wants to get a holster.

NRA Annual Meeting 2012 - Final Thoughts

There will be more posts on individual things that caught my attention over the next few weeks, but here are some thoughts on the last day or so of the Annual Meeting:

• If you go to an annual meeting and just want to walk the show floor and visit the souvenir store, I suggest you go on Sunday.  The crowds are much thinner, there are still 'squee' moments when you see people like Ted Nugent walking around, and some really good deals on the gear and souvenirs are to be had.
• After going to all of the non-custom manufacturers and looking at their  9mm handguns, I can report that the front runners as of now are the Kahr  PM9 and the Browning High Power.  Next step is to go to Knob Creek, rent an example of the ones still under consideration, and run some bullets through them.  Decision and purchase will probably be made in time for a "Merry Christmas to me" present.
• Hint to pistol makers:  What I want in a trigger is for little to no movement of the trigger without resistance, smooth resistance all the way to break, and a positive reset.  I want this out of the box, and am willing to pay reasonable prices to get it.  Telling me to get a trigger job or replace the whole darned trigger is unacceptable. 
• Note to all vendors and manufacturers:  I don't need to see a very well put together member of the opposite sex in a skimpy outfit to notice your product.  
• I was tempted to get a small MP3 player with a loud speaker, put "All By Myself" on a continuous loop, and hide it in the HS Precision booth, but I just couldn't find the time.
• I didn't realize how much a difference a Timney trigger made on a Mosin-Nagant until I tried it at their booth.  They had me at 'click'.  And the look on OldNFO's face when I told him I was putting a $90 dollar Timney trigger in an $89 dollar Mosin was priceless.
• In related news, I got no traction from any of the major rifle manufacturers when I asked if they would consider making a modern bolt action rifle in 7.62x54r.  Sigh.
• The amount of artistry and craftsmanship that goes into a lot of the firearms that were on display was breathtaking.  Even a plain wooden stock on an AK clone can be beautiful if its well polished and oiled.  Some manufacturers have begun trying to make their polymer guns and rifle stocks more attractive to the eye, and I think that's a good trend.  All firearms need to be functional and comfortable to use, but no-one said they had to be ugly for the sake of ugly.
• Just like last year in Pittsburg, I heard several locals and lots of people at the convention comment on how polite and well-mannered those attending the meeting were, both at the convention and out in the restaurants and hotels.  I have been to quite a few technology conferences, and I never see so many people saying "Excuse me", "Please", and "Thank you" when the target audience is technology geeks.
• I also noticed that there were a lot of families with children at this year's meeting, as well as women either alone or in groups.  That bodes well for the continuation and expansion of the NRA in particular and gun culture in general.  It probably can't and won't stay the way it is now, but it should continue to evolve into something even better.
•  Only in the gunblogger community have I been among a group of people whom I have only met in person once or twice, yet they have known me for years. We had men and women from all backgrounds and corners of the country sitting in an Irish pub, talking about politics, family, guns, and whatever, and no-one looked like they felt out of place.  Heck, at one point we had a giant from Texas walking around in a kilt, and all we did was smile.

Fun Gunnie Game

The other night, while eating dinner, a bunch of gun geeks came up with a bit of a game.  We came up with indicators that you might be a 'gun nut'.

Here's what I can remember* of the indicators and a couple I thought of later:

You might be a gun nut if:

• Your guns are cleaner than your car.
• You have more gun safes than you do cars
• If you've ever reached into your pocket to get change and come up with a live round
• You set a calendar reminder for your anniversary, but you can remember to the day when your carry license and C&R license need renewal.
• You put more thought into the names for your guns than you did for your kids.
• You are more excited about shaking Massad Ayoob's hand than you are about meeting Oliver North.

What do y'all have?

*My apologies, but my Irish ancestors would have been proud of how much Guinness I put away that night.

Thoughts on Mitt Romney's Speech - NRA Annual Meeting, 2012

Mitt Romney gave a speech to the NRA Annual Meeting yesterday.  I watched it on the live feed, and then re-watched it on-line today to try to get a good idea of where he stands on the Second Amendment and other rights.

Sitting and talking with JayG and others who have lived under a Romney administration tells me that he has a lot of work to come back from where he stood as governor of Massachusetts and as a candidate in years past.  Here are my impressions of what he had to say yesterday:

Quotes:

• "Congress does not need more money to spend, it needs to spend only what it has."
• "We once built the Interstate Highway System and the Hoover Dam.  Today we can't even build a pipeline."
• "The truth is, we're struggling because our government is too big!"
• "The answer to a weak economy is not more government, it is more freedom"
• "I will protect the second amendment rights of the American people"
• "He (President Obama)  thinks our nation's highest court is to be revered and respected, as long as it remains faithful to the original intent of Barack Obama."
• "We'll stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again will we apologize for America abroad."

As you can see, not a lot of what he said that was memorable had a lot to do with the Second Amendment.  Not that it wasn't a good speech, but it didn't lean hard on gun rights as a theme.  It was a good stump speech about freedom in general, especially economic freedom, with a few pokes at President Obama thrown in for good measure.

Other thoughts:

• You have to give Mr. Romney credit for making a speech in front of a large crowd, that he has no control over, and that is, at best, lukewarm to him and his politics.
• Ann Romney, his wife, took a few minutes early in the speech to say a few words.  I have to say, she's at least as good a speaker as he is.  She at least connected the theme of her involvement in the campaign with the Battles of Lexington and Concord and did a decent job doing it.
• Romney made a good point that we are a nation of laws, not men.  He invoked Truman when saying that the Constitution is more than a piece of paper, which is a nice rhetorical touch.  
• He contrasted himself with Obama by asserting that he wants to limit government, while Obama has sought to expand its role.
• Romney says he plans to use the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as guiding documents if he is elected.  It's nice to hear a candidate at least use those words so we can call him on it when he fails to do it after the election.
• Mr. Romney spoke a lot about economic freedom.  He asserted that while some regulation of economic activity is necessary, the Obama administration and his allies in Congress have taken it too far.  He brought up several examples of government interference in people's lives that have come up in the past few years, including the couple that had to take the EPA to the Supreme Court because the EPA told them they were building on wetlands.
• He spoke a bit about how the administration has interfered with the ability of Americans to do business in accordance with their own conscience.  He specifically brought up how religious communities, such as the Catholic Church, are being forced to do things that are against the tenets of their faith.
• Mr. Romney didn't start speaking about the Second Amendment until about minute 18 of a 27 minute speech.  That indicates to me that gun rights aren't in his list of priorities.  The speech was a good general overview of Mr. Romney's views on freedom, but didn't specialize on the subject of gun rights. 
• Mr. Romney got his first standing ovation when he called for Attorney General Holder to either resign or be fired. 
• He pledged to enforce current gun laws, and to oppose any new ones.  I would have been interested to know where he stood on reducing the number and complexity of existing laws.
• Mr. Romney took the opportunity to take shots at President Obama and his recent remarks about the Supreme Court.  He stressed several times that judicial review was an essential part of our nation's make-up, which I will be curious to hear about if he is elected and runs afoul of the Supreme Court.
• He also brought up the probability that President Obama will probably be making a couple more nominations to the Supreme Court if he is re-elected. His assertions were that given that chance, we will be living with the consequences of the Obama administration for decades to come.  I tend to agree with him.  The only real legacy I see for modern presidents is how they approach choices for the courts, and I have found President Obama lacking in his choices so far.
• Mr. Romney ended his speech by relating how, as governor of Massachusetts, he went to Logan Airport in Boston to meet the remains of a service member who had died overseas, and how when he looked back at the terminal, he saw people from all backgrounds also giving respect.  He used that to illustrate how he wished to be a uniter of the nation rather than a divider.

Like I said, it was a good speech, but didn't speak about the Second Amendment except as an example of a freedom among other freedoms.  I think that speech might have been good at another pro-gun venue, but a speech more focused on gun rights might have played better here.   The crowd wasn't exactly hostile, but they certainly weren't exuberant in their applause, and I didn't hear Mr. Romney have to stop to let the applause die down very often.  

If Mr. Romney was looking to use this speech to bring pro-gun and pro-rights people firmly into his camp, I think he missed.  However, if the speech was a way for him to re-introduce himself to that crowd so they could see where he is today, I think he succeeded.  He didn't make the mistake of trying to be a staunch supporter of gun rights, because I think he knows he won't be able to pull that one off. He also didn't fall into the "I have a really nice shotgun, and I love going out and shooting pheasants with it" trap that got John Kerry lampooned in 2004.  However, if he can keep beating on the pro-freedom drum, he might be able to allay the fear that he will be hostile or limp on gun rights. 

But heaven help him if he is able to get pro-gun citizens to accept him enough to elect him, and he shoves us under the bus of political expediency.  

NRA Annual Meeting 2012 - First Thoughts

• For this not being a year with a big 'new' thing to push, there are a lot of new firearms to look at.  
• The Smith & Wesson Shield looks interesting.  It's slim, small, and fits pretty comfortably even in my meathooks.  The two drawbacks I found with it was that I couldn't get the slide release to let go with one hand and, of course, the trigger.
• Apex Trigger really ought to have gotten a booth next to the M&P booth.
• The S&W Bodyguard .380 automatic and the .38 revolver have about the same trigger pull, which is surprising to me.  
• Armalite rifles are very slick.  And by slick, I mean it looks like they dipped them in oil before putting them on the display rack. 
• Thompson Center has a very neat concept in their Dimension rifle.  Basically, it's designed to allow the home user to re-barrel their rifle in a few minutes without going to a gunsmith.  It comes with two tools, a driver and a wrench, that work to allow the changing out of the barrel and bolt in minutes.  The wrench breaks at the appropriate amount of torque for the bolts that hold the rifle together, so there's less worry of over-torquing the rifle.  The rep at their booth quoted the basic rifle at $600, with barrel and bolt kits going for $200.
• In the hunt for a new muzzleloader, I think I'm starting to settle on the Thompson Center Triumph.  In the configuration they have here, it feels about as heavy as my Omega, comes up to my shoulder just as comfortably, and the breech comes out very easily without tools.  I'll have to start pricing them when I get home.
• So far, St. Louis has been pretty easy to get around.  But whoever put up on the NRA website that my hotel was only a 5 minute walk away from the convention center should be drug out into the street and beaten.
• The people working the booths seem to be much more outgoing towards media in general and bloggers in particular, than I remember from last year.  Hopefully that continues to be the trend.

A Summit on How to Act Right

The leader of the Saint Louis chapter of the NAACP, the Reverend B.T. Rice, has called for a 'gun violence summit' to occur next weekend.  This is being timed to coincide with the NRA Annual Meeting.  


Quoth the good Reverend:

“Why on Earth would a fifteen year old kid have a sawed off rifle?” he asked.  “Why can’t the city, the county, the state officials stop the flow of firearms that flood our community?  It must stop.”

With all due respect to the good Reverend and his organization, it's not the flood of guns into his 'community' that's the problem.  I grew up in a 'community' where every single family we knew not only owned a gun, but owned several.  All adults, men and women, regularly handled firearms, and most children had at least fired a gun by age 10.  We didn't have 15 year old boys out in the street pointing rifles at police and getting shot.  


I find it ironic that a leader in the NAACP, a group that specifically states a goal of improving the lives of Americans of African descent, is fetishizing an implement instead of pushing his own 'community' to stop blaming others for their problems and get on with finding real causes and solutions.  Quit normalizing, and sometimes glorifying, behavior that contributes to the problem:

• Men who jump in the sack with any woman they can find, but not being there to actually parent the young men and women that are a consequence of that roll in the hay.
• Two generations of black youth who consider working hard and getting an education as 'acting white'.
• Two generations of black youth who think that 'thug life' is more desirable than 'good life'.
• Three generations of black youth who have grown up in poverty because there is no incentive to do better except as a thug, an entertainer, or an athlete.
• A community that condones criminal behavior by its members and blames the police when one of its members is caught, tried, convicted, and incarcerated.
• A community that turns a blind eye to destructive use of alcohol, cocaine, meth, and other intoxicants instead of shunning those who destroy themselves through weakness.

I could go on and on, and to be honest, I would be shocked if bringing these things up to the Reverend and his followers would make a difference.  It takes real strength of character to stop looking outward for the causes of your problems and to change yourself, and so long as the NAACP scapegoats an inanimate object for the deaths of black Americans, that strength will not be evident in their ranks.  


If I can get frank and honest answers from anyone in this argument, maybe I would put more stock in their assertions of racism and evil gun organizations:

• Why was LaVon Peete out in the street with a gun when he got shot instead of doing homework, working a job, or doing something constructive?
• Where were his parents, why were they letting him roam the streets with a gun, and why didn't they know that their 15 year old had a sawed off rifle?
• Why isn't the NAACP doing more to keep young black men from going out into the streets to act like thugs?

Instead of asking themselves the hard questions, Reverend Rice and his ilk deflect blame on to others.  To expand on his belief that the fact that the NRA and other pro-gun rights organizations support our rights to keep and bear arms, including the discreet carry of a firearm for self-defense, he should be protesting in front of the local glassworks because they're flooding the market with cheap glass tubes that are turned into crack pipes.  Maybe he should be protesting in front of the local breweries because they are flooding the market with cheap alcohol.  Or maybe he should be protesting in front of his own church because his 'community' is flooding itself with young people who weren't raised right.


H/T to John Richardson over at No Lawyers - Only Guns and Money for the story.

For my daughter and her daughters

Over the past few years, ladies have begun to take their rightful place alongside men on the firing line.  Whether it be for self-defense, shooting sports, hunting, or just having fun, the 'boys club' has opened up.  Through efforts of women in the blogosphere and shooting sports, young girls have more opportunities to learn to enjoy shooting for all of these reasons and more.


June 9, 2012 will be National Take Your Daughter To The Range Day.  This is a day where the importance of introducing our daughters to our sport is highlighted.  This emphasis is important because when a girl is shown that guns and shooting are a fun pastime, they are more likely to keep at it into adulthood.  More importantly, they learn that the stereotypes of shooters, especially female shooters, are hollow.  Let's face it, boys are half expected to be interested in guns, and when a girl expresses an interest, she risks being labelled as strange by members of society that still cling to old stereotypes.  As adults raising young women, we owe it to them to teach them that being responsible for themselves and enjoying a fun hobby is as normal for them as it is for their brother.


A girl can and and should be encouraged to shoot as well as or better than her brothers, and the first step is to get her to the range with someone she trusts so that she can get over the initial nervousness and start to enjoy herself.


But teaching your daughter to shoot and helping her to enjoy her time at the range has an even more important objective.  I can sum it up by quoting from William Ross Wallace:

For the hand that rocks the cradle 

Is the hand that rules the world. 

Our daughters are going to be mothers someday, and they will have an extraordinary amount of influence on the generations that will follow them.  If mom is a shooter, or is at least comfortable with guns, then her kids and grandkids are more likely to be exposed to the shooting sports.  If she believes that guns are dangerous and to be avoided, then the chances of her children learning how to safely use them and continue the tradition of gun ownership that our country enjoys are greatly reduced.


We've made a lot of progress in the past few years when it comes to gun rights, but the pendulum will eventually swing back the other way.  Only by laying a foundation of young men and women who enjoy and understand the fun and responsibility of gun ownership can we hope to slow down and stop the inevitable shift away from our current success.  Even with all of the progress we've made in integrating women into the sport, society still accepts little boys playing with toy guns while pigeon-holing little girls into the playroom with the dollhouse.  My goal as a father is to teach my daughter that she can be feminine and still shoot out the X ring.  This day gives us an opportunity to take our daughter to the range and continue that work.


I will be taking Girlie Bear shooting on June 9, and I encourage all of you to take your daughters, granddaughters, nieces, or whatever young girl is special in your life to the range.  It will be good for her, and it will help to preserve our rights in the future.  

Service Comparison - Online Ammunition Dealers

With the cost of ammunition going up and Girlie Bear learning to shoot, I'm going through a lot more .22.  I decided to stock up, and while I was at it I thought I'd compare service between the online ammunition dealers.

I bought the common denominator between all of my .22's in what they liked to eat: Remington 36 grain Golden Bullet .22 Long Rifle.  This is basically like comparing boxes of flour or any other commodity, so I was able to find several different vendors who offered them.  I bought it in the 525 round packs, as that seemed to be the largest box you can buy from most dealers without having to buy thousands of rounds at a time.

I compared my purchases on cost, ease of purchase, and time to ship to my home.  I used no special discounts on the purchase prices, and I paid for the lowest cost shipping available from each dealer.

Cost:

Vendor	Cost	Shipping/Handling	Fees	Total Cost	Cost Per Round
Cabelas	$19.99	$5.25		$25.24	$0.05
Ammunition to Go	$18.95	$11.64		$30.59	$0.06
Midway USA	$21.99	$9.95	$3.00	$34.94	$0.07
BassPro Shop	$20.49	$5.00		$25.49	$0.05
Sportsman's Guide	$21.49	$8.49	$0.99	$30.97	$0.06
Lucky Gunner	$20.00	$13.09		$33.09	$0.06

Cabelas and BassPro were the least expensive at 5 cents per round, with Midway USA being the most expensive at 7 cents.  All of the others had the average price per round of 6 cents.  Bass Pro and Cabelas would have come in a little cheaper if I had gone to one of their stores to pick up my purchase, but the nearest Bass Pro is more than $5 worth of gas away, and there won't be a Cabelas near here for a few more months.  It should be noted that most of these vendors offered a discount for buying several of these packs together, usually 10, so you could get a cheaper cost per round if you bought from one vendor in larger quantities.

Ease of Purchase:

Overall, all of these vendors had a pretty good shopping experience.  I bought from all of them as a 'guest' account, so none of my stored information with them was used.  Bass Pro Shop and MidWay USA probably had the best purchase sites based on the fewest number of clicks to get from the "Shopping Cart" page to the "Order Confirmed" page.  Sportsman's Guide took the longest to purchase from, had the largest number of pages to get through to complete the order, and I had to click through several "Don't you want to join our club and save money?" pages.  However, the difference wasn't significant and wasn't frustrating enough to make me quit.  Please keep in mind that this portion of the evaluation was totally subjective and based upon my impressions as I was making the purchases.  Your mileage may vary.

Time to Ship:

Vendor	Date Ordered	Date Arrived	Elapsed Days
Cabelas	03/21/12	03/26/12	5
Ammunition to Go	03/21/12	03/26/12	5
Midway USA	03/21/12	03/23/12	2
BassPro Shop	03/21/12	03/30/12	9
Sportsman's Guide	03/21/12	03/27/12	6
Lucky Gunner	03/24/12	03/28/12	4

In the amount of time it took to get from "Order Complete" to "Putting the box in the foot locker", Midway USA was by far the fastest at two days.  I got the shipment notice from Midway USA the same day I ordered, as has been my experience in all of the purchases I've done with them in the past.  Dead last by several days was Bass Pro, who took 9 days to get the bullets to me.  This was probably due to them being on back order, a situation Bass Pro was polite enough to tell me about half an hour after I had finalized the purchase on their website. The average time from order to front door was 5 days.

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

Like I said, Bass Pro put my order on back order without telling me about it during purchase.  I probably wouldn't have included them in my comparison if they had told me that they didn't have that product in stock at the time of purchase, but since they finalized the order and then told me, they got put in with the rest of the pack.  Their time from order to delivery was 9 days, almost twice the average time of 5 days.

Lucky Gunner had the exact opposite problem.  When I was making the rest of the purchases on the 21st, they didn't have this particular .22 LR in stock, so didn't list it.  A few days later, they had it in, so I bought from them.  They got the bullets to me in less than the average time, so I'd put them up as a win.

Conclusions:

Honestly, with the exception of the out-of-stock situation with Bass Pro, all of the vendors excelled in some way, either in price, ease of purchase, or speed of shipping.  Bass Pro and Cabela's were the least expensive, while Lucky Gunner and Midway USA were the most expensive.  However Bass Pro took the longest to get me my merchandise, while the more expensive options of Lucky Gunner and Midway USA got them to me the fastest.  Cabelas appears to be the sweet spot in this comparison for excellent cost per round and average speed of shipment.

So which one would I recommend?  Well, it depends.  If you need the rounds fast, I'd say go with Midway USA or Lucky Gunner.  If cost, not speed, is your priority, then I'd suggest Cabela's or Bass Pro.  However, the other vendors, while not outstanding when compared to any of these choices, still got my purchase to me in a reasonable amount of time and at a reasonable cost.  I would definitely recommend looking at all of these vendors if you are considering purchasing ammunition in the near future.  The major difference in cost between all of them was due to shipping costs, so what was less expensive to ship for me might be more for you and vice versa, especially if you are buying in bulk.  

Disclaimer:  I received nothing to do this review, and all materials and services discussed in it were paid for by me.

An Open Letter

To the Honorable President Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Charles Schumer of New York

Gentlemen,

I, along with you and the rest of the country, have been shocked by the incident in Florida in which a young man died after being shot by another man.  Depending on which side of the argument you listen to, the young man was either murdered in the streets or was shot because he caused another man to fear for his life.  The facts of what happened are still being investigated by the police and a grand jury in Florida is going to decide if charges should be filed against the shooter in this case. 

Both of you have made public statements calling for federal investigations of the incident and to use it as a bludgeon against your political and ideological foes.

Neither of you is from Florida.  Florida has two senators who are quite capable of looking into the incident on their own, as is the representative of the district in which the incident occurred, if, in fact, a federal investigation is warranted.  The local authorities, including police and prosecutors, are investigating what happened and are presenting their findings to a grand jury, who will hopefully look at the facts of the case dispassionately and either order that charges be filed or decide that the shooter was right with the law.

That is how the system is supposed to work.  Justice is supposed to be deliberate, thoughtful, thorough, and dispassionate.  Fast justice is bad justice.  Both of you are lawyers, so you should know better than to try to influence the process by making public statements such as the ones I have seen in the past few days from both of you.

No-one is saying that it's not a tragedy that a young man is dead.  Either because he didn't act right or because someone else made a mistake, his life is over and the life of his family has been shattered.  Our society has lost another son, regardless of the person that son was at the time of his death.  No matter if he was a good young man who was staying out of trouble or if he was a young man who had lost his way and was heading for trouble, we have lost the potential good he could have brought to us all. 

At the same time, we must remember that the man who shot him is a citizen who has rights.  He has the right to defend his life if he fears for it.  If a grand jury decides that he should be charged with a crime, he has the right to be tried by an impartial jury of his peers in a fair trial with good representation.  He has the right to not fear that the mob in the street will hunt him or his family down and extract vigilante justice.  If he broke the law, the process will discover that and deal with him according to the laws of the state of Florida and the Constitution.  If he did not, then all of this discussion is moot.

Please, for the sake of the Constitution you both swore to uphold and the system of justice that Constitution and the Constitution of the state of Florida provide, stop making inflammatory remarks in the public square in order to score political points.  Please use whatever influence you have with those who are whipping up hatred in our streets to get them to tone it down and let the system do its job.  If you have issues with laws such as the "Stand Your Ground" law that is being lambasted by politicians, demagogues, and the press right now, do it after the family of Mr. Martin has had time to grieve and for justice to be served either by trying Mr. Zimmermann or by clearing him of wrongdoing.  Making law in the heat of the moment will guarantee that bad law will be produced. 

You are both consummate politicians.  I ask you now to start being statesmen.

Respectfully yours,

Daddy J. Bear
Louisville, Kentucky
Citizen

Keeping Your Mouth Shut

By now, you've heard about the shooting in Florida that ended with one person dead and another having to live in the shadows while the press, the anti-gun rights crowd, and the usual gang of race baiters scream for his blood and the authorities decide whether or not to prosecute him.

I'm not going to speculate as to whether or not the shooter was justified.  I don't know enough about the circumstances or the self-defense laws in Florida to do that.

To hear one side tell it, the shooter in this case was a self-appointed vigilante who went out looking for trouble and the shootee was a choir boy who got in his way and was targeted because of the color of his skin.

To hear the other side of it, well, we don't hear much from the other side.  Pretty much all we hear that's not being trumpeted by those on the dead man's side is from the police, who are doing their best Joe Friday, "Just the facts, ma'am", closed-lipped routine, which they should be doing.  It's not their job to defend the shooter, and they shouldn't be making any comments while they're engaged in an investigation.  What has been said, including releases of police reports, leads me to lean towards the "he wasn't right, but he might not have been criminally wrong" side of the argument.  But like I said, I don't know enough to make a true judgement of the shooter's actions.

In the court of public opinion, which will be contaminating any prospective jury pool in the event that this blooms into criminal charges and a trial, the shooter is being crucified.  For the most part he, his family, and his attorney are keeping quiet, possibly waiting for all the facts to come out from the investigation before defending themselves in the press.

When I took my concealed carry class, and in discussions with self-defense instructors, I've been told that after a shooting shut the heck up.  Cooperate with police through an attorney, stay out of the press, and let the process take care of itself.

This case makes me wonder if that's the best thing we can do in the unfortunate event that we have to use force to defend ourselves.  Yes, anything you say will be used against you, either by the authorities, civil litigants, or reporters who just don't like your looks.  But leaving that particular battlefield undefended means that even when the actual facts are reported and you are legally exhonerated, most people, including lawyers, demagogues, and reporters, will have made up their minds and the shooter is hosed.  Maybe the shooter will win, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory if they have to bankrupt themselves to repair the damage done when talking heads, race baiting politicians, and anti-rights extremists trash you on cable news.

No-one wants to speak ill of the dead, but if you're being painted as a cold blooded thug of a killer when the facts of the matter are quite different, do you owe it to yourself to point out the reasons you felt it necessary to use deadly force, including truthfully claiming that the person you shot did things that made you fear for your life and listing them in detail?  Is it right to refute claims by the other side that the person you shot was an innocent lamb who was gunned down in cold blood?  Would you be justified in having your attorney go to the press with any statements you made to the police if they contradict what is being said about you in the press?

What do you all think?  Would a shooter be better served by having someone stand up in the public glare and openly refute attacks against them?  Or is it better to just let the garbage flow around you while you patiently wait for the process to work itself out?

Quote of the Day

Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've created.  The ability to hang doo-dads on the end of a carbine is nothing compared to the power of the Mosin. -- Darth Vladimir, Dark Lord of Izhevsk and amateur chiropractor

I love this smile

Girlie Bear had her first experience at shooting pistols today.  I took the red-dot sight off of the 22-A1 and she put about 100 rounds downrange.  I wasn't that worried about accuracy today and concentrated on grip, stance, and safety.  The target you see above was after her first couple of cycles through the two magazines I have for that pistol.  My only admonition on accuracy with her was to not shoot the lights, target holders, or wall, but she didn't do half bad for her first time out.

She seemed to have a great time, but was very serious about doing it right.  She was conscientious about proper grip on the pistol, taking her time with shots, and being safe.  She even got to do a couple malfunction drills when the pistol had FTF's.  I've found with the 22-A1 that you have to give it a very steady platform to fire or it doesn't fire the next round, so I showed her how to cycle the slide and to hold it very firmly.  The recoil on it is so light that she had no trouble controlling it.

I was really proud of how serious she was about safety on the range.  I wish the same could be said about the group next to us. It was a group of 5 or so adults, most of whom were first time shooters.  The guy supplying the guns had pretty much emptied the safe and had a large assortment of pistols, including a .50 AE Desert Eagle.  It looked like a really neat gun, until it started to stove pipe when one of the new shooters was using it. When that happened he turned it 90 degrees to the left to look at the ejection port, which turned the muzzle of that very fine pistol pointed directly at us.  The first reminder from me was measured and gentle, the next one less so, and the third time was a "Let's pack up and go talk to the range safety".

Girlie Bear had a great time, and is already asking when we can go back.  I told her that once she gets comfortable and accurate with the .22, I'll let her shoot .38's out of my Model 13, and then she can try any of my other pistols.  This may be the thing that gets me off my butt and buying a 9mm so that she can shoot something more than a .22 and not have her poor father eating ramen noodles so that he can afford the ammunition.

Daily Snark

Can't remember how I found this little gem, but it made me gigglesnort.

My Take - Carry what works for you.  I refuse to get embroiled in the revolver versus automatic, Glock versus 1911, 9mm versus .45 debates.  If you can comfortably carry and shoot it, accurately make more than one hit with it, and it's not prone to true accidental discharges, go for it.

Shaking in their Boots

News reports in the past few months have shown forces loyal to the Assad regime using tanks, APC's, and artillery as tools to suppress dissent.  Mixed up in the fighting between government troops and opposition fighters are the normal group of non-combatants.  No-one should be surprised that a tyrant like Assad has no qualms about erasing entire city blocks to destroy opposition, no matter the collateral damage to civilians.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has suggested that leaders of the Syrian government and military should be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. 

I'm sure the threat of being drug into a courtroom at the Hague is making Assad consider pulling back his T-72's and unloading his BM-21's.  He must be up to all hours of the night staring off into the distance in fear over the possibility that he might have to get a lawyer.

The war crimes trials in Nuremberg and elsewhere after World War II set a precedent that those who do not follow the law of war when dealing with civilians and non-combatants can expect punishment after the war is over.  The hope seemed to be that the example of watching war criminals go to prison or the gallows would encourage future combatants to make sure they don't slaughter civilians or be overly harsh to POW's.

So, how's that worked for us?

In my lifetime alone, we've seen mass extermination of civilians in Cambodia, man-made mass starvation in Africa and North Korea, the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Iraq, the massacre of combatants and non-combatants during uprisings in Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, and other Mid-East countries, use of rape and concentration camps to ethnically cleanse civilian populations in the Balkans, and the slaughter of thousands of peaceful protesters in China.

Does anyone actually think that the possibility of being drug into court even occurred to the politicians and soldiers who carried out these attrocities?  I doubt it.

What went through their minds was probably something along the lines of "These people are an obstacle to me.  I need them to stop being an obstacle.  What is the easiest way for me to remove that obstacle?".  They didn't consider the humanity or value of the people they were hurting.  They sometimes tried to cover up their crimes, but that was done more to avoid publicity, not prosecution.

So what deters criminals?  In my humble opinion, the only thing that successfully convinces people who want to rape and pillage their way to power or to keep power is force. Naked, brutal, swift, and accurate application of massive force administered in the most public and sticky way available.

We kept Saddam Hussein from bombing Kurds and Shiite Arab civilians by flying CAP over his country for a decade.  We stopped the war in the Balkans by putting tanks and soldiers between the combatants and promising to kick the first bastard who raised a hand directly in the teeth.  When we sat on the sidelines and moaned about the injustice of it all, millions of people in North Korea starved to death because their political masters refuse to change their methods and Tiananmin Square got depopulated with tanks and machine guns.

Yes, dictators who kill their own people can end up in court, either at the hands of their own people like Hussein or at the Hague like Milosevic, but that happened years after the crimes. People like that really don't care about what happens in a decade.  They concentrate on keeping power until next year, and they're willing to do what's necessary, no matter the cost, to keep it.

If you want to either prevent or stop the unjust killing of civilians and other non-combatants, you have to apply force, and be willing to keep applying it until the offender stops and gives up the means to start back up.

The same is true for any criminal.  When was the last time you heard about someone saying "I stopped robbing liquor stores because I was worried about going back to prison?" or "I was going to break into that house and rape the woman who lives there, but that's a long stretch in the big house, and I don't want to do that."?

No, you don't.    What you hear is "I don't go to Virginia to rob people, they have guns.", or "I saw the group of guys coming at me, so I put my hand on my gun and made eye contact with them and they changed direction and left.".

Thugs, either those in charge of armies or those walking our streets, don't respect or fear being brought into court.  Thugs respect and fear force, and if you want to make them stop, you have to be willing to apply it.

By our actions shall we be condemned

Kevin over at the Smallest Minority has a post up about people shooting clays over a frozen lake, leaving a field of lead shot and broken clays and piles of hulls and other trash.  Go on over, read his article, and look at the pictures.

The outdoors is a place we all have the right to enjoy, and that includes shooting.  Maybe you're shooting clays, target shooting, plinking, or hunting.  Any way you make use of our land, you are a steward of that land and a representative of the hunting and shooting world to non-sportsmen.  When they see scenes like the ones that Kevin posted, they associate all hunters and shooters with those kinds of messes.

Recently, there have been a few kerfluffles where the Bureau of Land Management wanted to cut off shooting on BLM land.  One of the excuses used was that shooters were leaving behind trash and causing property damage, so they shouldn't be allowed to practice their sport on BLM land.  Thing is, they've got a point.  Drive down any rural road, and you'll see stop signs with bullet holes in them. Walk through fields and woods long enough, and you'll find trash left behind by hunters or target shooters.   Even areas that are not normally open to the public, like the hunting areas on Fort Knox, show evidence of people misusing the land.  Girlie Bear and I usually pack out a small bag filled with old soda bottles, spent shotgun hulls, and assorted other trash that has been left behind by other hunters and isn't going to break down in the environment.

Every time someone comes upon a bunch of spent brass and shot up bottles and other junk, it reflects poorly on those of us who pack out what we pack in.  Stuff like that is the reason that a lot of landowners don't allow hunters on their property.  It's just not worth the trash and damage that can get left behind.

I guess my point is that we are making a lot of progress in both hunting and shooting.  More land is open to hunters and target shooters than has been at any time in my life.  But all of that can go away in a flash if the perception of shooters goes from safety-conscious, respectful, responsible sportsmen to slobs with no respect for wildlife or the land they live on.

We will be judged on the conduct of the jerks amongst us.  We need to police ourselves, clean up after ourselves when we shoot, use shooting products that do minimal damage to the environment, and be good stewards of our land.

Children's Book Ideas

I was doing the Dr. Seuss thing with Boo tonight, and a part of my mind wandered.  It came back with these title ideas for children's books:

• If You Give a Moose a Mosin
• One Gun, Two Gun, Brown gun, Blued gun
• Pauly the Prepper Buries a Supply Cache
• Cosmoline the Clown
• Boo Magoo and the Tea Party Trio
• A is for Appleseed, B is for Boomerite
• 10 Little Gunnies
• Where the Stabby Things Are
• Gary the Goose Gets a Great Garand
• Ricky Ruger Goes to the Range

20 years of reading books to little kids might have twisted my mind a little.