This is one of the popular myths that people want to attach to firearms. That every "gun owner" has the same culture, the same values, the same principles. We don't. The results are clear & easy to see - Some people commit crimes with their firearms and some people use their firearms for sporting and self defense purposes without breaking the law. Same types of firearms, just completely different cultures.As an aside, I will note that our larval thug's weapon of choice was a BB pistol and his getaway vehicle was a scooter. "Street cred" indeed.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Stone cold stupid.
Bob S. brings us the charming tale of a young man in Florida who sought to gain, and I quote, "street cred" for his future career as a hip hop artist by committing armed robberies.
Gun Safety for Dummies.
MSNBC has a chirpy piece about all the wonderful technology that's slated to take the place of common sense and good gun handling.
Of course, all the gadgets and gizmos in the world won't keep a dumbass from shooting himself in the foot, as long as he's the dumbass with the key to the internal lock and the fingerprint reader recognizes him as an authorized dumbass.
Gun safety begins with education and ends with good habits, rigorously and constantly practiced. All this Rube Goldberg garbage dangling off guns these days makes them safe only in the same way welding the barrel shut would; by making them useless. Which is what the other side views as the endgame, anyway.
Of course, all the gadgets and gizmos in the world won't keep a dumbass from shooting himself in the foot, as long as he's the dumbass with the key to the internal lock and the fingerprint reader recognizes him as an authorized dumbass.
Gun safety begins with education and ends with good habits, rigorously and constantly practiced. All this Rube Goldberg garbage dangling off guns these days makes them safe only in the same way welding the barrel shut would; by making them useless. Which is what the other side views as the endgame, anyway.
About this weather...
There is a polar bear on my front porch. He doesn't look very endangered, and he wants to borrow my Wooby. In June.
The TeeWee weather gnome says that we are being shortchanged by some thirteen degrees today. I want to know who has those degrees, and I would like them back.
The TeeWee weather gnome says that we are being shortchanged by some thirteen degrees today. I want to know who has those degrees, and I would like them back.
Priorities.
Okay, so apparently we have two US citizens imprisoned in North Korea for some strange offense against the benevolent government of their Dear Leader. Granted, they were hippies working for Al Gore, but they're U.S. citizens nonetheless. Their hippieness just makes the irony more delicious when they get rescued by the USS Iwo Jima.
Which of course isn't going to happen, because North Korea is slinging nukes and missiles around like a spilled ashtray in a roadside fireworks stand and all we've done about it is drop some stern glances of disapproval and threats of... well, nothing, actually. What are you going to threaten them with? Cutting off trade? The only thing they trade is dirt, and that only on the domestic market. Although there are rumors that they're looking at branching out into the ICBM export business. Maybe we could getAl Qaeda Pakistan to slap a prohibitive tariff on N. Korean rockets. That'll show 'em how miffed we are!
Meanwhile, our Dear Leader is busy kowtowing to the wogs in some oppressive third-world hell hole. If he had a forelock, he'd be tugging it.
Well, at least it won't be a dull four years.
Which of course isn't going to happen, because North Korea is slinging nukes and missiles around like a spilled ashtray in a roadside fireworks stand and all we've done about it is drop some stern glances of disapproval and threats of... well, nothing, actually. What are you going to threaten them with? Cutting off trade? The only thing they trade is dirt, and that only on the domestic market. Although there are rumors that they're looking at branching out into the ICBM export business. Maybe we could get
Meanwhile, our Dear Leader is busy kowtowing to the wogs in some oppressive third-world hell hole. If he had a forelock, he'd be tugging it.
Well, at least it won't be a dull four years.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Wooby weather? In June?
Yesterday was hail.
Today, I am wearing my Wooby while reading on the front porch. In June.
Tomorrow will perhaps be a rain of frogs, or the water turning to wormwood in the White River a few blocks north.
(PS: I love my Wooby. Not only is it warm and soft, it is incredibly fun to say. Wooby! Woobywoobywooby!)
Today, I am wearing my Wooby while reading on the front porch. In June.
Tomorrow will perhaps be a rain of frogs, or the water turning to wormwood in the White River a few blocks north.
(PS: I love my Wooby. Not only is it warm and soft, it is incredibly fun to say. Wooby! Woobywoobywooby!)
Protecting turf.
One of the key ingredients in a good global depression is a vigorous trade war.
(H/T to SurvivalBlog.)
(H/T to SurvivalBlog.)
Random Gun Stuff:
1) I like taking ammo to the range loose in ammo cans. I've been using them for my most commonly used range calibers: .22LR, .38 Special, 9x19, .45ACP, and .223. I finally got another ammo can, and dumped all my .44 Special (except the Buffalo Bore) in it. Now I can use the freed-up MTM Case-Gard boxes for .44-40. I feel so organized.
2) I still need .45ACP dies, darnit. I've got all my major handgun calibers covered except this one. I'd like to get some .32ACP dies, too.
3) I have this .243Win ammo sitting here, and nothing in which to fire it. Someone had expressed interest via email, but I lost the email in the morass of my in-box. There are 18 rounds of Federal Premium 70gr Nosler Ballistic Tip in one of those little camo MTM belt containers, a full 20rd box of Federal Premium 100gr Sierra Gamekings, and nine rounds left of Remington 100gr Core-Lokt in the factory box. Email me and we'll engage in an act of voluntary capitalism between consenting adults.
4) I picked up a blue gun to be able to practice some gun kata in the living room without having to use an actual firearm. It's one of those Ring's blue guns; a Springfield Operator. (I need to dremel the tac rail off of it so it will fit my leather.) The molding is extremely detailed, down to the Novak's imprint on the rear sight. I will note that whoever owned the gun Ring's used for their mold has a wicked flinch; that rear sight is drifted way to the right...
2) I still need .45ACP dies, darnit. I've got all my major handgun calibers covered except this one. I'd like to get some .32ACP dies, too.
3) I have this .243Win ammo sitting here, and nothing in which to fire it. Someone had expressed interest via email, but I lost the email in the morass of my in-box. There are 18 rounds of Federal Premium 70gr Nosler Ballistic Tip in one of those little camo MTM belt containers, a full 20rd box of Federal Premium 100gr Sierra Gamekings, and nine rounds left of Remington 100gr Core-Lokt in the factory box. Email me and we'll engage in an act of voluntary capitalism between consenting adults.
4) I picked up a blue gun to be able to practice some gun kata in the living room without having to use an actual firearm. It's one of those Ring's blue guns; a Springfield Operator. (I need to dremel the tac rail off of it so it will fit my leather.) The molding is extremely detailed, down to the Novak's imprint on the rear sight. I will note that whoever owned the gun Ring's used for their mold has a wicked flinch; that rear sight is drifted way to the right...
Mother Nature tried to kill my 'maters.
We got a spot of weather here in scenic Broad Ripple yesterday; hail the size of buckshot coming down in gutter-clogging sheets.
Three of my tomato plants have snapped stems and the hostas in the front yard look like they've been peppered with a shotgun.
It was pretty cool to sit under the porch roof and watch, though. If you can't do anything about the weather, you might as well at least enjoy the show.
Of course, what is a minor annoyance to me and my tomato plants can be a disaster for others.
Three of my tomato plants have snapped stems and the hostas in the front yard look like they've been peppered with a shotgun.
It was pretty cool to sit under the porch roof and watch, though. If you can't do anything about the weather, you might as well at least enjoy the show.
Of course, what is a minor annoyance to me and my tomato plants can be a disaster for others.
Today In History: Dangerous Jobs.
Oh, sure, being a lumberjack or crab fisherman is dangerous, but usurping the imperial purple in Rome? That was nearly always fatal. It's a wonder anybody took the job.
Anyhow, on this date in 350 AD, a well-to-do young lad named Nepotianus, who'd had several relatives in the emperoring business, hired a bunch of gladiators and marched into Rome at their head. The timing seemed auspicious for a bit of throne-grabbing, since the general Magnentius was already in open revolt in Gaul, and our boy Nepotianus figured he had every bit as good a claim as anyone else.
Unfortunately for Nepotianus, his talent ran more towards improvisation than long range planning. Sure, everybody was running around calling themselves "Augustus" at the moment, but some royal ancestors and a platoon of gladiators were not as solid a claim on the throne as command of a major field army. By the end of June, troops loyal to general Magnentius had crushed Nepotianus' little power grab and paraded his head on a spear through the streets of Rome.
Anyhow, on this date in 350 AD, a well-to-do young lad named Nepotianus, who'd had several relatives in the emperoring business, hired a bunch of gladiators and marched into Rome at their head. The timing seemed auspicious for a bit of throne-grabbing, since the general Magnentius was already in open revolt in Gaul, and our boy Nepotianus figured he had every bit as good a claim as anyone else.
Unfortunately for Nepotianus, his talent ran more towards improvisation than long range planning. Sure, everybody was running around calling themselves "Augustus" at the moment, but some royal ancestors and a platoon of gladiators were not as solid a claim on the throne as command of a major field army. By the end of June, troops loyal to general Magnentius had crushed Nepotianus' little power grab and paraded his head on a spear through the streets of Rome.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Things to do...
Y'know, I still haven't taken my CZ-52 to the range, and I've had the thing since February...
I really like shooting those Czech rayguns; there's plenty of sturm und drang, what with fireballs at the muzzle and spent brass being flung into the next ZIP code, so you don't stand around wondering if it went off or not, yet there's hardly any recoil.
Maybe I should take the Radom Tokarev along and do some kind of head-to-head thing, like a writeup with pictures and stuff.
I really like shooting those Czech rayguns; there's plenty of sturm und drang, what with fireballs at the muzzle and spent brass being flung into the next ZIP code, so you don't stand around wondering if it went off or not, yet there's hardly any recoil.
Maybe I should take the Radom Tokarev along and do some kind of head-to-head thing, like a writeup with pictures and stuff.
It's not really a run on guns and ammo...
Everybody has been going on and on about the run on guns and ammo, but as current events demonstrate, it wasn't a run on all guns and ammo, just certain kinds.
Stores that are completely out of 9mm and .308 have plenty of 12ga birdshot. Rifle and pistol primers may be scarce, but 209 shotshell primers and #11 percussion caps are plentiful. Your local shop may be out of H4198, but there's probably plenty of Pyrodex and Triple 7.
Take from this what you will...
Stores that are completely out of 9mm and .308 have plenty of 12ga birdshot. Rifle and pistol primers may be scarce, but 209 shotshell primers and #11 percussion caps are plentiful. Your local shop may be out of H4198, but there's probably plenty of Pyrodex and Triple 7.
Take from this what you will...
GM axes dumbest division.
Once upon a time, the U.S. military needed to replace the Jeep. So it spent a brazillion dollars and came up with seriously capable off-road truck with the nickname-unfriendly acronymical sobriquet "HMMWV" made by AM General here in Indiana.
When compared to normal passenger vehicles, it was huge. Nearly a lane wide, with enough ground clearance to practically straddle a fireplug without dinging the oil pan, the HMMWV's mechanicals were shoved up into the truck to protect them from landmines, which resulted in a hood so high you needed Sherpas and oxygen to check the dipstick and a transmission tunnel that made a chat with your passenger a long-distance call.
Not only that, but it was positively agricultural in performance on pavement; it could be out-drag-raced by any minivan and its top speed necessitated drafting UPS trucks on the freeway to keep from getting rear-ended by diesel Rabbits.
It was terrifically butch-looking, however, and once Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up on the street with one, every Walter Mitty on God's green earth wanted one, too. At least until they found out what they were like up close. See, being a fairly specialized vehicle designed for the government, the price was nosebleed steep for 1992, and most folks willing to dump over fifty G's on a vehicle didn't want a slow one with an interior that could be cleaned out with a hose. Sales were, needless to say, as lethargic as the vehicle's highway performance.
General Motors bought the name "Hummer" from AM General in 1998 and decided to cash in on the popularity of the real military HMMWV by offering a more profitable vehicle. They took their existing pickup/SUV chassis and dropped a HMMWV-esque bodyshell on it and took the Walter Mitty market by storm with the new "Hummer H2" which was, essentially, a Chevy Suburban with a codpiece.
With the H2 selling well, GM slapped a chest toupee on their compact pickup and started selling it as the Hummer H3 and discontinued civilian sales of the actual HMMWV, which had been saddled with the moniker "Hummer H1".
This all occurred, of course, just in time for the price of gas to double and then, after a few more years, the economy to crater. Suddenly nobody wanted really big SUV's that cost a bajillion dollars, and that was bad news for a one-trick pony of a division like Hummer. Plus the government, which has just pumped oceans of money into GM, is threatening to raise the average fuel-economy requirement and mandate production of cars powered by moonbeams and unicorn farts, and when you take the king's shilling, you gotta dance to the king's tune. So it's adios Hummer; second baby out of the GM sleigh...
When compared to normal passenger vehicles, it was huge. Nearly a lane wide, with enough ground clearance to practically straddle a fireplug without dinging the oil pan, the HMMWV's mechanicals were shoved up into the truck to protect them from landmines, which resulted in a hood so high you needed Sherpas and oxygen to check the dipstick and a transmission tunnel that made a chat with your passenger a long-distance call.
Not only that, but it was positively agricultural in performance on pavement; it could be out-drag-raced by any minivan and its top speed necessitated drafting UPS trucks on the freeway to keep from getting rear-ended by diesel Rabbits.
It was terrifically butch-looking, however, and once Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up on the street with one, every Walter Mitty on God's green earth wanted one, too. At least until they found out what they were like up close. See, being a fairly specialized vehicle designed for the government, the price was nosebleed steep for 1992, and most folks willing to dump over fifty G's on a vehicle didn't want a slow one with an interior that could be cleaned out with a hose. Sales were, needless to say, as lethargic as the vehicle's highway performance.
General Motors bought the name "Hummer" from AM General in 1998 and decided to cash in on the popularity of the real military HMMWV by offering a more profitable vehicle. They took their existing pickup/SUV chassis and dropped a HMMWV-esque bodyshell on it and took the Walter Mitty market by storm with the new "Hummer H2" which was, essentially, a Chevy Suburban with a codpiece.
With the H2 selling well, GM slapped a chest toupee on their compact pickup and started selling it as the Hummer H3 and discontinued civilian sales of the actual HMMWV, which had been saddled with the moniker "Hummer H1".
This all occurred, of course, just in time for the price of gas to double and then, after a few more years, the economy to crater. Suddenly nobody wanted really big SUV's that cost a bajillion dollars, and that was bad news for a one-trick pony of a division like Hummer. Plus the government, which has just pumped oceans of money into GM, is threatening to raise the average fuel-economy requirement and mandate production of cars powered by moonbeams and unicorn farts, and when you take the king's shilling, you gotta dance to the king's tune. So it's adios Hummer; second baby out of the GM sleigh...
Monday, June 01, 2009
I'm pretty sure that's not what she meant...
"Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory..." -Nancy PelosiFunny, but I did just that on Sunday afternoon, without even knowing that one of my Dear Leaders had directed me to do so.
My inventory showed that I was low on .44 Spl and .32 ACP. On the other hand, I noted that several of my 30-rd mags still had green followers, and so I replaced them with shiny new MagPul anti-tilt units.
I try and replace springs whenever I replace followers, whether the old spring needs replacing or not. If the old spring still measures out good, I throw it in my "Just In Case" box.
When it comes to magazines and ammunition, I've always believed in the old maxim "If some is good, then more is better, and too much is just enough."
Retiring replicants gets more expensive every year.
Prop gun from my favorite movie of all time sells for $270,000 at auction.
The irony being that, since it appears to include the serialized part of a gun (the receiver of a bolt-action rifle) that is not torch-cut to BATFE specs, this sale would most likely have required an FFL if it was across state lines. Hope all them i's were crossed and t's dotted...
The irony being that, since it appears to include the serialized part of a gun (the receiver of a bolt-action rifle) that is not torch-cut to BATFE specs, this sale would most likely have required an FFL if it was across state lines. Hope all them i's were crossed and t's dotted...
A tiger? In Iraq?
Scalper's market...
Some people at the gun show this past weekend were so optimistic that they'd dragged old boxes of .380 out of their basement or off back shelves in the stockroom and had them sitting on their tables for forty or fifty bucks a box.
Needless to say, there weren't many takers at that price point, but it's good to want things, I guess.
Meanwhile there was a trickle of various small-name local and regional reloaders selling every box they'd brought at $25.00-29.00/50. There're a whole bundle of little Econ 101 lessons in pricing signals and the Greater Fool Theory buried in there, but a lot of gun show vendors couldn't spell "Economics" (or "Customer Service" or "Salesmanship", for that matter) if you prompted them with a Taser.
Needless to say, there weren't many takers at that price point, but it's good to want things, I guess.
Meanwhile there was a trickle of various small-name local and regional reloaders selling every box they'd brought at $25.00-29.00/50. There're a whole bundle of little Econ 101 lessons in pricing signals and the Greater Fool Theory buried in there, but a lot of gun show vendors couldn't spell "Economics" (or "Customer Service" or "Salesmanship", for that matter) if you prompted them with a Taser.
I'm taking my comedy where I can find it these days.
The funniest part of the whole drawn-out Sotomayor root canal thus far has been hearing newscasters chewing through their teleprompters in their tall-corn Midwestern drones only to pop out a perfect sophomore Spanish 102 "soe-toe-my-YORRR" in mid-twang, before turning to the weather in PEE-roo.
Before anybody twits me with that "Oh, so correct pronunciation is liberal bias, huh, you hick?" schtick, I'll remind you that you probably pronounce Deutschland as "JER-muh-nee".
Before anybody twits me with that "Oh, so correct pronunciation is liberal bias, huh, you hick?" schtick, I'll remind you that you probably pronounce Deutschland as "JER-muh-nee".
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