Thursday, January 31, 2013

Sigh...Once Again Fashion Eludes Me


I'm heartbroken that my VersaMax is in boring black instead of zombie pink. I do my best, but fashion apparently slips through my fingers. My VersaMax is going to get overhauled by my friend Mark at Carbon Arms. He's been working on a replacement mag tube for the 'Max that incorporates the extension (he has the prototype on his shotgun).


Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Another Grilled Fish Evening!

Doing grilled salmon with horseradish topping tonight, along with the Cheval Rouge cab/merlot mix from Boete Winery in California...one of the few things I'm going to miss when we finally sell CA to the Mexicans, or the Chinese, whoever ponies up the bucks.

Good news...I just got permission to film in the Royal Armouries in England, including the Tower of London, to film there. Man, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! This will be a major coup for SHOOTING GALLERY and GUN STORIES. Next level, baby...next level! My goal in England for SHG is the Royal Armouries and Holland & Holland...bazinga!

Got the AR finished today (and, yes, it was the original SG yellow gun!). It is a nice, nice gun. I really like the  Timney Trigger. For a pure competition gun, the single stage trigger rocks...I might go with a 3-pound Timney single stage on the Daniel Defense DDM4 gun I'm going to use in my next Appleseed with one of the Redfield 3-9X Battlezone scope. Heck, they're not even a sponsor and I love the scope.

My Sweetie and I will be speaking to members of the Colorado Legislature next week. Wish us luck!


Almost Finished With AR Build!


Actually, a rebuild of an older gun I'm building up as a gift to a really good friend...and, no, you're not that good a friend! It's a pretty basic build....Magpul MOE furniture, 3-pound Timney trigger (I'll swap it out if my friend wants a heavier trigger pull), DPMS lower and J&T upper, assorted CMMG parts. Should be a nice little gun!

While the vast majority of Colorado Sheriffs have stood up and said they will NOT enforce unconstitutional federal gun laws, the Sheriff of Arapahoe County, Grayson Robinson, has bucked the trend and announced he would enforce the federal gun laws, should any pass. What's next there, Grayson? Black uniforms? "Safe Streets" collar pins that look like lightning bolts? Repaint all the cars to read, "To Serve, Protect and Confiscate?"

BTW, to the people I shoot with in the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department, before you send me hostile emails I suggest you sit your boss down and talk to him, maybe ask whether he takes his oath seriously, maybe even suggest that he read the Constitution. It applies even in Denver suburbs!

In another testament to the efficacy of gun control, Chicago   — that gun-free paradise home of Maximum Leader Barry O — now has more deaths than Afghanistan. More people have died (4797) in the gun-free paradise over the last decade than in Afghanistan Operation Enduring Freedom (2166). This according to a WND report. And remember that great comment from Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy: "When people say concealed carry, I say Trayvon Martin."

Funny, but when people say get slaughtered in a cesspool of an American city totally controlled by gangs, organized crime and an utterly corrupt political system, I say Chicago!

Good luck on the Illinois "Shall Issue" legislative proposal!

And speaking of Constitutional issues, it's looking more and more like those "signature" gun-ban ideas might not pass Constitutional muster in a post-Heller, post-McDonald world. From Georgetown Constitutional Law Professor Randy Barnett:
So, when considering the constitutionality of bans on so-called military-style assault weapons, or restrictions on the capacity of magazines, senators should begin by asking whether the weapons being banned are in common use by civilians. When it comes to so-called assault weapons, like the AR-15, or 30-round magazines, the answer is clearly "yes." Millions of such weapons and magazines are in private hands. 
That should settle the matter, but senators can go a step further and ask whether these or other measures are actually rational -- to articulate the end they are seeking to accomplish, then assesses whether the means adopted actually match up with the purported end. Would they actually have prevented a mass shooting or ameliorated real crimes? This heightened "rationality review" could help ensure that the reason being articulated is the real reason for the law.
For example, "assault weapons" are a made-up category of weapons that is based solely on cosmetic features that make them look like the fully automatic weapons used by the military. Banning them leaves other rifles that are functionally identical in their lethality and rate of fire completely legal. Moreover, far more powerful hunting rifles are left untouched by the law, as are shotguns. This is simply irrational and therefore unconstitutional.
The New York state laws are already facing legal challenges and are likely headed to the Supreme Court.

I know this is hard to believe, but I actually read something I agreed with in HuffPo! Of course, it's from a Cato Institute researcher, but there you are:
First and foremost is the oppressive and ineffective drug war that has destroyed inner-city neighborhoods and severely harmed the life prospects of millions of Americans, most acutely, young, African-American men. 
As Prohibition-era America showed, banning a highly in-demand substance increases the violence surrounding that substance. When legal methods cannot be used to settle contract and other disputes, extra-legal methods (i.e., the point of a gun) will be used. Moreover, unsavory characters will tend to traffic the prohibited substances, further escalating violent business practices. These new businessmen also facilitate the illegal gun trade, brazenly ignoring assault weapons bans and other cosmetic limits on gun ownership. Those guns then flood the black market, giving easy access to would-be criminals and mass shooters. A 2001 Justice Department study found that 20 percent of prison inmates received their guns from a drug dealer or off the street. Comparatively, only 0.7 percent of the weapons were obtained at gun shows. Which "loophole" should we be focusing on closing?
Amen to that!

Finally, on yesterday's "rabbit hole" topic, this morning I read this amazing letter from the more than 1000 active and retired Green Berets, and I found myself tearing up. Please, everyone needs to read this letter, then forward it on to every one your legislators. Hell, schoolchildren should be required to read this letter out loud in their classrooms!

The Green Berets list an 8-step course of action. This is the eighth point:
8. This is our country, these are our rights. We believe that it is time that we take personal responsibility for our choices and actions rather than abdicate that responsibility to someone else under the illusion that we have done something that will make us all safer. We have a responsibility to stand by our principles and act in accordance with them. Our children are watching and they will follow the example we set.  
The undersigned Quiet Professionals hereby humbly stand ever present, ever ready, and ever vigilant.
Our country has ever been protected by men like these. God bless them all.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Rabbit Hole...

I had dinner with some smart people a few days ago, and at some point — late in the meal — the conversation turned to the topic we all never mention...for lack of a better word, we called it, "The rabbit hole." The question was how far is this Administration and the progressive Left willing to push its war against the American people? Apparently we're not the only ones with the rabbit hole on our minds. This from the ever-thoughtful Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned:
Gun control advocates really do not understand the fire they are playing with, with much of what is being proposed. How many millions of Americans are you prepared to imprison? How many are you prepared to kill? What is the count of ruined lives, broken families, and ruin are you willing to inflict to try to achieve your rainbow farting unicorn utopia where every gun turns into a flower? Widespread disrespect for the law by millions of Americans is not going to bring that about, and in fact, may only serve to create larger unregulated markets, and far more willingness to engage in law breaking people would not be willing to engage in under normal circumstances.
As I have said for years, the controlling word in the phrase "gun control" is control, not gun. I've followed with interest many of the threads on various forums arguing about "terminology"...if, for instance, we all agreed to call black rifles "modern sporting rifles" or we were careful to never refer to firearms as "weapons." I used to agree pretty wholeheartedly with those arguments, but over the years I've come around to a different view. Our enemies aren't antigun, they're anti-people-with-guns. It's not the guns they hate...it's us.

How many articles and interviews have you heard recently with a person saying, "Boy, I'm glad I didn't have a gun when such and such happened, or I'd've have shot everyone dead!!!" I've seen a lot and it puzzles me. I get mad just like everybody else, but it has been a long time since I truly wanted to kill someone. Heck, I've been really pissed off when I was carrying a gun, and it never occurred to whip out my piece and blast away.

The reason there is no middle ground (and Mike Thompson, now would be a good time to take notes) is this war is between to fundamentally opposed world views. After living n New York City and spending a lot of time in California, I've come to see the fight as one between the adults and the perpetual children of the Nanny State. Those "children" envision a world where they are free to endlessly "act out," every person his or her own Lindsay Lohan., forever.

An adult in the room inhibits all that fun acting out, because the very presence of the adult casts into question the idea and the ideal of a perpetual adolescence. Our Founders envisioned a government working with adults, who understood the great issues of the day and were willing to step up and take their place in the country. The current Administration would like nothing better than a nation of permanent adolescents and those who owe their existence to the government, because those two groups are easy to please. It's like Alf the Wonder Beagle...no matter how mad she is at us, she can be bought off with a piece of bacon.

Anyway, enough armchair philosophy! Here are a couple of articles on the media. The first is why journalists so often get guns wrong:
The shooting at Sandy Hook has brought gun policy to the forefront of our national conversation. President Obama has pledged to act aggressively on the issue, having laid out a comprehensive plan, including new weapons regulations as well as law enforcement and public awareness programs, in the hope of reducing gun violence. This will be a marquee issue in Washington and throughout the country over the next several months, and media coverage will only intensify. With that said, too few journalists have a solid understanding of guns and gun violence. Here are three major things the media gets wrong. 
Obviously, read the whole thing. The second is more along the lines of the canary in the coal mine, on the collapse of even the pretense of a free media. From Ace of Spades:
And I've mentioned this before, but I'm truly alarmed about it: What we are witnessing is the full and seamless fusion of media power with government power. The media used to hide it a bit, in their actions; they would temper their scorn of conservatism, throw them a bone now and again just to prove they were capable of such a thing. No longer.  
The media no longer hides it in their actions. They are fully fused with the Obama Administration and DNC. The only way in which they do hide it is by simply lying when confronted about it: They'll issue a snide denial, then go about doing precisely what it is they were accused of doing.
At my Friday "Stuck In Las Vegas" party after SHOT, my Sweetie asked Steven Hunter, who of course won a Pulitzer Prize while he was at the Washington Post, what happened to responsible journalism...how did we get from "objectivity" to Pravda in record time? The short story (as she related to me) was that Steve said the huge influx of young people into journalism after Woodward/Bernstein/Watergate essentially stressed, and eventually cracked, the old news cult of objectivity. The newcomers were activists, and they saw journalism as a tool of activism — and a way to make good money from it. Hope I got that right, Steve!

Monday, January 28, 2013

A Certain Kind of Peace...


The title is, of course, from a quote by T.R....in it's entirety, the quote reads: Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

I bring this up because an excellent comment from yesterday's post deserves an expanded answer. Here's the complete comment:
I very much enjoy your blog and tv shows, mainly for two reasons. Your vast knowledge of guns and the articulate way you present them. I think it is surprising that you have fallen to the level of using nazi references and slurs against the president .you may not respect the man, but at least respect the position. As little as two weeks ago you said that we needed to stick to the facts to win this fight. Please, do not let you standards fall... We need you.
First, thank you so much for the kind words...they are appreciated more than you can imagine. However, I can't imagine how you can read the Daily Kos piece, How To Ban Guns: A Step-By-Step Long Term Process and not hear echoes of Germany in the 1930s (and note that my comment was not addressed directly at BHo). One of the progressive Left's greatest strength is it's ability to not just ignore the past, but to pretend that there is no such thing as the past. The progressive Left can't even agree or articulate a reason why they want all civilians disarmed, but accept it simply as an element of faith, of dogma...yes, the wine is indeed transmogrified into the blood of Christ! We must disarm the citizenry because...because...because we must disarm the citizenry! The dogma itself becomes its own rationale.

That post on the Daily Kos, BTW, is very similar to the material produced by the earlier incarnation of the Brady Organization, Handgun Control Inc., in the late 1960s. Consider this quote from founding Chairman of the Board Nelson T. "Pete" Shields:
"I'm convinced that we have to have Federal legislation to build on. We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily--given the political realities--going to be very modest ... Our ultimate goal--total control of handguns in the United States--is going to take time ... The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country. The second problem is to get handguns registered, and the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns, and all handgun ammunition totally illegal."
Civilian disarmament has always been the goal of the progressive movement in the United States. It is the only goal...everything else is just smoke and mirrors (or night and fog, as the case may be). Recall Diane Feinstein's amazingly revealing quote after the passage of the first AWB in 1994 (see it here on YouTube):
If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them — Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in — I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here.
A couple of  days ago Diane Feinstein said on PBS Newshour that she didn't want to ban all guns — "that dog just doesn't hunt," she said, assuming all of us in the gun culture to be toothless morons from the swamps. Watch it yourself...which Diane Feinstein do you think is telling the truth?

A quick change of subject...as you've heard on my podcasts, my college career drifted off into areas I never anticipated for a variety of reasons, largely having to do with the little head leading the big head around. My original majors were physics and math, and, indeed, for one quarter I made the Dean's List for emulating Leonard in Big Bang Theory. My career as a scientist or a systems engineer hit the shoals of young lust, and like a sad little puppy I started tagging along behind my Brand New Squeeze to her classes...religion, specialty history, psychology, etc....so I could write her papers so she could get an "A" and I could get...whatever. So I studied Islam, the psychology of mass communication, the history and psychology of revolutionary movements, the rise of Nazi Germany, TR and the Gilded Age in America...I read Trotsky, Marx, Lenin, Kropotkin and the Russian anarchists, studied under "Death of God" theologians, read that "new guy" Saul Alinsky (whom I thought was brilliant, BTW) and all manner of strangeness at the intersection of media, propaganda and public policy. I changed my major to mass communications, got a faculty advisor with dual PhDs in mass comm and statistical analysis and who was delighted to have a student who wasn't afraid of math, and began studying statistical analysis and its application toward polling, propaganda and "disinformation" in public media, and on and on.

When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, Media Man," a catchy phrase I cribbed from Goodbye Media Man,  a circa-1970 Tom Fogerty (John Fogerty's elder brother) song that ironically presaged what the media would become:
Believin' in your power, it's what you can do
You gotta help change the world, there's nothin' to lose
Come on and do the people's will, your masters are hate
You gotta help us bring the changes to the masters of our fate
Weird, huh? My views, then, are shaped by those early years of studying mass comm, the psychology of propaganda and revolution, and stuff like that.

As to what all that has to do with the price of tea in China, we are now engaged in the great media war of our times. We no longer have a free media...we have allowed that institution to become a change agent for the progressive Left, a la Goodbye Media Man..."You gotta help change the world, there's nothing to lose..."

Read this piece from the WaPo blog on, "Why this gun control debate has been different." The short answer is that the media is now unabashedly all-in with the progressive Left agenda:
Even before the 27 victims had been laid to rest, gun control was a far more prominent part of the Newtown narrative than it had been in previous incidents. And in contrast to the Virginia Tech, Aurora and Giffords shootings, it has come to dominate the media narrative. The week that Obama issued the executive actions, more than 60 percent of stories that mentioned Newtown also included a reference to gun control.
To be sure, the media has always been antigun, at least for the latter part of the 20th Century forward. A story I've told many time before is the first time I walked into a newsroom and applied for a job, in 1968 at my college paper, the editor explained to the stupid kid from Tennessee how important gun control was. In my time in the MSM, I was usually the only person working for or writing for a particular publication that held pro-gun views.

The difference is that now the new uber-partisan media no longer feel even a remote need for balance. Rather, they are active participants in the war to disarm the American public, maybe the most important players because they have the most experience in building and controlling the narrative. I refer you to my friend Steve Hunter's definition of "the narrative" from his book I, SNIPER (and which I wrote about here on the blog):
The narrative is the set of assumptions the press believes in, possibly without even knowing that it believes in them. It's not like they get together every morning and decide 'These are the lies we tell today.' No, that would be too crude and honest. Rather, it's a set of casual, nonrigorous assumptions about a reality they've never really experienced that's arranged in such a way as to reinforce their best and most ideal presumptions about themselves and their importance to the system and the way they've chosen to live their lives. It's a way of arranging things a certain way that they all believe in without ever really addressing carefully. It permeates their whole culture.
And they are formidable enemies.

How do you fight "formidable enemies?" Well, let's go back to the manual currently in use to change the United States into the progressive vision of soft socialism, Saul Alinsky's Rules For Radicals. Here's a concise list of his 11 rules...I suggest you read them and commit them to memory. One of the most powerful, and one that I use repeatedly, is Number 11:
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
This is amazingly powerful, the basic line of the successful attack on Romney in the last election. That rule should alwasy be coupled with Rule 5:
Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Ridicule is man's most potent weapon! We are as a culture uncomfortable with ridicule, because we prefer to think of ourselves as a debating society with all the facts on our side. Yet ridicule can be used as a nuclear option — immediately after Newtown all the usual suspects in Hollywood put together their "powerful" call for gun control in a multimillion dollar commercial, which was COMPLETELY DESTROYED by this YouTube parody (which I'm not showing here because of the "F-bombs").

That parody not only completely negated the millions poured into the original commercial, but it emasculated Hollywood's antigun efforts and robbed the progressive and the media of one of their most reliable and powerful allies. Notice how you haven't seen the usual Hollywood ninnies out there shilling for BHo on this issue? It's because they are now objects of ridicule rather than "respected spokespeople."

The point that I want to make here is that just because we have the facts on our side doesn't automatically mean that we win. Every word that Mitt Romney said about Barack Obama in the last election has proven to be true, yet you'll notice that BHo is the President and Mitt Romney is a future trivia question on Jeopardy. This is not a debate, and we are not a debating society. This is an all-out war for the soul of the United States. I don't want to win this debate; I would rather borrow this quote from Conan the Barbarian (channeling Genghis Khan of course), "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women."

Facts are indeed weapons of this war! We must have those weapons at our fingertips (and I'll do my best to help in that arena), but weapons alone do not win a war. Strategy wins a war.And in this war we need to be thinking of ourselves as guerrillas facing a large, heavily funded, absolutely ruthless oppressor.

Regarding the current President of the United States, for whom I have nothing but contempt, I always refer back to the words of Teddy Roosevelt (remember those "History of the Gilded Age" classes? LOL!):
Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States. It is our duty to support him when he serves the United States well. It is our duty to oppose him when he serves it badly. This is true about Mr. Wilson now and it has been true about all our Presidents in the past. It is our duty at all times to tell the truth about the President and about every one else, save in the cases where to tell the truth at the moment would benefit the public enemy.
Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. Teddy went on at different times to say that the Office of the President was indeed due respect, not so much the man occupying that office at any given time. Maybe one more quote from TR bears repeating:
No man who is not willing to bear arms and to fight for his rights can give a good reason why he should be entitled to the privilege of living in a free community.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

And a Lazy Sunday...

...I woke up, looked at the clock this AM (barely) and realized that I was indeed really really tired. About the only thing I've been able to rouse myself to do is walk Alf the Wonder Beagle, who cut her own walk short when we cut lion sign — Alf hates lions — and work on a project AR I've been messing with. All I've got to do is drop in the Timney trigger on the project AR and it'll be done...I hope.

For all of you who turned out yesterday for the SHOOTING GALLERY tape, I can't thank you all enough! It's wonderful to be able to do the show in front of people who watch the show, and I get to show off some of my favorite guns.

I note today that BHo has been bleating like a goosed sheep about how much he likes to "shoot skeet" and how the zombie progressive hordes he has unleashed on us should probably pause and listen to what we have to say...this after millions...er, no...thousands...er, no, according to the house organ of the Obama Administration, the Washington Post, "nearly 1000" march for gun control! Wowee! A whole thousand! Well, almost a whole thousand if you count a few people twice. And how many people ached the day before in a pro-life rally? Hmmmm, only half-a-million. That's a lot less than 1000, isn't it? That's why the media didn't mention it?

And Greasy Joe Biden, who makes Benito Mussolini look thoughtful and intelligent, announces that while, yes, an assault weapons ban was important, what he and the Maximum Leader really wanted all along was a ban on those "assault magazines" (see, Mike Thompson, I'm trying to help you out there as much as I can, buddy! Maybe you can call Steven King for some pointers...). Even Bloomberg says the assault weapons ban is increasingly out of reach.

So what is happening out there? Simple...our blood enemies have lost control of the narrative. That's why those enemies are going to haul out Gabby Giffords as some sort of pathetic puppet. We are winning! Keep those cards and letters coming, folks! But be aware that our blood enemies are going to grow ever more desperate, and these are dangerous times.

BTW, here's one DEFINITELY worth reading! From the Daily Kos, how our blood enemies will orchestrate the end of guns in America:
So registration is the first step. Now that the vast majority are registered, we can do what we will. One good first step would be to close the registry to new registrations. This would, in effect, prevent new guns from being made or imported. This would put the murder machine corporations out of business for good, and cut the money supply to the NRA/GOA. As money dries up, the political capital needed for new controls will be greatly reduced.  
There are a few other things I would suggest. I would suggest an immediate, national ban on concealed carry. A ban on internet sales of guns and ammunition is a no brainer. Microstamping would also be a very good thing. Even if the only thing it does is drive up costs, it could still lead to crimes being solved. I'm willing to try every advantage we can get. A national Firearms Owner Identification Card might be good, but I'm not sure if it's necessary if we have a national database. We should also insist on comprehensive insurance and mandatory gun safes, subject to random, spot checks by local and federal law enforcement. 
We must make guns expensive and unpopular, just like cigarettes.
And a hardy Sieg Heil! to tie the package up with a nice bow. Remember, behind every "victim," behind every call of "reasonable" or "common sense" or "national conversation," behind every "non-partisan survey," behind every move to divide us, there is this sole agenda. This is the end game, and our enemies will say and do anything, regardless of how outrageous, how deceptive, how degrading, to accomplish their goal of civilian disarmament.

And if you believe Barack Hussein Obama is out there busting clays every chance he gets...heck, I can't even think of a stupid enough comment to tag onto that!


Saturday, January 26, 2013

All Day in the Studio...

...doing the live SHOOTING GALLERY stuff. Great audiences and great fun!

More tomorrow after a night's sleep. Meanwhile, here are some facts that your legislators definitely need to hear — 7 Gun Control Facts That are Actually Myths.

Friday, January 25, 2013

A Brilliant Article...

...from David Mamet, whom we expect to write brilliant articles (as well and books, plays and movies):
The Left loves a phantom statistic that a firearm in the hands of a citizen is X times more likely to cause accidental damage than to be used in the prevention of crime, but what is there about criminals that ensures that their gun use is accident-free? If, indeed, a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors, would it not make sense for the government to arm all criminals, and let them accidentally shoot themselves? Is this absurd? Yes, and yet the government, of course, is arming criminals.  
Violence by firearms is most prevalent in big cities with the strictest gun laws. In Chicago and Washington, D.C., for example, it is only the criminals who have guns, the law-abiding populace having been disarmed, and so crime runs riot. Cities of similar size in Texas, Florida, Arizona, and elsewhere, which leave the citizen the right to keep and bear arms, guaranteed in the Constitution, typically are much safer. More legal guns equal less crime. What criminal would be foolish enough to rob a gun store? But the government alleges that the citizen does not need this or that gun, number of guns, or amount of ammunition. 
By all means read the whole thing!

Remember how I told you that any article beginning with, "I'm a gun owner, but...," "I'm a hunter, but..." I support the Second Amendment, but..." was most certainly nothing but a poorly strung together collections of propaganda, spin and outright lies? Well, here's Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA, duh) going for the grand-slamaroonie:

As a hunter and gun owner, I believe that we should protect the Second Amendment right of law-abiding individuals to own firearms. As a dad and grandfather, I also believe that we have a responsibility to make our schools, streets and communities safe...
He got "hunter, "gun owner" and "Second Amendment" into the lede graf, so you  know what that means! Yep, get ready to be bent over the ole pool table, kids:
A majority of Americans also agree (according to a Pew poll released this month) that assault magazines have no place in our society. These magazines hold more than 10 rounds and allow a shooter to inflict mass damage in a short period of time without reloading. Banning them will save lives.
Oh Mike, Mike, Mike..."assault magazines"...could you sound any more pathetic? I've shot sporting clays with you and even shared an adult beverage once upon a time. You seemed like a smart guy to me. Would it have killed you to at least do a rudimentary Google search before dropping to your knees before the Twin Gods of Feinstein and Obama and shaming yourself like this? However, you did provide an excellent learning point for those of us who actually believe in the Constitution:

Anyone who says they have a "middle path" in this fight means they're either stupid as a sack of rocks or that they think we are as stupid as a sock of rocks.

Here's some more actual facts to have at your fingertips for the next "sack of rocks" you encounter. From John Lott on the Vice President's (speaking of a sack of rocks...) and BHo's latest favorite made-up statistics:
Obama made many other false statements during his talk. He asserted that “over the last 14 years [background checks] kept 1.5 million of the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun.” But these were only “initial denials,” not people prevented from buying guns. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms dropped over 94 percent of those “initial denials” after just preliminary reviews. Virtually all the remaining cases were dropped after further investigation by ATF field offices or the Department of Justice. Few of these “initial denials,” 62 people or about 0.1 percent, involved strong enough evidence to be consideration for prosecution. Just 13 pleaded guilty or were convicted.
I say heck yeah, let's spend billions to raise this number to, what...15...even 18? So we want to ban assault weapons because, by SS-Oberst-gruppenfuhrer Feinstein's own numbers, almost as many people are killed every year by "assault weapons" (sorry, Mike...the gruppenfuhrer didn't provide numbers for "assault magazines") — 50 people a year — as by those dreaded bees and wasps54 people a year. And we want to spend zillions and billions for "universal background checks" because over the last 14 years fully 62 of the wrong people have been prevented from buying guns.


Close-up of an "assault wasp." These lethal animals kill more people every year than "assault weapons." Run! Hide!

Hell, I have a MUCH better plan! Sixty-two divided by 14 years is roughly 4 1/2 people per year...let's round it up to 5 people a year, since the only half-people I know are in Congress. Then every year at the State of the Union address, the President would pick 5 people who are not ineligible to purchase a firearm and give them a luxury condo in New York City ($1.25 million), a Ferrari Spider ($257,000) and an $15,000 line of credit at a posh New York escort agency (what former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer spent on hookers in an average year before he resigned). That comes to $1,557,000, barely a rounding error at the rate BHo spends our (or rather, the Chinese's) money. Viola! We accomplish more than the current Brady law for less money! I say double the number of miscreants each year, and we're doing twice as much good for less than the price of a single Death Panel!

Use the money saved to buy DDT to kill all the bees and wasps...if it only saves one child's life, it's worth it!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Girls Just Wanna Have Guns

From NRO, why young women way to have AR-15s:
The AR-15 is lightweight and practical. As light as five pounds, it produces low levels of recoil, and it’s easy to shoot. It also looks intimidating, which is what you want when facing an assailant or intruder. But don’t let its appearance intimidate you. Assault rifles such as the AR-15 aren’t more “dangerous,” as liberals claim. They don’t fire faster than other rifles, and don’t normally contain more powerful ammunition. Accuracy? Check. Ease in handling? Check. Intimidation factor? Check. An AR-15 might be a woman’s best friend. We are rational women who, as law-abiding citizens, understand the need — and the right — to defend ourselves. We don’t want to be caught underprepared in the kind of desperate situation that happens too frequently to people across America.
Amen! From Jennifer at the In Jennifer's Head blog:
There’s a funny thing about those bent on evil, those that aren’t bound by normal human decency. They look just like everyone else. It is not until they make their intention known that you realize they are different. At that point, the law has failed you. Maybe they will be caught. Maybe they will even be punished, but the risk of those things isn’t stopping them at the moment. This will end one of three ways; you will run away, you will stop them, or you will be a victim. There are no other choices.
Indeed, there are no other choices. Oh yeah, today I learned from Jackass-In-Chief Greasy Joe Biden that them darn assault rifles cain't hit the side of no barns, but a double barreled shotgun is practically a laser beam:
“A shotgun will keep you a lot safer — a double-barreled shotgun — than an assault weapon in somebody’s hand who doesn’t know how to use it, even one who does know how to use it,” Biden said. “You know, it’s harder to use an assault weapon to hit something than it is a shotgun.”
That man doesn't have 2 brain cells to rub together...I've seen smarter fruit plates.

Spent the day in the studio doing Episode 13 of this season of SG. We have the LIVE STUDIO SESSION of SG Saturday at 9am and 1pm. You're all welcome to come!!! Email FlyingDragonHelp@aol.com for tickets!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A Little Reading for the AM

(Courtesy 1791apparrel, who have the coolest t-shirts in the world!)

The demonization campaign against gun owners continues apace, but I don't think it's generating that much heat. Read this story from James Taranto at WSJ Online on Bill Clinton's recent statement:
Oh, these people, these poor misguided hicks! All they've got is their hunting and their fishing! Clinton isn't doing a very good job of following his own advice not to "look down your nose at them," is he?
Here's a comforting, albeit overly optimistic, piece from Guns Save Lives on the attention span of American popular culture:
Leftist gun haters are in denial that Americans, absent hysteria, recognize that gun bans aren’t best for their personal security and well-being, and that the only thing that stops evil men is good people with guns. Gun control proponents are angry that America has moved on to discussing President Obama’s inauguration, the next “fiscal crisis” in Washington, Roe v. Wade’s anniversary and so forth. So where are the gun control advocates now? They are bargaining, offering all sorts of legislative proposals. It’s symbolism over substance, and that’s only because of a very sympathetic mainstream media. Why is that, you ask? Everyone knows the votes aren’t there to pass these flawed schemes through Congress.
The net here is that we are having an effect! A powerful effect. KEEP IT UP! The next piece is from the ever-thoughful Thomas Sowell writing for NRO on the 30 round mag cap:
Anyone who faces three home invaders, jeopardizing himself or his family, might find 30 bullets barely adequate. After all, not every bullet hits, even at close range, and not every hit incapacitates. You can get killed by a wounded man. These plain life-and-death realities have been ignored for years by people who go ballistic when they hear about how many shots were fired by the police in some encounter with a criminal. As someone who once taught pistol shooting in the Marine Corps, I am not the least bit surprised by the number of shots fired. I have seen people miss a stationary target at close range, even in the safety and calm of a pistol range. We cannot expect everybody to know that. But we can expect them to know that they don’t know — and to stop spouting off about life-and-death issues when they don’t have the facts.
Amen to that! Based on some of my conversations at SHOT, this may be a direction the Administration may go in when the legislative "initiatives" fail...that damned U.N. small arms treaty! From Fox:
A more subtle flaw, notes Bromund, is that any badly designed treaty that the U.S. agrees to at the negotiations, and that the President signs, can have an effect on U.S. laws and regulations even though it would still need to be ratified by the Senate, which must approve international agreements by a two-thirds majority. The reason: once a treaty is signed, the parties must respect its “object and purpose” even before ratification—or if ratification does not occur—which is “completely in the eye of the beholder,” Bromund says.
In short, if BHo doesn't get what he wants — and that's looking more and more likely with each passing day — he can turn to the U.N., an institution that all progressives worship, for "relief." This has HUGE political downsides.

This story from The Daily Beast is worth reading because it at least makes an attempt to understand the bitter divide between the two sides, and shows very clearly how the middle ground — if it ever existed — is long gone:
There’s no way to split the difference between the two extremes, but President Obama could have defused the most polarizing aspects of the debate by focusing more specifically on a few small areas of potential cooperation. All parties agree that it should become more difficult for criminals and the mentally ill to get firearms and that enhancements in school safety are necessary and appropriate. 
Before framing his own multifaceted program as a noble crusade and suggesting that any disagreement counted as immoral and demagogic, the president could have reached bipartisan consensus on a few practical, uncontroversial changes to reassure the public. Instead, he rushed to use the firearms issue as one more tool to bludgeon and discredit his Republican opposition. His moral fervor on gun control looks suspect at best, given his refusal to even address the issue during his first four years—when statistics showed violent crime rates looking considerably worse than they do today. In the current battle, the rage from all sides has already led to soaring sales of guns and ammunition. The angry charges and counter-charges will ultimately do nothing to bring further reductions in violence but have already made a major contribution to perpetuating the polarization, puerile posturing, and stalemate from federal leaders of every faction. 
I do want to make it clear that we didn't start this war, we didn't make the decision to demonize fellow Americans who choose to exercise their Constitutional rights, we didn't call for violence against our enemies even as our enemies called for violence against us. We may not have started this war, but I believe we sure as hell will finish it!

KEEP WRITNG, CALLING, EMAILING, FAXING! WE ARE UNITED!


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Great Words...

...from my friend Paul Markel at Student of the Gun...the enemy is the enemy:
When you actively seek to disarm me you are deliberately attempting to subjugate me and put my family in mortal jeopardy — that fact makes you my enemy. The Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States did not create the rights of man; it simply enumerated and affirmed them. When you seek to nullify or circumvent the Constitution of the United States as well as the Constitutions of each individual State, you are my enemy.

WE ARE UNITED!

I've read today about how hunters and shooters have "different needs," and how the NRA membership is "separated" from the NRA executive. Let me use a simple, easily understood word here:

BULL!


In their dreams. We are united. We stand together in the fight of our lives. Just ask the clowns at Reed Exhibitions, the sad, pathetic pandas who are running the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, PA. If you recall, Reed decoded that black rifles were evil and they wouldn't let them at the outdoor show they were sponsoring. The roof fell on them. All the major sponsors are gone. The people putting on demos or seminars are gone. Most of the gun companies are gone. Most of the hunting companies are gone.

Please, if you live in the area, DO NOT waste your money on scum who hate us!

I want to do a couple of shout-outs here. At this year's SHOT, I got to spend a little more time with Lee and Tiffany Lakosky, stars of the hot OUTDOOR CHANNEL show THE CRUSH. The more time I spend with them, the more impressed I am. Today they were among the first to stand up and say they 100% supported the Second Amendment, and that they would not support any event that did NOT support the Second Amendment.

I would also like to mention my old friend Larry Weishuhn...okay, more than an old friend..a brother. Today Larry said that although he didn't use any of the "banned" equipment, he stood with the Second Amendment, he stood with freed, and he stood with the Constitution.

We are united.

I am so proud to stand with Lee and Tiffany, with Larry, with Cabelas, with S&W, with Ruger, with Trijicon, with my employers, with so many other who have pulled out. Here is what Lee Lakosky said:
"There’s a reason for the Second Amendment and we all need to band together and stand behind it.”
Hell yes, brother!

Monday, January 21, 2013

The New World Sucks

I had to drive down to Machinegun Tours, one of places that does my FFL transfers, today, about an hour or a little more, to file my 4473s for a bunch of guns, including 3 (count 'em!) Spike's lower receivers. Then I got to drive home where I will wait for the paper to clear, which according to my friends at MGT will be sometime early next week. Hopefully. I also get to fill out some more paper for a Gemtech suppressor, pay the $200 and wait some more.


It was weird taking the lowers out of the box to get their serial numbers...everybody in the store gave a low, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." as if I was unveiling the Crown Jewels (well, maybe I was). I had to tell some of the young people in the store that free range lowers used to be as common as rabbits, roaming stores and the Internet at will, but that now they were all but extinct (except for some of the captive ones like my Spike's). They were amazed and maybe a little awed when I told them that in the Old Days (a.k.a. last November) you actually had a choice of lowers, and you could even get them custom engraved with your favorite comic book character, slogan or, heck, maybe the Hello Kitty logo. Amazing!

I have 3 more lowers on backorder from Brownell's; I don't know when or if they'll ever arrive. Two of the lowers are dedicated to .300 Blackout projects; one to a 3-Gun rifle. I kinda had a .50 Beowolf or .458 SOCOM boomer project in the back of my head, but we'll see if/when the the other lowers show up.

BTW, I saw Michael "Spike" Register, owner of Spike's, at SHOT...what a nice guy!
I got the 1873 Winchester and the Kodabow crossbow formally ordered today. Will be working on the TAVOR  and Ruger 45-70 tomorrow. If all these things came due at once, I'd have to mortgage the Bunker...

BTW, I want to get some of those nuclear arrows like in Rambo movies.


I like the little mushroom clouds.

BTW BTW, I stopped by Walther to ask about the .22LR PPK/S, since I'm a big proponent of using the .22 LR for training (assuming, of course, that .22LR ammo eventually makes it back into the pipeline). Asking about getting a T&E gun bought gales of laughter. Yet another list to put one's name on...


Go Here; Do This

Take some time this AM to go to Ruger's spectacular app and send a message to your senators, congresspeople and local officials!

Still Gathering Audience Members...

...for the live SHOOTING GALLERY openings/closings filming on Saturday, 26 January, at 9AM and 1PM.

Email FlyingDragonHelp@aol.com

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Back at the Bunker...

This is one of those "anyway" post, where I try to remember the things I've forgotten. Which is hard, because I've forgotten them. Something like that.

Kahr rolled out their lower-priced .380, the CW380, with an MSRP about $419. I would expect it to be just like every other Kahr I've owned and shot, which is really good. They also added a CW45 in, duh, .45 ACP AT $485 MSRP. I've always really liked the Kahr .45s...the one I have now seems to "shoot light" for a .45 in that small a package.

I did a video thingie for SHOT Show TV on Trijicon's 3X ACOG with a special .300 Blackout reticle (above). The reticle is good for both supersonic and subsonic loads...zero on the supersonic load and the subsonic is good to go. I've got 2 .300 Blackout uppers, which if I ever find enough parts will get built up. Would love to have this sight set-up on the 16-incher.

I put myself on the waiting list for a Mossberg MVP Patrol Rifle, essentially a police-erized version of the Mossberg MVP .223 bolt guns that takes AR-15 magazines. The Patrol version has an adjustable AR-15 stock and a Picatinny rail already attached. Think of the MVP Patrol as a "Scout Lite." I understand the MVP Patrol is at least 3-4 months out.

I do want to add a long-range .308 bolt gun to the Bunker battery this year, and so far I'm of mixed thoughts. I have the Ruger Scout, which I both love and shoot well, the FAL and a Colt LE901, which is a pretty good selection of 7.62/.308 guns. I want to shoot the Colt at some longer ranges (I've only shot the Colts at 200 yards and in...what I'm thinking here is 300-600 yards), which may well negate the rationale for the bolt gun. I'm considering the FNH SPR series because the ones I've shot have been just super...essentially a pre-'64 Winchester. The new SPR A5M was at the Show. The SPRs are in that netherworld between a really expensive factory rifle (the SPRs run in the $3K range) and some of the less expensive custom bolt guns. Of course, if I hit the lottery, I'd get a McMillan TAC-308. Several years back I shot a 300 yard 2-and-change inch group with a McMillan TAC-50, and I've had a soft spot for them ever since. The only thing that worries me about the Colt is magazines. I moved pretty quickly and ordered 10 7.62 PMags, and even though they showed in stock, the order got cancelled. So I only have a couple of Colt mags.

I didn't even bother checking out the dueling Heizer/DoubleTap/whatever derringers. I got burned last year. If you want a 2-shot pistol to stuff in your pocket, let me spell it out for you: B-O-N-D. They make them, have been making them a long time, and they work really, really well. Bond makes great guns, whether you like the derringer pattern or not. As soon as the new tiny .45 ACPs come out, I'll be buying 2...one for me and one for my Sweetie. So there!

UPDATE: I was unpacking today and found the specs on the new Bond "Backup." It's 4.5 inches long (vs. 5.5 for the DoubleTap); 3.75 tall (vs. 3.9 for the DoubleTap) and weighs 18 ounces (vs. 12 ounces aluminum; 14 ounces for the ti DoubleTap). MSRP on the Bond "Backup" is $400, which includes a pocket holster that also holds 2 extra rounds; the DoubleTap is $499 aluminum unported; $729 for the titanium version...porting is roughly $60 extra. 

O the RKBA side of things, we are NOT out of the woods by a long shot! We are starting to see the outlines of a sophisticated, heavily funded attempt to separate the hunters from the shooters — hell, it worked last time in 1994! And BHo so loves the whole "divide and conquer" thing, despite the damage that it does to the fabric of America. Expect to see more like this HuffPo piece from professional whore John W. Boyd:
As a small child I remember my grandfather had his rifle on a gun rack over his bed for protection, my father has a rifle in his home and today, being a farmer and living on a farm, I, too, own a 22-caliber rifle. Most farmers are responsible and law-abiding, and they use their guns safely. Like most farmers I have a deep appreciation for the land and the animals who share the land. I respect the right to bear arms and support the Second Amendment. But I question what the Sam Hill does a farmer or hunter need with an AR-15 or any assault weapon?
Sam Hill! Hell, ain't he folksy? The proper response to this sort of bleating is ridicule. Here's Boyd's Wikipedia entry, proving that he's just another liberal paid shill...aka, 'ho. Expect to be flooded with articles that start out, "I'm a gun owner, but..."

DO NOT LET THIS DIVIDE AND CONQUER PROGRAM WIN! There are no "Fudds"...only brothers and sisters.

Here's an interesting piece from WaPo on "How the NRA is Winning." Not the utter contempt in which they hold us...
The longer the fight on gun rights carries on, the more members — and money — the NRA will add. It’s not unreasonable to think the NRA will add more members (and raise more money) in 2013 than in any year in recent memory.
Excellent! If you have friends who are NOT members of the NRA, offer to buy them a one-year membership!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Mo'....

...when I get back to the Secret Hidden Bunker and chow down on a handful of Advil.

BTW, had big fun doing the entire SHOW Show in 2 hours with Steve Hunter, who's great new Bob Lee Swagger book, THE THIRD BULLET, just came out. We did an interview with Steve for DRTV, which you'll see really soon. Then we raced around looking at cool stuff.

Also a change of heart on the impending Africa trip rifle...went from the .375 Guide Gun to a Ruger #1 in 45-70 (to go along with my beloved 450/400 3-inch Nitro #1)...more retro...I'll explain on the podcast...

But Wait...There's More!

Any minute, after my brain engages. Last night was my annual "Help! I Can't Get Out if Vegas!!!!" party, where I got to see all the people I didn't get to see at the Show. As always, was Big Fun. By the time I remembered I wanted to get a look at the 1873 Winchester produced by Miroku in Japan, there wasn't anybody there to talk to. I'll try to get an order in next week. I wouldn't mind one of the Miroku '92s in .44 Magnum, either.

I did manage to get by Bond Arms at the last minute...you guys know I've been a fan of the Remington pattern Bond derringers for a long time. They recently redesigned their fire control system, resulting in much easier cocking and a pretty good trigger -- especially for a derringer. They also have an upcoming mini version that competes directly with the much lauded, seldom seen, never shot Heizer DoubleTab. It's shorter than the DoubleTap, a little heavier (18 ounces) and has the Bond interchangeable barrel system. Yes, you can get it in .45 ACP for about half the cost of the high-priced spread. I know Bond's quality...I put a .45 ACP version on order.

I finally remembered what I meant to mention the other night...my pals at Tactical Solutions have their own TS branded AR lowers, so you can get complete .22LR rifles.


Friday, January 18, 2013

Honestly Too Tired...

...to do this tonight. Remind me to talk about the new Nightforce scopes, the lighter Stag piston gun and the cool Lipsey's .22 Ruger Bearcat Sheriff's Model. Oh, and some other stuff I can't remember because I'm too tired. GUN STORIES won 2 Golden Moose awards, so that was okay. I hate competing with myself, though,  because you lose even when you win. Or something like that. More tomorrow...

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Day 2 SHOT...

...which I spent mostly in meetings. I had a wonderfully signing at the ARMSCOR/Rock Island booth, followed by the premiere of Crimson Trace's THE LASER'S EDGE training video with me, Iain, Julie Golub, Dave Starin, Todd Jarrett and Richard Mann (who did an amazing job organizing the video). I think it is a GREAT training video...it's free, and it will be I predict the most widely distributed training video ever. CT predicts a million will be given away within a year. We'll have a button up on DRTV as soon as we get home so you can all get a copy.

If yo get a chance, take a look at the Rock Island Mig 22 .22LR rifle...we've talked about the little Fred Craig-designed gun, but it should be on your list if you're looking for a fun gun to keep you shooting through these grim times .

BTW, yesterday there was a huge sigh of relief throughout the Hall after El Duce spoke...there are some concerns, which I'll be detailing next week, but on the whole the battlefield is being clarified, which helps us.

PLEASE, GO TO RUGER AND SIGN UP THROUGH THEIR APP, WHICH WILL SEND EMAILS TO ALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES, YOUR GOVERNOR, THE PRESIDENT, THE VICE-PREISDENT (who probably doesn't have the horsepower to read it), ETC.!!!!

When I signed at the Ruger booth yesterday with Ruger CEO Mike Fifer looking on, we were approaching half-a-million...not nearly enough!!! We want to see at least a million by the end of SHOT! Even if you've already contacted your representatives, DO SO AGAIN!

I need to mention that Gemtech is now offering .300 Blackout ammo in addition to their superb .22 LR for suppressed guns. Beretta is offering Nanos in festive colors. Our pal Uli, who joined us on our tour of Poland you saw last night on SHOOTING GALLERY, rolled out his new 1911, the Viper, through his company I.O. Nice looking 1911! I'll round one up for T&E.




Help! I Need an Audience!!!

LOL! We had to move up our 2nd audience filming for SHOOTING GALLERY. The new date is:

Saturday
January 26
First Filming 9AM
Second Filming 1PM
Location is south Denver, CO

Please, contact: FlyingDragonHelp@aol.com

Bring your friends, neighbors, total strangers, household pets, select home appliances, even your mother-in-laws! Revelry will ensue!!!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

I Mean, Okay, I Didn't Know How To Tie a Tie...

...and a big ole shout-out to the SHOOTING GALLERY fan who tied my tie before I headed out onto the Show floor! I asked my friend Kel Whelan from Gemtech to tie it, but he claimed to be strictly business casual, which allowed him to stand to the side and kibitz while I groveled to get someone to help me tie my tie. One guy said his grandfather was a mortician and could tie one quick like a bunny on a dead person, except that he wasn't his grandfather and I wasn't dead. Luckily, a fan with a tie agreed to take a chance, and after a couple of tries it worked!

THANKS!

• I like the Sphinx SDP subcontract 9mm, although it's a bit on the pricey side ($1K and change)...I should have a T&E gun in a few months.
• I shot the Glock 30S, but honestly I'm not enough of a Glockenista to tell you whether it's a big improvement over either the fat G36 or the single stack G30 (did I get that right?). It'll fit in a G19 holster, anyhow.
• The weirdest thing I saw today — that, yes, I will buy!!! — is the Sig MPXC carbine, the civilian-legal semi auto version of the MPX 9mm buzz gun (which is way cool, BTW). It has a 6 1/2 inch barrel with a 9 1/2 inch muzzle brake permanently attached. Yes, you did in fact read that correctly. So let us ponder what a muzzle brake is in and of itself...it is a series of baffles attached to a barrel to reroute gases as they exit said barrel, right? This 9 1/2 inch muzzle brake looks like it will do a great job of that. Now, what other device constructed primarily of baffles attaches to the end of the barrel and is designed to reroute gases? If you guessed ocarina, move immediately to New York. If you guessed suppressor, well, yes! So with the MPXC you can buy a threaded tube and an end cap from Sig and, after the appropriate paperwork, the $200 tax fee, and the long long wait, VIOLA, a suppressor! Cool...


Monday, January 14, 2013

Sorry...

...too tired to write after FREEZING Media Day at the Range. Some quickie points I'll be elaborating on Wednesday on the podcast:

TAVOR blew me away. I ordered one on the spot. Heck of a rifle!
FNH long slide FNS 9mm...another must have.
Daniel Defense Integrally Suppressed Rifle in .300 Blackout! Pay the $200 and wait.
• DoubleStar C3 Constant Carry Carbine! Another slam-dunk.
Springfield Armory XD/s 9mm...slick.
Ruger Guide Rifle with world class muzzle brake...make mine a .375 RM! Controllable thumper.

All that on DOWN RANGE Radio Wednesday...and more!

Plus, Michael buys a crossbow!!!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

MB SIGNINGS IN VEGAS!

WEDNESDAY 1-2PM
ARMSCOR BOOTH
Booth 16955

WEDNESDAY 3:30-5:30PM
CRIMSON TRACE BOOTH
"Laser's Edge" Video Premiere
Booth 16731

THURSDAY 2-3PM
DOUBLESTAR BOOTH
Booth 20061

THURSDAY 3-4PM
OUTDOOR CHANNEL
WIth Mike Janich, Mike Seeklander and Iain Harrison
Lobby L215

C'mon...don't leave me standing there looking like a monkey!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Ruger Steps Up!

Ruger is helping people get in touch with their Senators and Congresspeople. Good on them!

What have YOU done to save the Second Amendment (and America) this week???

Some thoughtful reading on guns from a psychiatrist:
A disarmed population is allowed the toxic luxury of feeling as though our way of life and our safety from oppression comes without the tremendous responsibilities and moral complexities of wielding force. The same people who passively pay taxes that put tanks on the streets and fighter jets in the skies over our enemies' nations can cringe at the idea of owning guns themselves — projecting their survival instincts onto an all-powerful father figure (the state).
BTW, the Nazi Germany meme is having an effect...so much so that the big liberal guns of HuPo and Salon are in full whine...here's my favorite moronic comment from Salon:
The law did prohibit Jews and other persecuted classes from owning guns, but this should not be an indictment of gun control in general. Does the fact that Nazis forced Jews into horrendous ghettos indict urban planning?
Here's my response:


The "useful idiots" were the first to take the ride East. This is Joe Biden's Yellow...er...Blue Ribbon plan for American gun owners! Maybe they'll offer the patch in fetching colors...


A Few Quick AR Opinions for WTBGU...

I think my friend Ed Head has the best AR "house carbine" I've seen...essentially it's a short-barreled AR stripped of all the frippery and fitted with a white light, a sling, an Aimpoint Micro and a Surefire Suppressor. It's sighted in for 15 yards and designed solely for home defense. I'm working on an old carry handle M4 copy AR for a friend who wants exactly the same thing, but is happy with his irons. Light, fast-handling and simple; the only accessory a light on the front. My own house rifle is a Spike's Tactical fitted with an old military Aimpoint and a Streamlight mounted at the 6PM position. That gun is sighted in at 25 yards, verified at 50, 75 and 100 yards.

The operative words for a house rifle are light-weight, no frills, a mounted white light (because rifles take 2 hands to operate, so if you have to search you have a light on the gun), and either irons or an ultra reliable red dot. An extensive rail system just adds weight and doesn't buy you much. The plain vanilla M4 carbine configuration is excellent in this role.


The best commercial rifle to fit this model is the just-released DoubleStar Constant Carry Carbine (C3). I haven't had a chance to shoot the gun yet, but I went though all the design parameters for the gun with Don Alwes, DoubleStar's chief trainer and a good friend. He sees the C3 as his vision of a patrol rifle...you're not going to take it to Afghanistan, but then again, you're not going to Afghanistan, are you?

For 3-Gun, it's no secret that JP Rifles are among the best in the world, and are priced accordingly. I shoot a JP, and it is a far better gun than I am a shooter. The amazing thing now — assuming we survive the current war — is the plethora of 3-Gun ready rifles. My Sweetie is shooting a Stag 3G and it's a heck of a gun, especially at the price point of roughly $1500. Her only complaint is that it is a little over-comped, that is the compensator is too efficient and brings the gun back down below horizontal on  recoil. Before the new season starts I'm going to replace the Stag comp with a Miculek comp.

I haven't shot the new DoubleStar 3-Gun rifle, but the one I handled looked spot on. I'll shoot it Monday on DoubleStar's 3-Gun stage at media day. There are any number of specialty 3-Gun rifles...the Noveske is magnificent, and my good friend Mark Passamaneck at Carbon Arms builds a wicked competition rifle. I have a proto Ruger 3-Gun rifle built by JP that is sweet...we've never done video or stills on it, which we will this spring assuming we all get through this. You'll also see the Ruger on SG 2014.

Note that the 3-Gun dedicated rifles are relatively heavy...makes them perfect for when you have to carry the rifle for no longer than a couple of minutes or you're using them for prairie dogs or coyotes.

Also note that Stag, DoubleStar and Ruger are sponsors.

For a tactical class rifle, I say love the one you're with. I've run classes with a baseline S&W M&P and a baseline Stag, and both were perfect for that. Not as light as a dedicated house self-defense gun, but a couple of pounds off the beefier 3-Gun beasts. If all you've got is one AR, use that one. One thing I want to do this spring is take (and film) a carbine class — hopefully one of the Magpul Dynamics classes — with a .22 LR AR. My off-the-top-of-my-head plan is to use my old Tactical Solutions conversion unit that's semi-permanently mounted on a Stag lower. I have lots and lot of rounds through that rifle, and I have enough CCI Tactical .22 in stock to get through even a long class. I just pulled my Millett DMS 1-4X off the FAL and put it on the TS/Stag .22 for 3-Gun practice, so that's probably the configuration I'll use.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Good Thoughts...


Have I mentioned to you guys that I have a newfound appreciation of the AR-15 pistol? I've been bopping around all over the place, and a Rock River piston AR pistol has become a near-constant companion. It's as reliable as dirt, and a couple of PMAGS with TAP seems like a wise move in troubles times.

Interesting enough, I've been hired by a major hunting magazine to write up my top 10 AR platform guns at SHOT. The Colt LE901 is so going to be on that list. Also the DoubleStar Constant Carry Carbine. Me and Steve Hunter are going to be stalking the SHOT floor Friday searing what's cool and what's not.

I'll post appearances and signing tomorrow: I'll definitely be at the ARMSCOR/Rock Island booth, the DoubleStar boot and with my friends at Tactical Solutions. here will also be a big WHOOP-DE-DOO at Crimson Trace for the premiere of the newLaser's Edge training video with me, Iain Harrison, Julie Golub, Richard Mann, Todd Jarrett and Dave Starin. Times posted tomorrow!

QUISLING ALERT!

This from the Boulder Daily Camera:
LAFAYETTE -- "No regrets." That's how Jax Mercantile President Jim Quinlan feels three weeks after making a controversial decision to stop selling assault rifles and high-capacity magazines throughout his outdoor gear retail chain, including the store in Lafayette. He doesn't deny that a fair number of customers were angry enough that they pledged never to shop Jax again, but Quinlan said the bulk of the reaction he has received has been from those applauding the stand he took in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. The killer in the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting that left 26 people dead -- 20 of them students -- used a Bushmaster .223-caliber AR-15 rifle, classified by the federal government as an assault weapon. Until mid-December, Jax sold the popular AR-15 model rifle. The chain also no longer sells magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds.
So basically this...gentleman...Quinlan thinks we're all to blame for a psychopath? I strongly suggest that we avoid this man's stores like the plague. Jax Mercantile has in the past given gift certificates to matches as prizes--I even won one. Here is my deal...if you are a match director, DO NOT deal with this man! Your shooters and your other sponsors deserve better than a gift certificate from this quisling. I suggest if you have such a gift certificate, it makes excellent toilet paper!

Please feel free to let me know what companies are still being sold in Mr. Quinlan's stores so I can speak to them directly and very personally at SHOT! Jax is a small, local operation...he deserves to fail. Let's help him!