The Ten Ring

A convention of celebrities

2011-04-29T21:06:00.015-04:00

Here we are in Pittsburgh and after a quick stop to the NRA store to get our T-shirts and mugs before the best stuff sold out we hit the exhibit floor. . .

and wow it was crowded! Even taking into account the people attending the Leadership Seminar, who like to listen to politicians drone on, there was still a sea of humanity to fight to get at the free tote bags and to gawk at semi-famous people. Then there was the problem of fighting through the ginormous lines of people who for some reason wanted to pay ridiculous amounts of money to buy crappy hot dogs and hamburgers. One common factor in the 7 conventions I've attended has been the god-awful overpriced food on the convention floor.

One unusual thing about today was that wherever we turned we ran into a celebrity.

Here is convention favorite R. Lee Ermey:

Here is the Nuge:

No surprise there. R Lee Ermey and the Nuge are at every convention

But we turned the corner and what do we see at the Thompson-Kahr booth. The incompetent gold miners from Gold Rush Alaska: Jack and Todd Hoffman. I think they may have tapped a vein of "gold" that will never play out. Maybe they aren't so incompetent after all.

Denise also ran into Chris Reed from Season 2 of Top Shot. Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture. The NRA convention seems to be really popular with the reality show set this year.

Finally we have Hero to all supporters of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Dick Heller:

Thanks again!

We spent a couple of hours of wading through the exhibit area and saw a lot of gunny goodness. But then we found out there was another entire floor of exhibits downstairs! We only had the stamina for a couple of rows but we ran into this strange exhibit:

Now, I have never had the desire to use chewing tobacco, but I have to admit that I have the urge to show my ID and enter into this shrouded domain. Yes, they require an ID to enter. It all seems so naughty, like the darkened adult store at the end of the block that you have to screw up your courage to enter. I never thought I would see the day when chewing tobacco was something to be hidden and whispered about and guns would be cool and openly displayed for all to see. Strange times.

YS

Pittsburgh Bound

2011-04-27T20:23:00.004-04:00

Well. It's been awhile. I guess it's more than past time to dust off this blog and put up a new post. As the title implies, we are on our way to Pittsburgh tomorrow at noon. This will be our seventh NRA convention. Time sure does fly by.

We are planning on doing things a little different for this convention. We are going to take our time and not rush as we usually do on the exhibit floor.

We also are not going to attend the Celebration of American Freedom Mom and Apple Pie Experience or whatever they call it.

This year I am calling it the Hucklefuck.

I really have no desire to listen to Mike Hucklebee gas on about whatever he gasses on about. I particularly don't want to partake the experience from uncomfortable stadium seats.

Denise and I really miss the banquet. But I suspect the banquet in Phoenix is the last one we'll enjoy. No, Denise and I will spend Saturday having a nice dinner at one of Pittsburgh's better restaurant's.

We'll raise a toast to the memory of banquet's past and T. Bubba Bechtol (I miss that guy).

We also plan to attend more of the seminars than we have in the past. We've always had to cut short our attendence to one seminar or the other because we were always rushing hither and yon to one event or the other. We plan to rush alot less this time around.

One of the plans we have for this convention is to sample a few of Pittsburgh's eating establishments. One of the places that we might try is famous locally: Primanti Brothers
Unfortunately, they have seem to have been involved in hosting a local event of Mayor Bloomberg's anti-gun jihad, MAIG(Mayor's Against Illegal Guns) More Here

Now my knee jerk reaction is to say: No way in hell am I going to visit this establishment.

But, my more thoughtful side has this reaction: Wouldn't it be better to kill them with kindness as the saying goes.

Think about it.

Instead of empty shops, thousands of hungry, POLITE, gun owners sporting NRA T-shirts and caps show up at Pittsburgh area Primanti Brothers shops and spend money like its going out of style. This shows the owners of Primanti Bros. that NRA members blow away :) the anti-gun community in both wealth and influence.

In fact this policy works well wherever we go in Pittsburgh. Let's show the dour, doommongering bitter enders that gun owners are happy, wealthy forward marching people and that the other side represents the ass end of history.

Couldn't hurt to try.

Anyway, hope to see some of you there!

YS

Last NRA Convention Thoughts and Maudlin Meanderings

2010-05-21T09:34:00.000-04:00

Yosemite Sam and I are back. I had a deskful of stuff waiting for me at work, including a couple of fires I had to put out.

My job entails a bunch of coordination and almost constant writing. That's one reason I don't blog much anymore. It's awfully hard to face the monitor when I've been staring into its depths all day. Besides, I feel I've said everything I ever wanted to say. Put those two together and you get little bloggy. Enough whining.

Yosemite and I attended the "Celebration of American Values: Freedom Experience" held in the Time-Warner Arena on Saturday night. I understand that Charlotte did not have a large enough venue to host a banquet, but I missed the banquet. I like sitting around the table and meeting gunnies and bloggers from anyplace in the country. I even like the excuse to throw on a bit of makeup and dress better than my work casual.

So, some thoughts to tie it together.... We enjoyed meeting and renewing long-distance friendships with all the bloggers that were there. We liked the cavalcade of guns and gear on the convention floor. We attended Ted Nugent's session on Sunday and he always gets one fired up to support gun rights.

Speaking for myself now, I hope that the almost six years I've been blogging has done some good in support of gun rights. I hope that I've added something to my readers' days. I hope I've provided information and maybe entertainment. I even hope that my love of the shooting sports has encouraged someone to buy a gun, learn how to use it, and find their own passion for shooting. I hope to get over the funk that has led me to write few posts. Maybe a new job....

NRA Convention Gun P0rn

2010-05-16T09:35:00.000-04:00

One of the things Yosemite Sam and I always do at the convention is drool over guns. There were many to choose from:

A Whitney Wolverine from the 1950s; so Buck Rogers, so ahead of its time.

From Buck Rogers to Queen Anne's time. These were from an exhibit of Hugenot made guns.

An early Thompson sub-machine gun.

It wasn't all guns, you could buy grips, knives, optics, clothing, tactical underwear (literally), and more.

No that's a gun; a Taurus chambered in .45 LC or 410 shotshell.

Okay, one more.

We saw pink guns, gold guns, blank guns, tan guns, but here's a spangled red, white and blue gun.

Sarah Palin's Speech

2010-05-14T18:06:00.002-04:00

Sarah Palin visited the NRA Convention today. She received two standing ovations, one when she entered the stage and one when she exited. I've never watched her give a speech in person and have only seen snippets of other speeches. She's a much better speaker than the media wants us to believe.

Her theme included gun rights, hunting rights, and how much the media sucks on these topics. She poked fun at herself when she told us that she had collected some "You must be a Redneck" jokes and realized some of them fit her. She mentioned writing her speech on her hand.

She carries herself very well now and has learned a lot in the past two years. The progressives and media had better not underestimate her.

The speech included nothing about any of her further political hopes. If indeed she has any. But let's face it, she's laughing all the way to the bank now.

I like Sarah Palin. I don't know if she has what IT takes to be President, whatever IT is. But, she has a down home way about her that I find very appealing. She did one thing that I've never seen a speaker do that made me like her even more. After she gave her speech, she walked by the interpreter for the deaf who was standing on the corner of the stage. She turned toward the interpreter, touched her on the shoulder, and thanked her.

At one point, Governor Palin called herself an NRA gun-nut chick, or at least that's what the press thought of her. From one NRA gun-nut chick to another, you go Sarah!

Pre-Convention Travel, Petersburg, Virginia

2010-05-14T13:06:00.005-04:00

We got here to Charlotte yesterday a little later than we planned, but not too bad. One thing we like about coming to the conventions is the chance to do side trips in different parts of the country. Yesterday, we got our history freak on and visited the battlefields around Petersburg, Virginia.

The Union troops attacked Petersburg hoping to cut off the Confederate capitol of Richmond. The first attack succeeded, but the commander didn't press his advantage and failed to take Petersburg.

A long siege ensued in terms both of time and distance. Troops built earthworks that stretched forty miles in some places. When you're driving in the National Park, you see unnatural hillocks throughout the forested land. They're the remains of the earthworks; the places where men fought, died, survived.

Petersburg is also the site of the Battle of the Crater. This was one of the most successful failures in military history. The explosion in the tunnel succeeded wildly, but the subsequent attack was a bloody disaster for the Union. Here are a few photos:

Opening to the tunnel Pennsylvania miners dug under Confederate lines.

Reproduction of the "Dictator" mortar the Union troops used to shell Petersburg.

A selection of Civil War cannon including a Dahlgren Boat Gun, Napoleon, Parrot, and a British breechloader.

NRA Thoughts and Convention

2010-05-12T07:48:00.005-04:00

Hey, guess what?! I'm still alive.

It's the time for our annual journey to the NRA Convention. This time it's in Charlotte, North Carolina. We plan to blog about the convention as we have done for the past ~~five~~ six years.

As is my usual practice here, I need to discuss the NRA. There are many gunnies out there that find it too compromising. They believe the NRA has made deals in the past that hurt our gun rights. Some of that is true. The NRA has been at the table when compromises were made such as during debate on the 1968 Gun Control Act.

Here's the thing. When you see a political freight train coming at you, do you stand in front of it, wave the Bill of Rights, and order it to stop? That's moral and non-compromising. It may even be on the side of angels, but it's often not effective. There are times when it is better to coax the brakeman into slowing the damn thing down. Maybe even stopping it.

Enough metaphors. There are people in these United States who don't believe the Second Amendment means anything except maybe some nebulous forgotten right for a state to sponsor a militia now replaced by the National Guard.

They believe the Second Amendment is an anachronism that's better ignored. They do not believe you have gun rights no matter how many times you quote the Bill of Rights. No matter how good your arguments are. They think gun rights supporters are beneath contempt. They believe unicorns will descend upon us when the last handgun is melted down (well maybe not unicorns).

These people vote, they influence politicians, they have shattered the plain meaning of the Second Amendment in city after city and in a few states. The NRA had consistently been the only thing that had slowed them down and sometimes stopped them. Other gun rights organizations have done excellent work. But, the NRA is the only one that the gun banners hate and fear.

I think that's worth my support.

We hate to say we told you so......

2010-04-15T15:15:00.004-04:00

but we told you so.

It had to start in Massachusetts: Directive 10-289

The Day After

2010-03-22T10:23:00.005-04:00

Well, here we are. An event that forces me to don my six-shooters and get all rootin-tootin. That would be the abomination of a so called health care reform bill that the criminals in Congress shoved down the American people’s gobs last night. Reaction from the blogosphere has been swift. Reactions have ranged from pessimistic to somewhat optimistic .

I fall somewhere between these two views. I am fairly pessimistic about the whole matter, but I will endeavor to be optimistic because at this juncture it is the only practical way to move forward from this debacle. Yes, Republicans will probably wimp out if they are returned to power. Yes, this is another instance of the one-way ratchet of Socialism. But, even if all of this is true, it doesn’t mean that we should not fight this with every iota of our energy and make the enemy suffer for every inch of ground they get(Yes, I have been watching the Pacific series on HBO. Does it show?).

So in the lead up to the elections in November, we need to do everything in our power to get people who run for office to understand that our vote is contingent on their doing everything in their power to defund, defang and defeat this bill upon their election to office. Also, they need to institute a series of reforms that will ensure that a travesty of this sort is not repeated. Here are a few that might be a good start.

1.) All United States Congressional business will be done during normal business hours, 9AM to 5PM Monday through Friday EST. No more midnight Sunday night votes when no one is watching. An exception would be a declared state of emergency that would take a vote of three quarters of both houses of Congress to institute.

I’ve seen a lot of media bias over the last 35 years, but the way the so called main stream media has pushed this so called health care reform takes the cake. In the spirit of informing the American people of the biases of their media outlets, I propose this second reform.

2.) All major media outlets (electronic, paper or otherwise) must indicate the political donations or connections of any spokesman or writer at the time of publication or transmission of any article, newscast or editorial.

So, when the so-called unbiased reporter reports on the lovely benefits of the latest Socialist scheme, a crawl below their shining visage will indicate that said reporter donated the max to the DNC and is a dues paying member of People for the Establishment of a People’s Republic, Berkley chapter.

Obviously, this one would need a lot of tweaking. How would one define major media? Should amateur bloggers be included? (I never claimed to be unbiased). The gist is that there needs to be a mechanism to get across to the American people that CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC and yes, even FOX News are NOT unbiased and that they just perhaps may be trying to advance a particular agenda in their supposedly unbiased reporting.

It is outrageous that someone who has only stood election from one state or even one small district in San Francisco should wield so much power over more than 300 million Americans. So, I propose the following:

3.) The Speaker of the House of Representative and the Senate Majority leader will stand for a general election comprised of the voting population of the entire United States. This election will confirm these officials after they have been voted to their positions by their parties. If these officials are not confirmed in this election, another will be picked and the new choice will be put forward to the American people for confirmation.

If these two leaders had to stand for a general election, maybe just maybe, the parties might pick someone for these offices that doesn’t come from some out of the mainstream district in San Francisco. At the very least, it throws a monkey wrench in their machine and would work to slow down their machinations.

These are just a few of my fevered, anger induced ideas which were inspired by last night’s corrupt bargain. The point is that we need concrete ideas and solid positions to rally around and maybe, just maybe advance the ball in the direction of more liberty.

Snowzilla, Round Two

2010-02-10T16:30:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Megan McArdle blogged the Snowpocalypse in the Washington, D.C. area. Yosemite Sam and I are living it. Today is a second round of heavy snow, this time with strong winds. We used to live in New Hampshire and wish we were back up there if for no other reason than to get away from snow.

I have to agree with McArdle that DC is notoriously inefficient in getting rid of snow. It's not their forte. Yosemite and I were out and about Monday and found strange things plow drivers had done on the road. We would drive in a lane that abruptly tapered into the next lane finally ending in a snow berm. Four lane roads were narrowed to one lane in each direction. Parking spaces in our complex are full of snow. There is no other place to put it. The lot designers never imagined this much snow unlike in more northern cities.

This is also the third day (plus one half for last Friday) that the Federal government has been closed. If it keeps going like this, people will begin to realize how much we don't really need the government--at least not the size it is now.

Here's a photo taken today about 4:00 pm and the light really is that dim and has been all day.

Pray for us.

Mother Nature's Revenge?

2010-02-06T18:15:00.003-05:00

Over 2 feet of snow in suburban DC. Will this be the final nail in the coffin of the Glowball Warming Movement? Naaah.

Collecting and Taking Guns Apart

2010-01-27T08:52:00.001-05:00

I haven’t mentioned my collecting activities as of late. I guess this is time to unveil my newest purchase.

A rifle, the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin 1896/11 bought at Collectors Firearms in Houston, Texas while I was on a trip for family business. I haven’t taken it apart yet for cleaning and it was missing a magazine, but the price was decent and it fills a gap in my collection. Besides, somehow or another I’d already acquired the proper bayonet for it. Now I have the gun that fits the bayonet. Pictures and commentary will follow.

My collection activities are slowing down lately. I’ve acquired most of the guns that fascinate me. That’s not to say there aren’t more out there. There are always more. It’s just that I’ve bought those guns I’ve wanted to own.

I may need to expand my horizons. For instance, I prefer handguns over rifles (most of the time) and semi-auto pistols over revolvers. The mechanism of a pistol is so much more interesting to me than that of a revolver. You see, I take all my guns apart, basically to the screws. There are a few sub-assemblies that have daunted me in the past. But, the Internet now has disassembly/reassembly instructions for almost every gun imaginable and I bull forward with my punches and screwdrivers. What can’t the Internet do?

Because I take my guns apart, I see how the fifty-odd parts (sometimes more, sometimes less) intermesh to operate that firearm. It must be something like the thrill a gearhead has when he (or she) takes an old and cranky engine apart, fixes it, and reassembles it into something that purrs like an overgrown kitten. Guns are my gearhead fix.

I have taken revolvers apart and I do get some of that thrill, but for me the semi-auto rocks. Some have cams machined into the barrels, others have a cam attached to a little ear (looking at you John Moses Browning’s 1911).

Some you take apart by pushing the slide back just so and then jiggering the barrel until a slot aligns with a groove. Others you have to hold together while you slowly separate the parts lest a spring launch itself into the air, bounce off your forehead, and roll under the heaviest piece of furniture you own.

There are even some that are a true jigsaw puzzle of intricately machined parts that lock into place without benefit of pins or screws. I love broomhandle Mausers and already own three of them—more please.

So, do I expand my horizons? That’s the question. That will mean more “Ones From the Vault” (and I have guns that aren't featured on the site). That will mean more money diverted from unnecessary items like food toward the truly necessary like guns. Decisions, decisions.

Happy Anniversary, 2009

2009-12-29T09:15:00.000-05:00

♪ Happy Anniversary to us
Happy Anniversary to us. ♪

Yes, today is Ten Ring's anniversary. We started this experiment in public expression five years ago. In blog-years that’s like twenty people-years. Granted, Yosemite Sam and I haven’t blogged that much in the recent past, but we’re still around.

I’ve expanded my horizons on this blog. I’ve written about politics, the zen-like joy of shooting, the pleasures of collecting firearms, book reviews, and much more. I’ve even tried satire (and it's my favorite post).

I found out that blogging is a funny thing. You put time and effort into a post and you get few hits, few comments, and even fewer links to it. Then you toss off a post with little thought and effort. That’s the one that gets more hits than you know what to do with. For instance, I posted about a TV show I had just watched. It took me maybe ten minutes to write. Instapundit linked it and I had over 10,000 hits in less than two days. Wow.

I’ve learned to respect professional columnists, either on the right or the left. They have to produce one, two or more columns each week. Unlike me, they can’t say, “that’s been written about recently,” “I’ve written about that before,” or “I’m tired and just want to crash in front of the TV.” Writing is hard work, so hat’s off to the professionals even if I agree with very few of them.

I also found out that I’m an essayist. I can’t just throw out news links with a pithy sentence or two (I’ve tried). When I start to write, I just have to keep writing until I’ve explored the topic (hence an anniversary post that’s just too long, sigh).

So, I’ve enjoyed the last five years even though I feel a little guilty about the recent lack of content. I love reading your comments (hint, hint) and appreciate all of you who continue to read my scribblings here. I’m sure Yosemite Sam seconds the above. Thanks to all of you.

Seasons Greeting and a Sort of Apology

2009-12-24T10:12:00.000-05:00

I've been a poor blogger recently and admit to feeling guilt. There are people who continue to read this blog, although I'm not sure why. After all, the new content can be printed out on a postage stamp. I would say sorry, but that would imply that I plan to get better.

I've said a lot in this blog and basically hate repeating myself. I also find that I am reading fewer blogs because the pace of my life has increased. Now, it seems like I barely have time to eat and maybe read a few pages in a book. The thought of reading anymore than I have to on a computer screen causes one of those pinchy little pains right between the eyes.

This is not one of those posts that announces I plan to quit blogging. No, not yet if ever. I like to make the occasional yawp into the ether. I like to put out a "gunnie book review" and sometimes even talk about politics. Lately though, politics has become a major pain in the pocket book and the ass. Health care, spare us that statist wet dream. Grumble, grumble.

So in general, this is to let you know I'm still around, still planning on blogging, but lightly, and still feeling guilty that I'm not doing so daily like I once did.

Also, it is a great opportunity to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas or a Happy Chanukah. May your New Year's Day mark your happiest year ever (provided the government doesn't tax or regulate your happiness away).

Detroit and Ayn Rand

2009-12-18T08:24:00.004-05:00

Google Earth is an important tool that I use every day in my current job. During breaks, I often look at different areas of the country and I am always fascinated by what I see. The other day, I happened to be looking at Detroit and noticed something I have yet to see in other urban areas.

The center of Detroit is at coordinates N 42-19-54 W 83-02-48. Downtown Detroit from the air, if you zoom in, looks like a typical urban area. If you have street view, you can zoom in and this area, at least, looks like most northern cities.

Now pan to the east. Directly east of the downtown section of Detroit the landscape looks remarkably rural. Many blocks are filled with empty house lots and many of the houses that are left are often boarded up and derelict.

Coordinates N 42-21-40 W 83-02-03 (4166 Joseph Campau St.) is a typical example. From the air, this looks like an area in some far-flung exurb. One of the houses is boarded up and half of the block is vacant.

This is not confined to just one area of the city. 2846 Wabash St. at coordinates N 42-20-08 W 83-04-39 is even more derelict. The area looks like Iowa with block after block completely cleared or with one or two houses to the block.

Pan in any direction around the center of the city and one finds vacant lots and derelict houses. Even the color of the city has changed from urban grey to the more dun coloration one sees in distant suburbs.

What is happening and what can not be hidden when viewed from the God-like perspective that Google Earth gives you, is that vast sections of Detroit are returning to nature. What was once the pride of American industry and capitalism is transforming into an empty wasteland.

What gives me pause is that these Google photos were taken in June of 2007, before the recent market crash. I wonder what the city looks like today after the bankruptcy of Chrysler & GM and the real estate market crash? Instapundit has a link that shows that things are not getting any better in Detroit.

As we have mentioned before, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged seems to be more prescient every day, almost as if Rand had a crystal ball and saw the future. Detroit reminds me of the fictional Starnesville, a once prosperous town that had transformed into a derelict wasteland after the collapse of the town's primary business, the 20th Century Motor Company. The company was run in an egalitarian way when the founder's children inherited the company. Before long, the company collapsed and the town it supported collapsed as well. The parallels between this fictional scenario and real life Detroit, Michigan are stark.

But are socialist policies the sole reason for Detroit's misfortunes? Pan across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario and travel to another world. The town appears prosperous and the majority of the blocks are filled with houses. Is Windsor, Ontario in Canada less socialistic than Detroit in the United States? I highly doubt it.

This issue, I think, is much more complex than it might appear at first glance. Socialistic policies that were promulgated by the government and the automobile unions are most certainly a factor in Detroit's downfall. But, also, the dependence of a city on one industry that has changed rapidly from a labor intensive process to almost full automation is a factor as well. Policies of high wages and pensions to workers whose jobs could probably be done by a machine is probably neither wise nor sustainable.

Whatever the reason, I still find it sad and disheartening to see the death of a once great city that was once the engine that drove America and the world.

The Next Hunting Magazine--The New York Times

2009-11-25T06:54:00.001-05:00

Knock me over with a feather, a piece of string, or a small pillow. The New York Times is becoming the next hunting magazine. In the last three days, they've published two largely favorable stories on hunting. The first came out on November 22 and covered a new turkey hunting season on Long Island. Yes, Long Island.

Turkeys were almost extinct on the East Coast, but careful introduction and management brought them back with a vengeance. In fact, there's so little hunting in some parts of the East that in the words of one hunter, "They have been dying of old age out here." This hunter struck out, but that's turkey hunting for you.

Then, the Times somehow found another reporter who wrote a story on "urban" hunters. Most of these hunters are deer or wild boar hunters. Most never grew up with hunting. Many had never shot a gun in their lives.

They are coming to hunting as part of the locavore movement. Hunting is the ultimate in local eating. These new hunters are foodies looking for high-quality protein and trying to reconnect with their food. A few believe that they need to hunt to reconnect with their humanness. These people are from New York City, San Francisco and places in between.

I suspected that locavorism could lead to more hunters. Maybe hunting will make a comeback. Also, these new hunters are dusting off inherited guns, buying new guns, going to gun ranges, and sharing shooting and hunting tips. All around a win-win.

The Complete Book of the 22--A Review

2009-11-13T14:07:00.002-05:00

Yosemite Sam and I took a vacation back in May of this year. On the way back home from the NRA Convention in sunny Phoenix, we stopped at the Whittington Center. We poked around a bit in the gift shop where I found an autographed copy of The Complete Book of the .22: The Guide to the World's Most Popular Guns (link below) by Wayne van Zwoll. With a title that long, it had to go home with me.

Due to the press of work, other books, fun, traveling, and stuff, I never got around to reading it until recently. As is my usual pattern, I'm posting a review here of books my fellow gun nuts may want to read.

Van Zwoll's name shouldn't be new to most of you. He's written many articles, a number of books, and appeared in cable TV shows. He's shooter and a scholar having recently received a doctorate.

His Complete Book pretty much lives up to its name. Van Zwoll first walks us through memory lane recounting his adventures with .22s while growing up. He tells about woodchuck shooting and even tosses in a few recipes--Pasture Poodle Stew might just hit the spot.

He then turns his spotlight on rimfire guns and includes the .17 HMR. I guess his book should be renamed and include .17 in the title. His next section is about the history of various gun makers and the .22s they produced. I got to admit that I've read a lot about gun makers and there was little new in these synopses. It was slow going for me here, but the brief histories are useful to someone who hasn't read much about these companies and their products.

The most important section is about shooting the .22. Van Zwoll doesn't include much discussion of handguns. He's a rifleman while I'm more of a pistolera. But, each to their own. The book has some very good pointers on marksmanship, ballistics, zeroing, and mindset.

The Complete of the .22 is a good entree into the world of the .22. It's not the final word on .22s and for that matter isn't really complete when the subject is that big. American's shoot more .22 caliber than any other round and logically own more .22 guns than any other. That's a mighty big topic. Still, van Zwoll does credit to his subject. It definitely found a place in my firearms library.

Fatal Coyote Attack

2009-10-30T09:35:00.002-04:00

At one time, Ten Ring almost became a coyote blog (just go to the Google search on the sidebar and enter coyote, you'll see what I mean). A reader, Drew458, pointed me to this story.

A woman was killed by a pair of coyotes while she was hiking alone in Canada. Coyotes rarely attack humans, but they are wild animals. Their victim, singer Taylor Mitchell, was young and petite, based on the photo in the story. She was hiking alone and apparently unarmed.

Other people were close enough to call the police who responded quickly (if one of the bystanders had been armed the response would have been even quicker). The police wounded one of the attackers, but they got away.

It's possible that the coyotes were a coyote-wolf hybrid or rabid according to expert speculation in this article. Whether or not they are pure coyote, is not germane to my point. Humans are not equipped to meet a wild animal attack. Our teeth are not big enough. Our fingernails make lousy claws. We're not too good at fighting when we get knocked to the ground. Instead, we've used our giant brains to develop tools--we can turn a branch into a club, a sliver of metal into a knife, a billet of steel into a gun. That's how we defend ourselves.

In this modern world, we've become leery of weapons. We want to be at peace with nature and meet all its wonders in an innocent state free of knifes and guns. The same holds true for our relations with our fellow man. Many "progressives" want a civil society where carrying a weapon runs counter to our norms (see the end of this post for a brief discussion of just that point).

Well we may love nature, but nature doesn't give a fig if we live or die. The same holds true of many criminals. Hell, for that matter, it's true of aliens, zombies, werewolves, and any other imaginary creature (it's close to Halloween, so cut me some slack).

We don't live in a perfect world or have a civil society. We face criminals and animal attacks. Our elected representatives at many levels of government have passed laws that have no contact with that reality.

In some places we can't carry a gun at all, we can't own a gun, we can't carry a useful knife (one with a long blade and opens with one hand). Such laws disarm us in the face of predators. These laws are wrong and news stories about beautiful but dead young singers prove it.

Today in History

2009-10-26T11:35:00.000-04:00

128 years ago a small event in the great scheme of things happened. This event launched several movies, books, cowboy action shooting "handles," and saved a town from extinction. Yes, today is the anniversary of the "Gunfight at the OK Corral."

If you look at the actual fight, there is little that should resonate so many years later, but it does. Yosemite Sam and I were in Tombstone, Arizona in May. We'd like to go again not because of something that is linked to Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, the Clantons, or any of the other bigger than life figures that roamed the town's streets. We liked it because it felt like America.

We are a nation that values our wild west heritage, even if it didn't happen exactly like we think it did. The values of self-defense, independence, gun ownership (and yes I know that the Earps wanted to disarm the Clantons and their relatives while they were in town) are important and being lost. Still, long may that heritage last.

Interesting Article on Hain and Open Carry

2009-10-15T15:20:00.000-04:00

I only have a few minutes for a quick post here--while the boss is away, yadda yadda.

I stumbled on a story in Salon Magazine about Meleanie Hain. For the most part it's a dispassionate story about her recent murder, her involvement in the Open Carry movement, and that movement.

The author, Steve Kingaman, obviously doesn't like open carry and warns that it may be coming to a town near you. He mentions the laws that exists in 43 states and that 7 states ban open carry pointing out that most of them are in the South and the laws "...were enacted precisely to prevent African-Americans from carrying weapons in public."

The article is not snarky about Ms. Hain's murder, although that's not true of many of the commenters. Klingaman does show his true colors at the end. He refers to a handful of postings on a pro-open carry site that he considers ugly with their cites of "Molon Labe," confederate flags, etc. From that, he concludes, "The problem with open carry is that you never know who is on the other end of that holster. It comes down to competing visions of what constitutes a civil society." He advocates that people who don't want to see gun-toting on their streets advocate for their vision.

My biggest takeaway: Klingaman is less concerned about open carry per se than he is about those who carry and have views he finds repugnant. He would ban the whole thing than to have "those people" be armed. This attitude is little different from Southern states passing laws to disarm blacks.

Let's close with "civil society." That's progressive-speak for wanting a world where lions lie down with lambs. They fault Republicans, gunowners, hunters, and many others for not allowing them to move closer to that vision. We believe that such a society does not and cannot exist. There will always be criminals who will happily relieve you of your money, goods, "sacred honor," life.

We can strive to improve society, but we must realize that being armed doesn't prevent a civil society, it's only being realistic.

A Better Candidate for the Nobel

2009-10-09T07:50:00.000-04:00

So, they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama. A president who has mouthed platitudes about international cooperation and basically blamed America for every world problem. A president who has continued the foreign and security policies of his predecessor--a predecessor who was reviled when he left office for those very same policies. What was the Nobel Committee thinking? Hell, even Cindy Sheehan deserves it more than the One.

In the spirit of international diplomacy and cooperation I submit that Cooper the Wonder Basset would be a more suitable candidate. Just look at him, his cuteness has done at least as much for world peace as Obama.

A Modest Proposal for Voting (A Satire)

2009-09-30T13:47:00.002-04:00

Yosemite Sam and I were talking while getting ready for work this morning. You know how those conversations go—one can solve the problems of the world in five minutes. Well, from this one, we came up with this modest proposal on how we vote. So, I present to you, with tongue firmly in cheek, a Modest Proposal for Voting.
____________________________________________________

My dear sirs and madams, I put before you today a proposal that will improve how Americans vote. It will increase a sense of civic responsibility; test the capabilities of every adult American; ensure only serious voters come to the polls; and, increase the number of marksmen this country can rely upon in case of foreign invasion or domestic unrest.

This latter point is as important as any of them. America is a “Nation of Riflemen” founded upon the concept of the Minute Man; ready to defend our nation instantly. We, as a nation, have secured and protected our liberty, our freedom, our rights with guns.

Our nation has fallen from our high ideals. We have rightfully enfranchised many more citizens than the Founding Fathers did. However, we have not instilled a sense of citizenship and civic pride among too many voters.

There is one way to correct this; one way to ensure that only responsible and civic-minded Americans can vote. This way, you ask, each voter must come armed to the polls with an accurate .22 handgun that they have taken the time to use accurately. A gun that proves they have accepted their civic duty to be a gun owner.

That handgun, be it a humble revolver, a semi-auto, or a dedicated target pistol will be used to mark ballots. Yes my friends. We will vote in those who would lead us with a bullet. To make it a challenge, ballots will be placed at twenty-five yards.

I grant you that there will be problems, but all are surmountable. Ballots will need to be larger and polling places will need adequate backstops and ventilation. The aged among us will be at a disadvantage. However, this can be corrected—with each ten years of age, past that of 30, the ballots will be moved three feet closer to the voter to correct for aging eyes (although no closer than one yard).

What about the sincerely handicapped; the palsied, the blind, those without hands you ask? They will not be disenfranchised. A poll worker/range officer will shoot according to their instructions with a poll judge certifying results. All others must mark, or rather hole, their ballots.

I conclude with a sample ballot and a reminder that we are a nation of gunowners. Let us accept this and celebrate our rights at each election.
______________________________________________

Like I said, this is all tongue in cheek and the result of early morning conversation.

Eight Years

2009-09-11T09:06:00.003-04:00

Never Forget...

And never "get over it."

Whole Foods Buycott

2009-09-04T15:12:00.001-04:00

Yosemite Sam and I aren't Whole Foods shoppers. Neither of us buy into "organic" hype and certainly don't want to pay extra for an organic rutabaga over a regular rutabaga (I've never cooked a rutabaga, just love typing it). As you might know, there's a buycott for Whole Foods. Breda supported them and inspired me to do the same.

If you haven't heard, the CEO of Whole Foods wrote an editorial about a week ago that suggested health insurance was an individual responsibility and should be a free market as opposed to a government thing. Some of their usual customer base got their knickers in a twist are boycotting the store.

I wanted to support the CEO and hence our lunch-time trip to the market. First off, the produce section shines and I know where I can buy quail eggs now. They stocked graffiti eggplant which was purple with white stripes or white with purple stripes. Pretty. I bought some stir-fry ingredients for this evening. Next came the seafood counter and a pound of wild salmon. Then a pound and a half of grass-fed beef steaks, some bacon and eggs, for breakfast tomorrow all went into the basket.

Finally, we hit the motherlode; the cheese counter. I've never seen such a good selection outside of a specialty store. They had stilton, morbier, various types of chevre, and so much more. I'm a cheese-a-holic and could've drooled there all day. Yosemite Sam dragged me away with only one wedge of white stilton. We had to get back to work after all. We grabbed some food at the hot bar for lunch.

So, our little foray in Whole Foods set us back almost $100.00, but we do have some good eats for a few meals. Sad to say, we didn't run into any smelly hippies or union thugs attempting to enforce their boycott. Oh well, there's always next time.

I won't go back on a regular basis, but I'm glad to have found the seafood and cheese counters. An occasional stop might be in order.

Open Carry and Your Responsibility

2009-08-20T11:50:00.000-04:00

I haven’t posted at all (I think) on open carry. Some gun bloggers favor it while others claim it harms the gun rights cause. I can see both sides of the issue.

There are voters who’ll wet their panties, men too, if they see a gun on someone who’s not wearing a badge. More importantly, opinion leaders will rant about it convincing fence-sitters that gun owners are a bunch of loons. This column in today's Washington Post is an example.

I’m not sure that’s such a big problem. We’ll never win panty-wetters to the gun rights side. The fence-sitters will fall on both sides of the issue, particularly when even the White House says that there’s no problem with open carry where it's lawful (read some of the many comments at that link for examples of hysteria).

I’m sure that announcement was a shock to many anti-gun rights people. On the other hand, it can backfire on us. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, (quoted in the link above) “There are laws that govern firearms that are done state or locally. Those laws don't change when the president comes to your state or locality."

Anti-gunnies, like Obama, have used language like that to support draconian gun laws in Chicago, New York City, and else where. This is one country, under one Constitution. The Second Amendment should apply no matter where you live.

Some gunbloggers and others say that open carry normalizes the sight of guns on people who don’t carry a badge. I think normalizing guns is a good thing.

So, in general, I’m stuck in the middle. I think open carry causes some harm to our cause, but its good outweighs that harm. Having said that, I’m not sure I‘d practice open carry particularly in crowds. I certainly wouldn’t carry a gun in a holster that’s not a top of the line retention holster. This post by Rivrdog explains why.

This article spells out what you need in a retention holster that will make open carry safer for you.

Guns, particularly carried in public, are a big responsibility and we must take that responsibility seriously. Now, I'll stop preaching and apologize for the sermon.

Rollicking Fun: Monster Hunter International

2009-08-14T09:25:00.001-04:00

You know you’re really gonna like a book when it begins, “On one otherwise normal Tuesday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth story window.”

Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International (link below) is fun from cover to cover. Its hero is Owen Z. Pitt. His father named Owen after a POS Australian sub-machine gun he had carried in the Vietnam War. That naming becomes significant later, but no more on that. I’m shooting for a spoiler-free review.

Shooting is a good metaphor. There’re a lot of guns in Monster Hunter International. Pitt is a self-described gun nut (just like me). He collects guns and has been shooting them since he was a child (just like me). Unlike me, he is about 6’4” and a former extreme fighter now turned accountant.

His boss is beyond incompetent. One day, his boss calls Pitt into his office. He transforms into a werewolf in front of Pitt’s disbelieving eyes and then it’s off to the races.

With the help of brawn and a concealed .357 revolver (not all that useful on a werewolf, but every little bit helps) Pitt defenestrates his furry boss. He wakes in the hospital. Government goons are stationed there to ensure that he doesn’t turn into a werewolf. If he does, Pitt gets a silver bullet to the brain pan. While there, Pitt learns that werewolves, vampires, and things that go bump in the night are real.

Not only are they real, but government agents fight them. Private outfits, one of which is named Monster Hunter International, receive bounties for each creepy-crawly they kill. That outfit recruits our erstwhile accountant and gives him his bounty check from Uncle Sam, $50,000. Not bad work; he gets to kill his boss in self-defense and gets good coin to boot. Lucky SOB.

The book explores the training a good monster hunter gets, follows Pitt and his fellow newbies through various battles, until Pitt and company find out they’re dealing with a supreme monster who could bring back Lovecraftian Old Ones. Does it get any better than that?

I’m dangerously close to spoilers here, so I’ll close with a few observations. Correia is a firearms instructor and a gunnie. Sentences close to a gun enthusiast’s heart are sprinkled liberally throughout the book. For example a vampire smashes Pitt’s favorite shotgun, a well-used 870 Remington, and his Kimber pistol. I shed a tear.

Like me, Correia and his characters prefer the 1911 platform. Don’t get me wrong, Glocks are good guns, but I happen to like John Moses Browning’s contraption better. Here is what a leading female character said, “[My little brother’s] a Glock nut. The poor deluded bastard.” I’m in love, platonically of course.

On final thing about Monster Hunter International; I hope there’s a sequel.

A Quiet Moment: Annie Oakley

2009-08-13T07:25:00.000-04:00

As we go through our busy day, on this day we should all pause and reflect. For 149 years ago today, in 1860, the American markswoman extraordinaire, Annie Oakley, was born.

I have a lot of respect for Annie Oakley, born Phoebe Ann Mosey. This woman who stood five foot nothing became a sharpshooter putting on public exhibitions, as a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and won many competitions. All this when most women were considered too frail to do much more than crochet.

In her later life, she trained women to shoot. She carried a revolver for protection at times in her parasol (never heard of parasol-carry until I read a book about her sometime back).

Her picture is on the right side of the Ten Ring's photo montage. She was an American icon and we still remember her 149 years later.

"Cash for Clunkers" and Major Suckage

2009-08-10T13:51:00.001-04:00

I haven't thought much about the "Cash for Clunkers" program. Of all the recent crap that Obama and his merry minions have tried to foist on us, this seemed fairly benign. I thought that way until I read this post on PapaDeltaBravo. PDB lyrically explains how cars give you freedom.

There's a lot wrong with the program besides the fact that it will now spend $3 billion of our tax dollars. Yes, it might help the car industry a little and it may reduce pollution by a minuscule amount. But, it's wasteful beyond belief.

For one thing, the cars won't be sold again. These cars could be almost given away to someone who can't afford them. Still the idea was to get "gas guzzlers" off the road. Then I thought the cars would be parted out, reducing the waste factor. After that, I found out that engines are being destroyed. In fact, PDB links to a video showing how they do it. Seriously, WTF?!?!

At the very least, half-way decent engines could be used to replace someone's oil-burning power plant. Oh no, Obama must destroy them.

This is truly an Al Gore wet dream. Gore once said that internal combustion engines interfere with the Earth's ability to cleanse itself. I guess he got his revenge.

Gatesgate

2009-07-26T09:55:00.000-04:00

When President Obama puts his foot in his mouth, it goes all the way up to his knee (image go away). This morning, Instapundit had two links about Obama's comment on Henry Louis Gates' arrest for disorderly conduct. In one, a Republican representative wants a resolution demanding that Obama apologize to the arresting officer. In the other, Chicago's Mayor Daley said that Obama should have collected the facts before opening his mouth.

In other words, have we finally come to the ultimate "gate" as in Watergate? Are we witnessing a Gatesgate?

Recipocity Amendment Results

2009-07-22T14:25:00.000-04:00

Well, the big vote on almost nation-wide concealed carry failed. Still it was a close vote. Snowflakes live-blogged it. It was a close vote. It needed 60 to pass and won the support of 58 Senators, many of whom are Democrats. We’ve come a long way to get this far and may do better in the future. The Senate has a handy-dandy chart showing who voted for what.

I was struck by one thing in the chart: Senators from what I would call pro-gun states who didn’t vote for this amendment.

I didn’t include certain states in my list—none of the Great Lakes states including Ohio and Illinois. While there are a lot of gun owners up there, I personally don’t associate them with support of concealed carry or some gun rights. That is idiosyncratic and someone may argue with my choices (for instance, someone else’s list might have dumped the New England states). Still, it’s my opinion and without further ado here is my list:

Florida: Nelson (D)
Indiana: Lugar (R)
Iowa: Harkin (D)
Missouri: McCaskill (D)
New Hampshire: Shaheen (D)
New Mexico: Bingaman (D)
Oregon: Merkley (D) and Wyden (D)
Pennsylvania: Specter (D sort of)
Vermont: Leahy (D) and Sanders (I)
Washington: Cantwell (D) and Murray (D)
West Virginia: Rockefeller (D)

So, these senators do not represent the beliefs and traditions of their states’ citizens. It’s called a ballot box people. Use it in 2010 or whenever their term is up.

Sad Panda over Reciprocity

2009-07-21T09:00:00.001-04:00

Lately, the New York Times has been a font of anti-gun sad-pandaism. The editors can’t stand that pro-gun people are winning victories in Congress, in the states, and in public opinion. They can’t stand the fact they’re losing. Sad, sad pandas. I feel (almost) sorry for them. At least I’m trying not to engage too openly in shadenfreude, which is not a pretty emotion.

This time our intrepid editors are bemoaning a proposed gun law. Senator John Thune of South Dakota hopes to add an amendment to a military spending bill that would provide gun owners with reciprocity throughout the United States or at least most of it.

The editorial is short on facts. There’s no mention of how the amendment would affect states that don’t have concealed carry laws at all, if there would be intrastate limits on where one could carry (meaning one would have to master the laws of all the states in which one travels), how it would handle Vermont-style systems, and other pertinent facts.

The editorial is long on emotion. It describes the proposal as “…the latest assault on public safety….” It states that it would make illegal gun trafficking between states easier (not sure how, but I’m just reporting here). If cites statistics that describe presumably unlawful killings by permittees, but the numbers cover a two year period and seem cherry picked (unable to tell without more facts--those are good things).

Finally, it hopes Chuck Schumer and Frank Lautenberg are able to defeat the amendment. But, the writers sound desperate. They sound like they’re crying panda tears.

Let’s really make them really unhappy and give our congresscritters a call and support this amendment.

More Gun Hypocrisy

2009-07-16T10:28:00.000-04:00

Yosemite Sam and I took a brief, unplanned, unannounced, and totally necessary break from blogging and even reading blogs, newspapers, and magazines in all but a most superficial way. We were traveling, work has been hell, and we had a short visit from a relative. When you're in the Washington, D.C. area, that means hikes to The Mall, long Smithsonian visits, staring at monuments and memorials. My aching feet.

There's an editorial in the New York Times today that perfectly illustrates anti-gunnies' fervent hatred of gun rights. They allow this hatred to blind them to the implications of their own thoughts. The editorial board opposes an amendment to a bill that guarantee citizens living in public housing the right to keep guns in their homes.

We're talking about a Constitutional right. We're talking about the sanctity of the home. Yet, the anti-gun editors favor restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens. What if an atheist housing administrator regulated the ownership of Bibles or Korans in public housing? What if a housing administrator banned blogging in public housing? Someone, somewhere could make an argument that these are good ideas.

A right is a right no matter where someone lives.

The editors revealed even more short-sightedness where guns are concerned. They stated, "...Congress should be dealing with the national embarrassment that individuals barred from airlines on the terrorist watch list are free to shop for firearms." If Ted Kennedy showed up on the watch list again, the editorial board would decry the list is unfair, arbitrary, that it violates citizens' rights, that there is no way to know you are on the list or get off of it. They would call it a Bush travesty of justice and fairness.

When guns are concerned, it's fair and right that someone on the list, even if they don't belong there, should be denied a basic Constitutional and human right. What hypocrites.

Say Goodnight America

2009-06-27T18:43:00.005-04:00

Everybody needs to read this link about the recently passed cap and trade bill in the House:

http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=134491

One of the reasons I have not posted in awhile is that I have been at a loss for words over what has transpired during the last 6 months. Up until recently, I never would have imagined that a majority of the American people would enthusiastically vote to commit collective suicide. The bill outlined in the above link is the nail in the coffin after that suicide.

To say that I am angry is an understatement. One of the more outrageous parts of this outrageous bill is a requirement for a home energy audit upon selling a home. If your home fails this audit then the seller would have to pay to fix the problems outlined in the audit. So if you have an older home(like me) that has older appliances(like me), you will have to pay thousands of dollars to get new appliances, air conditioners or water heaters even if those appliances are in perfect working order. So much for the reduce, reuse, recycle encomium that the environmentalists keep prating on about. The landfills will be full of these still functioning appliances.

But, it gets better. Think you get around this by being a first time home buyer. Think again. This bill will make national the stringent California building codes and raise the cost of a home even higher.

It goes without saying that electricity, fuel and food prices will skyrocket. All in the middle of a recession. If you work in any energy related field, well, you are basically screwed. Your job is either going away or going to China.

I can't think that if Congress was setting out to intentionally destroy this country they could be doing much less than what this bill does.

One thought that has been bouncing around my head for the last 6 months is the following. I served in the military during the Cold War and one of the things that made me proud was that I was fighting to preserve and protect one of the very few free societies on Earth. But the thought I've had for the last 6 months is what was the point of my service in the military. I see this country quickly and with almost no debate pass legislation that will transform this country into a carbon copy of the ones I fought against. Legislation that dictates how our life will be run in every phase of our lives. From cradle to grave. Control the likes the Soviets of old could only of dreamed about. I didn't sacrifice years of my life to get THIS.

And what gets me is that they are just getting started. Health care "reform" is coming up soon where the government will control another private aspect of your life. As the old 60's song goes, You can't run your own life, I'll be damned if you'll run mine. I guess most of those 60 types didn't take that verse to heart. Or maybe it only applies if the Right is trying to run your life.

Well, I for one am tired of both of them, Right & Left. Both sides are Statists and the two sides together work to stifle virtually all freedom and liberty in this country. The Right with their failed War on Drugs and their obsession with security and the Left with their insane attempts to regulate and control every other aspect of our lives. Control us when we take a shit(low flush toilets), when we buy or sell anything, where we travel, what we eat or drink, anything we do, they want to regulate and control. 1984 is a training manual with these guys.

And the Hell of it is, that the majority of the American people seem to be perfectly comfortable with all of this. They seem to be scared of freedom and liberty frankly scares the hell out of them. They've been educated for decades to feel like this. I can't think of any way that this will change in the foreseeable future.

So, that's why I haven't posted much. What little hope I have, these hope and changers are doing their damnedest to extinguish. Living during interesting times sure can suck at times

A Dark Read, One Second After

2009-06-26T08:45:00.000-04:00

I scared myself this week. No, I didn't have a negligent discharge, an almost car accident, a slip in the tub. I read a book.

I read it in about a day and a half. I couldn't put it down and I had the awful sense of passing a car wreck and not being able to tear my eyes away from a sheet-draped mound. The book is William Forstchen's One Second After (link below).

Forstchen's book is not a survivalist novel, but is about TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it). If you've seen his name before, it was probably because he is Newt Gingrich's writing partner for their series of history-based novels. His protagonist, like Forstchen, lives in a small town near Asheville, North Carolina and teaches history at Montreat College. Unlike, Forstchen, the protagonist is a former Army colonel although most of his career centered around teaching military history.

The words in the title refers to the change in America one second after we are hit with an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). Terrorists or another country, as is speculated by various characters, have hit us with three nuclear weapons burst twenty-five miles above the Earth and arrayed in such a way that the resulting EMPs destroy our civilization.

Electronic circuits are fried even if they were on a surge protector. No cars or trucks made after the early 1980s will run. Cell phones, computers, land-line phones, municipal power and water systems, ATMs, and everything else that we rely on so much are inoperable (with the exception of gravity-fed water systems).

Grocery stores stand empty in less than two days. Travelers are stranded on freeways, planes fall out of the sky, people with medical conditions are staring the Grim Reaper in the face. Hunting becomes a way of life even as game becomes depleted. Ammo is a medium of exchange.

Even our military is not spared. Some equipment that was thought to be hardened against EMP burns out. Command and control communications are disrupted.

The book goes on in this vein and is all too plausible. Communities come together while others fall apart. Some people prey on others (literally). Food is the biggest problem. Basically, as indicated in the book's afterword, America has returned to the nineteenth century without having a nineteenth century knowledge base. We know how to program a cell phone, but we don't know how to hitch a mule to a plow.

One Second After is a dark and scary read. Forstchen gives his characters some hope, some victories, but all of them are lost in a world that is no longer theirs. All too plausible.

Newt Gingrich wrote a foreword and Captain Bill Sander (USN) wrote an afterword. Both state that One Second After is based on unclassified reports. An EMP strike is a real threat and could be a true TEOTWAWKI unlike other survivalist scenarios. In fact, it could inspire readers to improve their own knowledge base and better prepare for such a terrible event (Foxfire books anyone).

Good Reason to Join the NRA

2009-06-20T09:45:00.002-04:00

This morning, over my cup of coffee, I gave myself heart burn. I clicked on the New York Times. What did I see? Bob Herbert has an editorial that bashes the NRA and lays the responsibility for the recent "right-wing" shootings at their door. He believes that the shooters were afraid the government would take their guns and thus they went on a rampage.

Oh, he's careful to say the NRA isn't advocating violence, but he hits all the anti-NRA points. His screed is ahistorial (bashes the NRA over a statement that gun ownership is not about hunting, but to protect against tyranny). His screed has false statements (tying an NRA fundraising letter in with Tim McVeigh). His screed is just that, a screed.

He even makes the circular argument that gun-banners love to make; we do not want to take your guns, but we need more gun control. Hmm. What's wrong with that statement? He says the NRA is throwing gasoline on the fire. But, isn't it more true that the gun-banners are throwing the gasoline if anyone is doing so?

If you're not a member of the NRA (click to join) now, Herbert's editorial should convince you to join. If you don't wish to join, tell me why not.

What I'm Reading Now: Liberal Fascism

2009-06-19T12:20:00.001-04:00

Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism (link below) came out in January 2008. It was just released in paperback on June 2. I'm cheap and waited for the price to drop and it was a long wait. Many of you have already read it, so this is for those cheap people like me who waited for the right price point (by the way, what is this thing called libraries?).

I'll preface this brief review with a note. My graduate degree is in history with a concentration in German diplomatic and intellectual history. I know more than a little about the history quoted in Liberal Fascism.

For the most part, Goldberg is pretty close to right, although he selects points that support his thesis leaving other points unanswered. For instance, when he deals with racialist views. He rightly condemns leftists that held these views, but ignores how acceptable these views were in the spirit of the times. Many conservatives would have held the same views.

Goldberg didn't mean for Liberal Fascism to be a history treatise. Instead, he wrote a polemic and as such his book is very effective. His clear writing makes you wonder about so much we've been taught about the truth behind socialism and fascism. It makes you wonder how much our father's and grandfather's generations were imbued with a semi-fascist philosophy that is now coming to a head in this generation.

As Goldberg points out, fascism takes many forms depending on where it's found. Italian and German fascism were different, so it stands that an American fascism would be more different still. Good point. However, I think that applying fascism to the far and not-so-far left is no more useful than when the left calls conservatives fascist. (There is that little shiver of delight to throw the label back at them though.)

I think the term "statist" is much more useful than fascism in describing the left. Bear in mind that Communism, fascism, socialism are all statist. All of them hope to use the state to improve mankind's lot. However, where that improvement takes mankind differs very much depending on the "ism" in question.

Using the state to improve society is fraught with dangers that cannot be ignored. Left-wing people think that if they just create one more welfare program, re-distribute wealth just a little more, adopt identity politics more strongly then we can create social justice. We can abolish poverty, crime, war, and every other bad thing. Of course, they define what is bad (e.g., self-defense because it hurts or kills another person, even if that person was the attacker).

The left resents the right for trying to stop them from using the state to improve society. They call conservatives selfish, unjust, unfair, and worse. They believe that the right is simply trying to protect their prerogatives to further "oppress" the people. They want a collective effort and individuals stand in their way. As that thought takes them further down the statist road, they soon look to using the state to force compliance with their dreams.

That way lies the madness of the guillotine and must be stopped. Society is not perfectible and we must respect the individual as a unique human being and not for his/her role as a member of the collective. That's why this book is so important to read.

Yet Another Sad Panda

2009-06-13T10:29:00.000-04:00

The Saturday New York Times presents us with another bleating of a sad, sad panda. This time it's from the editorial board itself. It's about the recent death of the District of Columbia Congressional representation bill. The dreaded "gun lobby" added an amendment that would erase the District's onerous gun laws. Finally, gun-control people in Congress (here's looking at you Eleanor Holmes Norton) killed the bill.

The editorial writers were outraged and pull out every emotional stop. Here's the first paragraph. I took the liberty of illustrating how they try to manipulate the reader. The words in red/bold are emotional triggers used to feed your outrage against the "gun lobby." Green/bold highlights words they use to win sympathy for gun control people.

Congress has shamefully caved in, yet again, to the gun lobby and abandoned the effort to grant the long-suffering District of Columbia a voting representative in the House. Hopes for passage were high this year, until the historic measure was poisoned in the Senate with an amendment to strip the district’s government of its power to enact responsible gun control laws.

It goes on from there including the dubious point that the shooting at the Holocaust Museum illustrates the need for these laws. Hell, the murder illustrates the failure of the laws to prevent such an occurrence.

The editorial contains an out-right lie, "The gun lobby galvanized anti-gun control Republicans and timorous Democrats in both houses to stop the representation bill in its tracks. " Actually, it was pro-gun control supporters who stopped the bill. If it were up to the gun lobby, the bill, including the gun amendment, would have passed--for better or worse, given that District representation is probably unConstitutional.

The editorialists threw some blame at Obama for not standing up to the "gun lobby" and signing "a credit card reform law that included another senseless gun lobby diktat...." allowing licensed people to carry loaded guns in National Parks (there's those emotional heart-tugs again).

There's many more sad panda bleats, but finally they admit that the "gun lobby" is winning. Warms my heart it does.

Making Illegal Things Illegaller

2009-06-11T14:28:00.001-04:00

I clicked over to Salon magazine a few minutes ago and saw an editorial by news editor Joan Walsh. There’s a bunch of stuff in it and I don’t have the time to get into it. Just a few samples are in order.

She defends the Department of Homeland Security’s recently withdrawn report on right-wing extremism.
She points to Holocaust Museum shooter, James von Brunn as an example of whom the report described.
She wonders if right-wing talk is inspiring the likes of von Brunn.

One throwaway line in the last paragraph really got me (as if there wasn’t enough heartburn material in her piece). She wonders, “How von Brunn, a felon who'd used a gun in his earlier crime, still had the right to carry a gun, I'll never understand.”

She betrays a very typical liberal ignorance of gun laws with that one statement. Von Brunn had no right to carry a gun. He would commit a felony if he so much as held a gun or possessed one cartridge. It still didn’t stop him from illegaly acquiring a gun and ammunition. Other laws didn’t prevent him from shooting another human being. Other people with guns stopped his attack.

If people want to agitate for gun control that’s their right. But, they should know the gun laws they hope to change. If they don’t, they find out they’re trying to make something that is already illegal, well, illegal. That’s just dumb.

Sad Panda in Boston

2009-06-09T09:08:00.001-04:00

Boston Globe columnist Derrick Jackson is shedding tears over the NRA this morning. You see, the NRA is appealing a federal Appeals Court decision that supported Chicago's gun laws. A Supreme Count decision, based on the Heller precedent, could end up overturning Chicago's gun laws.

Jackson fears that "the NRA wants one single, applicable rule of guns anywhere, anytime." Well, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is the same anywhere, anytime in the United States. Sorry, Mr. Jackson but a right's a right. He cries about recent NRA victories (guns in National Parks, success on prevented a new Assault Weapons ban, etc.). Poor Mr. Jackson, poor tired, sad panda.

Go read the editorial and the comments. But, here's one thing for those gunnies that don't like the NRA for whatever reason: It is an excellent lightning rod for the Derrick Jacksons of the world.

Whittington Center

2009-06-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

One of our "must sees" on our vacation was NRA's Whittington Center nestled in the mountains outside of Raton, New Mexico. If you look for it on a map, you'll find it in New Mexico's northeast corner not far from Colorado. We stayed in one of the smaller and rustic cabins on the grounds.

We arrived a little late, but shooting hours are from sun up to sun down. We had plenty of time to burn powder. More about that later.

The Whittington Center is one of America's premier shooting facilities. It boasts 17 ranges for a number of disciplines--rifle, shotgun, and handgun. Some of the ranges close depending on weather or other reasons, but enough were open for us to enjoy an afternoon of shooting. There is also a gift shop, museum, and offices. A few people are lucky enough to live on the grounds. There are no restaurants, so you either bring food or drive four miles to Raton.

The museum is new and worth a stroll. It features many guns and puts them into context with shooting sports. The center also sponsors guided hunts and other activities. By the way, they sell ammo there--no 9mm or .380 to be found.

We must be rain magnets or something, because it rained there and the gate keeper couldn't remember the last time it had rained. And here is the gate:
We checked in and put a few things in the cabin. They don't allow dogs in any of the buildings, so Cooper stayed in the pickup which we drove to the ranges. Most of the pistol ranges were closed, but the Hunter's Pistol Silhouette range was open.

We had never shot silhouette of any kind before and we had a blast. Another couple were shooting at the steel chickens, so we elected to shoot at steel pigs. We didn't attempt to follow any of the rules (shoot from left to right, or keep score, etc.), we just tried to knock the piggies off their steel pedestals.

We used handguns--a 9mm Smith & Wesson for me and for Yosemite his Colt .45 acp. It was a challenge. Yosemite Sam is trying for bacon:

If you're curious, the pigs are 50 yards away. I wish to say that we knocked them down in short order. Nope, we used much hard to find ammo, but we did send a goodly number of the nefarious steel piggies into the dirt. Challenging, but we had a ball. Now, we want to find a nearby silhouette range (any input is welcome, as always).

We packed up and drove to the "sight in" range, which is the paper on racks-type rifle range. We had brought a couple of rifles, my M1 Garand, and Yosemite Sam's 7mm Rem Mag. When we got out of the pickup, we scared a herd of antelope that were grazing on the end berm. They knew it was no longer a good place for them. For me, the antelope is the mascot of the Whittington Center. They're all over the place.

We shot for awhile, but it was cold there. A damp wind had come up and we broke out our jackets. The brisk wind carried rain and it was in the low 40s. Weather like this, in New Mexico in late May! A founder's cabin under glowering skies.

We didn't shoot the next day, but moved on to new places. If you ever have a chance to get to the center, go. Plan an entire day of shooting. Plan a family get-together, a vacation, a "business" trip, or invent any other reason. Just get there and have fun. If you need any more reasons, here's a picture of their 1,000 yard range as seen from our cabin.

Taxes, Work and Vacations

2009-06-05T08:58:00.004-04:00

We didn't exactly drop off the face of the Earth after our vacation, not exactly. When we got home we got socked with a boatload of work and a home issue. Work was bad enough, but the home issue was the cherry on the shit sundae.

We went through our mail and Yosemite saw an envelope with an ominous Massachusetts return address. The Massachusetts department of Revenue is auditing two years of our tax returns and wants enough paper to fill a canoe.

During the time we lived in New Hampshire, we both worked in Massachusetts. The state demands taxes on in-state generated income. They claim that holidays, vacations, and sick leave is subject to state taxes. Complicating matters, I traveled a lot for my work and worked in New Hampshire frequently. I can deduct the time I worked out of state, but have to account for it all.

We thought we had all the paperwork we needed and had even hired an accountant to do our taxes. Doesn't matter, they want more. We've been scrambling to satisfy them. I know Massachusetts is hurting financially, but even if they squeeze some more green out of us, it won't make a difference to their bottom line. Just arrrggghhhh.

Now that that's out of the way. I will be posting soon a little bit more about our vacation.

More Gun Pics

2009-05-21T08:29:00.000-04:00

Here's the second installment of some gun p0rn taken at the NRA Convention. Enjoy.

Engraved Henry Rifle

A small selection from a wall of Lugers

Yet another wall of guns, these were old military flintlock and percussion pistols

Shiny 1911s

A future gunnie with a bulldog Gatling

Finally, for the reloader who has a taste for serious cartridges, a Dillon reloading press for .50 cal BMG. That thing will give you an aerobic workout and a complete cartridge at the same time.

Time date is for Mountain Standard Time

More Adventures in the Southwest

2009-05-20T13:40:00.001-04:00

We've left Phoenix far behind and are doing the tourist thing again. We've seen and done so much already. (Still Blackberry blogging, so no pictures or links--we'll put some up later.)

Yesterday, we stopped at the Meteor Crater. Now that's a hole in the ground. What surpised me the most was the rim. It rises from the desert floor dramitically. The attached musuem was informative and one display allowed you to superimpose the crater over a map of Arizona. It pretty much covered Phoenix and this is a small crater compared to some of those on the moon.

We ended the travel day at the Petrified Forest National Park. The petrified logs are interesting. You're looking at a rock that used to be a living tree. You see knots where branches had been attached, bark, and tree rings--all in stone now. At the gift shop, we bought a little hunk of it. More junk for the mantlepiece, but it's purty. (The source of the petrified wood was from private lands.)

We saw more places and did more than I can mention here. I'm glad we decided to make this one a road trip.

Gun Pics

2009-05-18T09:37:00.001-04:00

We are in Gila Bend now at the Space Age Lodge. We're being tourists again. Here is a little NRA Convention gun p0rn for your enjoyment. There are more pics to come as we find places with decent Internet connections.

A trio of cowboy rifles
A .45-70 revolver; some ask "why," others ask "why not"
An engraved version of the .45-70 revolver
Ya want bling, I got your bling--gold plated Tommy Guns, got to love 'em

A very functional .50 caliber

I'll try to get a few more pics up as our travels allow.

Seminars

2009-05-17T23:50:00.001-04:00

One thing that NRA Conventions have is seminars. This year, topics included sausage making, guns of World War II, concealed carry, identity theft, and others.

The NRA gets experts in a given field to discuss their topics. Yosemite Sam and I attended a workshop on handloading. I reload pistol and shotgun ammo, but I've long refused to reload rifle rounds.

I freely admit that I don't have the patience to do it. However, Yosemite Sam is thinking about getting started.

The presenters did an excellent job explaining all the how-tos. Even more interesting was a panel of industry representatives who shared their expertise in a Q&A session.

Most memorable answer came from Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Powder Company when asked how to tell if powder has deteriorated. First, if it has a strong ether smell, it's bad. Second, sprinkle a little on white paper and look for rust colored particles or dust. Finally, if it's warm to the touch, "throw it out yesterday."

He also added that 4th of July is real interesting at his house. I wonder why.

NRA Banquet

2009-05-17T14:47:00.001-04:00

Yosemite Sam and I attended the NRA banquet last night. Our only disappointment was the location of our table. They placed all the media/bloggers and some NRA staff (the more junior ones) in the back 40. We weren't at the worst table, but....

One of the staffers mentioned that they were expecting about 5,000 people, but demand was so high, they added another 1,000 seats. It was crowded and that might explain the table location.

Enough griping, we still enjoyed ourselves immensly--well worth the money. John Stossel gave an excellent talk on free enterprise versus main stream media attitudes.

Oliver North gave the keynote speech and was presented with the handmade flintlock. And, yes he channeled Charlton Heston's "cold dead hands" with it.

As I said, a good time, good company, good conversation, good food (braised short ribs and chorizo-stuffed chicken).

This was the second year that they separated the concert from the banquet, so dinner just ended after a young, talented lady sang "God Bless America." We're looking forward to next year.

LaPierre and Assault Weapons

2009-05-16T14:03:00.000-04:00

We're sitting in the Annual Meeting and Wayne LaPierre is discussing the Assault Weapons Ban. The NRA is dedicated to fighting a new AWB. The sent a news crew to the border with Mexico and presented a story on that canard.

One official mentioned a freighter full of AK47s that came to a Mexican port bought by a drug cartel.

I can't promise that the NRA leadership has embrassed black rifles, but they are fighting to prevent a new AWB. Good enough for me.

Informal Seminar on Hunting

2009-05-16T13:38:00.002-04:00

The bloggers were treated to an informal discussion of hunting policy given by NRA's Manager of Hunting Policy, Darren Lasorte.

He mentioned several things we gunnies should keep in mind. For instance, 40 percent of gun owners own their guns solely to hunt. I own guns for several reasons, recreation, collecting, self-defence, and hunting. I don't always understand hunters, but I must respect them.

Crossbow hunting can increase the time a person hunts by as much as thirty years. Older people and youngsters can't draw a hunting bow, but can use a crossbow. We need new hunters and retain them.

Finally, Humane Society of US does not care for lost animals, but is a political creature. It has used its name, virtually identical to the Humane Society, to gain members to the expense of the people who do take care of critters.

All in all very informative.

Pains in the Neck

2009-05-15T19:17:00.002-04:00

It's my turn to be the sad clown now. Yosemite Sam and I wanted to go to the Ben Avery Shooting Facility north of Phoenix. In fact, it was on my list of must dos.

When we got there this afternoon, we found out they had adopted their summer hours (on May 12 no less) and they are closed this afternoon.

To really put the pain in the neck, the engine light in Yosemite's truck came on. We're now sitting in a PepBoys waiting for news. Sigh.

UPDATE: We finished at PepBoys. The problem was a gummed up throttle linkage. The heat probably softened some old dirt and was giving the linkage fits. The mechanic cleaned the throttle body and sent us on our way, a little poorer.

Convention Crowd

2009-05-15T14:07:00.003-04:00

We can't put a picture yet, but we will soon. We checked in and got our media badge which let us get on the exhibit floor before the doors opened.

We listened to Phoenix's mayor welcome the convention. He mentioned that the banquet will be the largest single meal served in Arizona ever--6,000 people.

Then, the doors opened and a surge of people issued forth. This may be the largest convention we've attended.

Maybe it seems that way because of the convention center's architecture, but the registration lines were long, people were queued up at the escalators just to get to the floor. Simply amazing. And this is Friday, usually a slower day.

Soon we will leave the comforts of the press room and brave the crowds. I bet Paul Helmke is a sad panda today.

UPDATE: Here are the promised pictures:
Crowd waiting to register and enter the exhibit hall:

One of the exhibits: The top rifle is an M1 Garand. It was presented to John C. Garand on his retirement and is serial number 1,000,000.

Continuing Adventures

2009-05-15T07:40:00.002-04:00

It's Friday. We ended up in a hotel with virtually no Internet connection and a very busy schedule of vacation goodness. We're in Phoenix now. We arrived here late last night--best laid plans and all. We're slowly pulling ourselves out of the vacation mentality and into the convention mentality.

We've had a good vacation. As I said in Monday's post, we stayed and ate dinner at The Big Texan in Amarillo. Here it is in all it's glory:

Note, the white limo. They have a fleet of them to take you to and from the place. Only in Texas.

After Amarillo, we beat feet to Tombstone, Arizona home of staged gunfights, tourist trap souvenir shops, western schlock, and we loved every minute of it. Here's the view from our motel room:

I grew up in a desert state. I felt at home here. We did a few of the typical Tombstone things. We visited Boot Hill, took a stage coach ride, walked on wooden sidewalks, spent money, took in a gunfight show at Six Gun City, and more.

One thing else we did there. We shot real guns at an ingenious shooting gallery, called Big Iron Shooting Gallery in a downtown storefront (link goes to a list of attractions). Someone had the bright idea of swaging brass down to hold small paintballs while still fitting a single-action revolver. A primer drives them out. We had a blast and a good conversation with the person running the place. Good times. Here's a gratuitous Tombstone pic:

We used Tombstone as a base and saw the Pima Air and Space Museum near Tucson where we saw the world' ugliest airplane and a lot more besides:

We did many more things including a trip to a Titan missile launch facility. But, my favorite place was Tombstone itself. I know it is now a cheesy tourist trap, but once past our modern cynicism we enjoyed ourselves. Despite all the souvenir shops, history really happened here. We walked past the Oriental Saloon where Wyatt Earp dealt Faro. We're still watching movies about a certain gunfight that happened in this little town.

Now in Phoenix, we're getting ready to attend the Convention. Talk to you all later.

Morning From Amarillo

2009-05-11T11:18:00.002-04:00

We're on the road again to the NRA Convention. I'm writing this from my BlackBerry, so there will be no links. No guarantee on no typos either.

We left Maryland on Saturday morning and drove 806 miles to Jackson, TN. Getting too old for long drives. So Sunday we up and drove 812 more miles to get to Amarillo, TX.

We stayed and ate dinner at The Big Texan Hotel and Restaurant--home of the "free" 72 ounce steak. Eat it all, plus salad, appetizer, potato and it is free along with the bragging rights. Saying we took it on and won would be a good story, but that's all it would be. We ate a much more prosaic dinner.

We're heading to Tombstone, AZ today and just left Amarillo. Another long drive. Pity me.

Vacation in Phoenix

2009-05-08T19:01:00.002-04:00

Well, Yosemite Sam and I are getting ready for our annual visit to the NRA Convention. This time it's in Phoenix, Arizona. Once again, we'll be blogging the convention and the Blog Bash. Through the Bash, we'll have media credentials which give us access we wouldn't have otherwise.

We are driving there this year. We're making a road trip of it and will visit many of the wonderful places in this country. We'll post along the way. See you later.

Jimmy Cater and the AWB

2009-04-28T09:00:00.002-04:00

Once again, I am late with this post. Oh well, better late than never.

The anti-gun media is pulling out all the stops. They are desperate to win some sort of gun control and frustrated that government, so far, is not listening.

Everywhere you turn news shows, news magazines, and newspapers have some sort of anti-gun story. They mostly concentrate on renewing the so-called “Assault Weapons Ban” and are now flavored with the canard that Mexican drug gangsters are buying machine guns, grenades, and other equipment from American gun stores and shows.

This time, the New York Times enlisted a gun owner, hunter, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and former U.S. president. None other than Jimmah Carter. He writes about hanging a hand-made musket in his White House office, his two handguns, rifles, and shotguns. Then he goes on and bashes anyone who owns a rifle with modern styling.

To him and to too many gunowners like him, the only purpose for a modern rifle is to kill cops. This is what we have to fight. We know that black rifles are used for serious competition, hunting, plinking, and many other legitimate activities. We know that only about 2% of criminals were arrested with military-style semi-autos.

This illustrates a problem of perception. Non-gun owners, misinformed gun owners, out-and-out Fudds—which I define as those who own guns, but actively work to ban certain types of guns—and anti-gunnies fear these rifles. Facts and figures are dismissed (as Jimmy Carter does here) in favor of emotional arguments. They state that these guns are cop-killers. That somehow bullets from black rifles can pass through police armor while bullets from their more powerful but old style rifles are stopped.

Telling the truth about these popular rifles doesn’t seem to help. Showing pictures of pre-ban and post ban rifles doesn’t seem to help. Anti-black rifle people have made up their minds.

Perhaps our best recourse is to take someone shooting and present them the opportunity to shoot an AR-15 or AK clone. Then tell them that the rifle that they just shot is one of those that would be banned. They will be surprised and perhaps enlightened. Too bad most would never go shooting in the first place.

Washington, D.C. Tea Party

2009-04-15T14:19:00.000-04:00

I was able to attend part of the Washington, D.C. Tea Party today. There were actually two scheduled, one in Lafayette Park (near the White House) and the other in front of the Treasury Building, which is right next to Lafayette Park. Probably some overlap between the two scheduled parties.

I had an errand in downtown D.C. I arrived about 11:30 and though I was early, it was going strong. I have no idea how to estimate crowds, but there were at least a couple of hundred people there. I had to leave about 12:30 and there were many people with signs on their way to the park. It was a good turnout and press people had cameras rolling. It was also a rainy, cold day with temperatures in the high 40s.

One problem, the PA system did not broadcast as loud as it should have. I heard very little of the speeches. Granted, I'm hard of hearing, but others were shouting out, "Louder, louder." Tea Party organizers will need to keep this kind of thing in mind and avoid further frustration.

So without further ado, here are the pics (all taken with a Blackberry, could not bring a better camera):

John Galt came for a visit. Both Yosemite Sam and I recently read Atlas Shrugged so I decided to lead with this sign:
Here is a view of a sparse area of the crowd facing the back of the speaker's tent:

Crowd and the skies that were weeping on us:

Young protestor getting interviewed:

This sign has a very good point and tosses back Obama's campaign slogan at him:

Obama as Urkel:

Finally, someone spent some time on their Tea Party sign:

Emergency: A Gunnie Book Review

2009-04-08T15:22:00.000-04:00

I first heard about this book at Michael Bane’s site. Bane’s review got me interested enough to buy and read it. Meanwhile, Smallest Minority reviewed it and mentioned it, so this is a double, maybe even triple, “me too” post.

Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, by Neil Strauss is not a survival manual. It has a few pointers in a continuing comic strip that includes some useful ideas; how to cut flexi-cuffs with paracord (only if whomever cuffed you is dumb enough to restrain hands in front), how to turn a credit card into a knife, how to make a ghillie suit, etc. Beyond these rudimentary points there is little that will actually save your life.

Instead, Emergency is about a liberal writer’s voyage into self-reliance. Strauss grew up in Chicago where if you needed to fix something you called the building super, if you needed to defend yourself you called a cop. After 9/11 and Katrina he began to fear dying in a disaster. As a lefty, he feared that “Bushco” could somehow force into cattle cars and blamed Bush for a slow Katrina response. He wanted to do something that could help him avoid such a fate.

He looked for a way to get a second citizenship (and eventually succeeded) in case he needed to bolt the country. He realized that if he needed to do so, he would have to survive until he could make it to his second country. He began collecting information and attending classes.

Along the way, he learned that not everything was as it seemed. He learned in Los Angeles’s CERT training that government would take three or more days to really help people. So much for Bush and Katrina.

He decided he needed to learn how to shoot and went to Guncite for training. He wanted to learn how to live off the land and went to Tom Brown Jr.’s tracking school. He realized he might need to provide medical assistance to himself or others and became an Emergency Medical Technician. He learned knife skills and how to slaughter a goat.

Along the way, he found out that to become self-reliant he had to rely on many people who had the skills to teach him. He also became a better citizen. He became someone who could and did stop at an accident scene and give aid.

He never gave up on his politics and I no longer agree with those politics. Yes, I gave him a couple or few dollars when I bought his book, but he has lessons to teach.

Chief among these lessons is that you must learn to survive from other people. Books can only take you so far. As Tom Brown said (quoted on p.253), “You can walk into any store and there are buy five survival manuals you can buy that will kill you.”

It behooves anyone who is interested in learning what it takes to become a small-s survivalist to read this book. It outlines a journey that many of us could take if we had the time and money.

Re-Post of WinM-94 Parody

2009-04-07T13:13:00.003-04:00

I don't have time today to do a real blog post, work and all that. I am working on another "Gunnie Book Review," so please bear with me.

Thanks to Instapundit's link yesterday, a large (for us) number of visitors are seeing the Ten Ring for the first time. In lieu of new content, I want to re-post my favorite piece of writing. It has been lost in the dim reaches of time (2005, which in blog-years is practically the Middle Ages). This was a parody. Enjoy reading about the WinM-94, the newest, most deadly assault weapon to hit the market.

Power of New Media

2009-04-06T11:54:00.000-04:00

I have an example of the power of new media. Yosemite Sam and I have been blogging for about four years now. The Ten Ring has had a core of readers and I thank them for for their readership. Yesterday, SayUncle linked to a post I did on a TV show. Instapundit picked it up today probably from SayUncle. Now my SiteMeter is burning up. My first Instalanche. Thanks Glenn Reynolds.

So, we have a small blog and today we reached about 5,000 people and will be more by day's end. This new media has power and don't let newspaper editorialists convince you otherwise. After all, most of the newspapers have serious financial problems. One reason is that their readership is going to Instapundit and many other fine blogs. Newspapers lost out of new media, because they didn't act fast enough and when they did, they tried to force the old model on the new one.

Yosemite Sam and I used to post everyday, but due to new jobs, a move to the D.C. area, and other reasons we haven't posted as much. Still, there is good content here if you want to click around.

One regret, though, the post that Instapundit linked was one of those I tossed off in a few minutes unlike others that I have outlined, written, tweaked, edited, and then posted. It always seems to go that way.

Even on TV, Signs We Are Winning

2009-04-02T11:39:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you just know when we're winning. Last night, Yosemite Sam and I were bored and watched the NBC show “Life.” I’d seen it once before and knew it stars Damian Lewis who played Major Richard Winters of “Band of Brothers” fame. In “Life,” Lewis plays a Los Angeles police detective.

I dreaded what would come when Lewis and his partner are called to a missing woman report and find her dead in a hot tub. The dead woman was running for Senate on an anti-gun platform called Initiative .38 (also the name of the episode). Hence the dread—not another Hollywood anti-gun screed, thought I.

Yosemite and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. The detectives visit a gun maker’s office after being pointed there by the dead woman’s political operative, a rabid gun banner. To make a long story short, the female president of the gun company was innocent.

It turned out (spoiler alert--highlight for spoilers) that the political operative and the woman’s husband were guilty. He decided to run for Senate. He even destroyed the two guns he and the operative had used, among other guns, on television as a campaign stunt. Thus, the anti-gunners not the gun company president were the bad guys.

It is refreshing to see a show take a different tack. The link to “Life” above includes a way to play the episode. As I said, we are winning when even Hollywood doesn’t use trite anti-gun formulas.

Government Cheese

2009-03-30T10:59:00.000-04:00

I’ve had three different careers in my life. I’ve worked for government and private companies, big and small. I’ve been comfortable and I’ve been dirt poor. But, I’ve always refused to take a government handout.

When I was dirt poor, I ran a small business and did quite well at one time, but suffered an economic downturn in the early 1990s. I ended up making less than I needed to keep the business, my apartment, and buy food. Not a good feeling. In fact, I was eligible for food stamps, government business loans, and other help.

I never took anything, because I always feared the strings that came with that aid. I managed to close the business and sell the small assets I had. I kept body and soul together and soon found work elsewhere. If I’d truly faced starvation, I probably would’ve have taken food stamps and I can’t blame any one for taking them or unemployment insurance. That said, government largess is dangerous.

Taking government cheese becomes a way of life and government seems all too glad to help a person maintain that way of life. A person’s job, in effect, becomes going down to the local food stamp, TANF, Section 8 housing, or Social Security office to fill out paperwork and meet caseworkers.

I’ve seen web comments and posts that wondered if maybe Obama et. al. wants us all to take government cheese. If we do, we can be made tractable. We can be made to surrender gun rights to live in government housing. We can give up privacy for government health care. We can continue to vote in those who grant us such largess. Something to say for this conspiracy theory.

The current administration has been going on a corporate welfare binge to beat all binges. We’ve bailed out banks, auto companies, insurers, and more. Now, the gloves have come off and this administration is showing it wants control. They ordered GM to fire its Chief Executive Officer.

Where in the name of George Washington does the Constitution say that a president can fire a private citizen? What in anything Thomas Jefferson ever wrote or even read gives Obama the power to tell Chrysler that is has to merge with FIAT (same link)?

Let’s face it; this economic collapse was a way for this administration to seize unprecedented power by first giving out billions of our dollars and now pulling the strings. They built on the power that Bush added to the Executive Office and we are now facing a leviathan that could remake the country into its own image.

Beware of government cheese.

NRA Convention and Vacation

2009-03-27T09:49:00.002-04:00

I haven’t posted in awhile. I’ve been too angry to do much more than useless rants. I’m angry that the new administration has suggested a renewed AWB, but glad that Pelosi (of all people) slapped it down. I’m angry that the economy is faltering, that Obama insults Special Olympians, and so much more.

Anger makes good rants, but ranting gets tiring after a while. I’ve ranted many times to Yosemite Sam and vice versa. I’m tired of politics, tired of fighting for gun rights—something which shouldn’t have to be fought for at all. So, I’m going to talk about an upcoming trip.

Yosemite Sam and I are going to the NRA Convention in Phoenix. It will be the fifth straight convention we’ve blogged about. We plan to make a road trip out of it. We’ll go to Amarillo, Texas and visit the Big Texan Steakhouse. I won’t attempt the 72-ounce steak. I love steak, especially Porterhouse, but I know my limits.

We’ll visit Tombstone, Arizona and NRA's Whittington Center and do some shooting. Then we will attend the NRA Conference and meet the rest of the bloggers. The way home will also be interesting.

We’re planning a long trip and it will be unbelievably good to leave everything behind us. I only hope that we’ll have no new politics or gun rights infringements to rant about with each other on this much anticipated vacation.

Green Ammunition

2009-03-11T09:01:00.000-04:00

A few days back, CNN wrote a report about “green ammunition.” It was in their scary-titled “Planet in Peril” section.

I’m rather tired of all the scare nonsense, shouts of “we’re all going to die slowly and horribly because of….” Take your pick: global warming, global cooling, giant hurricanes, my washing machine. Lead in ammunition is just one more scary thing to add to a “Planet in Peril” list.

I’m not going to debate any of the so-called science in the article. I’m not qualified. I know that anti-gunnies use fear of lead to ban lead ammunition, making alternatives so expensive that no one would want to buy guns. Thus, I take any of the scientists’ quotes with a Red Sea worth of salt.

Unfortunately, anti-gunnies have seized on a germ of truth that makes this dangerous to gunowners--lead is toxic. They can harp on this and anything we say sounds defensive. Sigh.

There was one really interesting statistic though; Americans spent about $1.08 billion dollars on ammunition in 2008. This is truly big business and a vital sector of the economy. Way to go people. Let's strive for $1.2 billion in 2009.

Stop the Train and Let me Off

2009-03-08T12:35:00.001-04:00

This has been a strange few weeks. As someone once said, "It's a dark ride." I sit sometimes and stare at the news, at my savings accounts, at where our country is going. It all makes me want to hug myself and rock back and forth. The best reason I don't is fear I would never stop.

We have a president whose staff says he's overwhelmed and not getting enough rest. As if we couldn't see that one coming. Obama's executive experience could fill a thimble with room left in it for my finger.

Our nation's economy is tanking, taking away our life savings. I had a discussion with a few co-workers the other day. I wanted sympathy when I realized that I've lost about $10,000 in my 401(k). They had no sympathy for me. One co-worker is down $30,000 and another is down about $20,000. Somehow I felt better that I lost so little.

There are a few bright spots. Attorney General Eric Holder floated a Assault Weapons ban trial balloon and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi shot it down. Tickle me pink. I know it's not off the table, but it won't be on the agenda for awhile. My small amounts of silver and gold are worth much more than I paid for them (of course, I'm still buying more).

Here's the thing. I really am wishing the worse for this new, inexperienced, "progressive" president with whom American voters saddled us. He's proved who he is. He wants to radically remake America. He wants government to run/ruin health care, he supports bans on at least some guns, he wants to turn us into what he believes is a caring, sharing, better America.

I don't share his vision. I am a free woman and I stand or fall on my own labor and decisions. I don't want his health care. I don't want his "better America." So, let him and his vision for us fail. In fact, I want an epic fail.

So, what can I do? I can economically go "John Galt." That is, I can withhold the fruits of my labors. I can stop going to restaurants except when traveling. This will hurt the restaurateur, but it also denies the state government sales and meals taxes. I can reduce my spending to essentials like food, guns, ammo, and gold. By doing so, I will reduce the economy by a small amount. I will infinitesimally slow the velocity of money. If enough people do so, we may see a return to governmental sanity.

I never thought I'd want to see a president fail. I never thought I'd say, "I miss W." The administration is about six weeks old, what will I feel in six months or (tremble) six years?

Visit Early and Often

2009-02-18T09:30:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't been writing here much. I've had a lot on my plate. There's been travel to our place in New Hampshire, work, and assorted other stuff.

More importantly, my mother passed away more or less unexpectedly (she was 84, but in good physical health). We expect to lose parents eventually as we ourselves get older. It's the nature of things. But, we never really cope with losing the people in our lives.

I remember the good times and a few bad times with my Mom. I remember her fussing at me when I was an adolescent, being peeved when as an adult I didn't visit often enough, her joy at my little and big successes (including the shooting medals I won). I miss her.

I live across the nation from my parents. While I called Mom and Dad regularly, I didn't visit often. There was always a good excuse; press of career, cost of travel, sitting in a plane seat for six hours, and others. If your parents live close, go visit them and give them a hug. If they don't; plan a nice long vacation that includes them. They won't always be there.

Obama's versus Ayn Rand

2009-02-06T12:03:00.005-05:00

I hate when dystopian fiction comes to life. I mentioned recently that I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and felt that we were living in the sad parts of it.

When I read this editorial by David Harsanyi today her magnum opus sprung to mind. The editorial is about Obama's recent directive that holds executive pay at $500,000 if they accept a government bailout.

As Harsanyi points out, you might think this is morally right, but "Why did we just allow the president to dictate the pay of private citizens working in the private sector?" How does Obama have the right do to this?

Here's the Rand connection. An increasingly desperate government launched an economic directive in an effort to end an economic mess they had brought about. This was called Directive 10-289. Another blogger very kindly wrote it all out, saving me the effort.

Here is Point Seven:

All wages, prices, salaries, dividends, profits, interest rates and forms of income of any nature whatsoever, shall be frozen at their present figures, as of the date of this directive.

How long will it be before the rest of Directive 10-289 is promulgated in real life? Jeez, I really hate it when I live in dystopian fiction. I only wish it were fiction.

"You Shot My Dogs"

2009-02-04T08:50:00.003-05:00

In the four years that I've been blogging, I don't think I ever did a "read the whole thing" post with just a link. There's always a first. Be sure to read this article; a follow up on this summer's report about a botched SWAT raid. SWAT invaded a Maryland mayor's house, shot their dogs, and terrorized the mayor and his mother-in-law. There is no other description for what happened in that house on that sunny day.

Especially infuriating is this comment from a police chief, "...our people did not know that this was the home of the mayor and his family until after the fact." That is almost an admission that they would've treated a mayor differently than you and me if they had only known.

These raids must stop.

Ted, White, and Blue: A Gunnie Book Review

2009-01-28T10:00:00.001-05:00

Ted Nugent has done it again. He’s written another book with a subtitle of “The Nugent Manifesto.” If you don’t know Ted Nugent, where’ve you been living for the last thirty-some years? He’s a rock star best know for “Cat Scratch Fever,” a bowhunter with several TV shows in his quiver (couldn’t resist), and a gun advocate sitting on the NRA’s Board of Directors.

He’s not for everyone. He has an over the top writing and speaking style that is often blasted by liberals and gun banners. I’ve heard him talk at NRA conventions and don’t always agree with the way he puts things, but I can’t say he’s wrong either.

So, I gave Ted, White, and Blue a read. Surprisingly, he somewhat toned down his gonzo, balls to the wall style. Don't worry, he still speaks his mind and pulls no punches, but he wants people to read his book.

The book's been out a few months now. He wrote the book before the election and there are parts that are now a little dated (current events sure move fast). Still, there’s a lot in here that is not dependent on what’s in the news cycle right this minute.

He stays away, for the most part, from gun rights and covers topics that include health care policies, obesity, immigration, fighting terrorism, and other subjects.

He comes down on the side of personal responsibility, except he blames parents of obese children for turning their kids into, “pathetic fat zombies in front of the garbage videobox….” He believes that you need to step away from the doughnut, and that you should pay for your own health care. Fiscally, he wants Uncle Sam to go on a diet as well.

He says forthrightly that, “The people who enter America illegally have committed a crime. That makes them criminals…” He wants them treated as such and shown the door. He believes the War on Terror should be fought hard.

He discusses other hot button issues such as global warming, energy sources, and many more topics. He is advocating something quite radical and yet traditional at the same time. He wants government to leave us alone, he wants every one to succeed on their own merits, he wants secure borders.

On top of all this, he buys ammo by the pallet load. Take a second and re-read the last sentence—pallet load, I am so envious.

I’ve said many times that I want government to leave me alone. I don’t want a government that will take away guns, nor have one that will tell me to go to church. Nugent and I see eye to eye on those points and more. I don’t think I would ever call people “land whales” or say fat “…kids look like miniature versions of Michael Moore.” (Shudder). But that’s just me.

Don't it make my Red State Blue

2009-01-14T11:59:00.005-05:00

Sebastian has a link to a story about how California is losing population quicker than mercury drops when Al Gore enters the room.
He goes on to note that these recent residents of the Golden State often bring their big government, blue state mentalities to their newly adopted states. Then we see the phenomenon of a staunchly red state turning purple then finally blue. The lists of states where this has happened is legion. Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Washington State, New Hampshire..on and on.

This has been going on for years.

Some may remember when Connecticut was staunchly Republican. It's ironic to know that Connecticut was one of the few states to not go to FDR in 1932. Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were the only other states to resist the clarion call to Socialism in 1932. These all went for Obama in 2008. So much for granite-ribbed, Conservative New England. It is as dead as the dodo.

How does this happen?

Well, here's what I think:

I don't think it is anything intentional on the part of the people who move to more free states like NH, Montana, Nevada, Arizona etc.; it is more that they have grown accustomed to the services that big government provides.

Case in point:

A lot of rural and not so rural New Hampshire town do not provide curb side trash collection. You take your stuff down to the town dump and get rid of it yourself. This keeps government small and taxes low. The thing these new people don't understand is that to keep taxes low, you have to do without A LOT of government services. That means no curb side trash collection, no new million dollar school buildings, no new libraries......

But they are used to and want these things and thus vote for the politicians that inevitably spring up and say they will give them what they want. These politicians are invariably Democratic.

All of a sudden a red state is purple then blue.

And a lot of new citizens of the formerly low tax red state are scratching their heads and wondering why their tax bills are so high.

Unfortunately, this is why expanding or even keeping and maintaining a culture of self reliant limited government is so daunting. The fact is that the vast majority of people do not want to be self reliant. They don't want to pay high taxes, but they want the services that big government provides. But when it gets down to brass tacks, they will pay the high taxes to get the services. Until this changes, we will continue to have this problem.

One More Week

2009-01-13T14:30:00.000-05:00

Next Tuesday, President-Elect Obama moves to the Oval Office. Last week, gun bloggers were concerned about a report from The Shooting Wire that the new administration would almost immediately pass an “assault weapons” ban (AWB).

I’ve long believed that will happen. Even though I’ve been somewhat relieved by most of Obama’s cabinet picks and other signs that he may not rule from the left, I believe that an AWB is in the offing. Obama has even promised to enact an AWB, but he doesn’t say when. Obama’s followers will force the issue maybe sooner than Obama would like. They can’t help themselves.

Most people on the left don’t understand guns. Most of them don’t want us to educate them, don’t want to accept our offers teaching them to shoot, don’t want to listen to logical arguments, don’t want to accept that gun ownership is a matter of choice. For too many of them, it’s a spiritual mantra, “Guns are bad, um mani om, guns kill, um mani om.”

There’s no reasoning with gun banners. I’ve spent a lot of time among people who want to ban certain or all guns. I’ve talked to other people who think that citizens should be able to own any gun they want so long as they’re not “assault weapons,” handguns, or .50 caliber guns. Their minds are closed.

We gunnies are very different from gun banners. When we pick up an AR-15 we see a finally crafted machine. They imagine war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam, but in our streets.

When we shoot at a paper target, they imagine ragged holes in flesh. When we point out the .223 round is a relatively weak round they imagine “high-powered death lightning.” When we see accuracy, they imagine sniping from the rooftops.

When we pick up a semi-auto AK-47, we see history and crude, but effective engineering. They imagine dead Africans, child soldiers, and gang-bangers killing citizens in Miami (even though rifles are used in about 3% of murders).

When we discuss action pistol competition, they imagine fat white guys wearing camo in a “compound.”

Gun banners can’t accept that we like guns. They want to ban them all especially black rifles, which they view as “weapons of war.” They think they’re creating a better society, but we know that it’ll end in tyranny. Sadly, they can’t help themselves.

Manly Guns II

2009-01-08T10:20:00.001-05:00

As Josh indicated in comments to my last post, "Crazy Einar" posted a new list of manly guns (at least they're new to me). This one includes the famous M1 Garand as the second most manly gun. The manliest is the Browning M1919A4 belt-fed machine gun. No argument from me on that score.

This new list includes several esoteric guns. I've never heard of the .600 Overkill cartridge. I'd like to shoot one but only if someone's available to re-socket my shoulder joint.

Yosemite Sam and I own five of the guns on the list and, no, we don't own a Browning M1919A4. More's the pity. Once again Crazy Einar has created a very interesting and enjoyable list.

Crazy Einar identified himself this time as Michael Z. Williamson. Knock me over with a feather. I've read his Freehold series of books and enjoyed them immensely. They're good gunnie reads. There are several other books listed in his site's bibliography that I haven't read. I sense an Amazon order in my future.

Manly Guns

2009-01-07T13:57:00.002-05:00

Via Say Uncle, we get a list of the manliest firearms written by “Crazy Einar.” It’s an excellent list as these things go. I do have some quibbles about it though.

The M1 Garand must be included. One of the manliest men ever, George Patton, called it the greatest battle implement man has ever made. Our soldiers used it to defeat the Germans, Italians, and Japanese. It shoots a 30.06 round, which is loud, hard-hitting, hard-recoiling and, well, manly. I would replace the Swiss K31 with the Garand. Now, I like the Swiss rifle. We own one and have shot it often. It’s a great gun, but something has to give.

I‘m tempted to suggest replacing the S & W Model 29 with that company’s .500 Magnum. After all, the .500 is now the most powerful handgun in the world. It fires a truly manly handgun round. I’ve shot one a few times in an indoor range and everyone stops to see what the big noise is all about. And its recoil is not for the faint of heart. However, Dirty Harry used the Model 29 and for that reason alone must stay on the list.

I’m not a fan of Glocks, but that’s just me and would leave it on the list. Now if 1911s were not on the list (number 2 no less), I’d be spilling many more pixels.

Oh, and just a word about this manly thing. As a member of the estrogen persuasion, I accept and understand the description “manly” in regards to these guns. These are no-nonsense weapons designed to kick enemy/bad guy ass. Ass-kicking is usually associated with manliness. But let’s never forget that women can kick ass should the need arise. Boadicea (now spelled Boudica for some reason) comes to mind as does any woman protecting her children.

Finally, Yosemite Sam and I own eight of the listed guns. We don’t own the Model 29 or the Barrett M82 .50 cal. If the government should ban this rifle, we’ll dip way down into our various bank accounts and buy one before it’s illegal to do so (possibly not that particular model, but one almost as manly). As far as the Model 29, I’m not in the market, but I’ve drooled over S & W .500 Magnums many times. Who knows, maybe one might follow me home.

Hearing while Shooting, Part II

2009-01-05T15:53:00.000-05:00

Yosemite Sam and I are back at work after taking almost two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's. It was damn hard to get up this morning and make my commute to work. I'd forgotten what 5:30am looked like.

While vacationing, we ended up at a Cabela's and I bought a pair of electronic earmuffs. I blogged that I'm hard of hearing and missed a crucial range command. Many of you gave me some good advice about products. Joel mentioned the Sonic II earplugs. Yosemite Sam and I already own the plugs, but they don't help me at all. They work great for Yosemite though.

I bought a middle of the road pair in terms of cost. They're a pair of Howard Leight Sport Impact muffs, which Jed recommended in the comments to the post above. I haven't tried them out at the range, but I put them on for a few minutes while watching TV. They amplify sound very well. They take two AAA batteries (thanks to Joe who pointed out that batteries are a cost factor).

Thanks to everyone who shared their advice. I'll let you know how they do at the range particularly how well they block loud sounds.

Four Years Ago Today

2008-12-29T09:56:00.001-05:00

How about that? The Ten Ring is four years old today. Four years ago, I had this insane notion of tossing my words into the ether and Yosemite Sam didn't yell stop. In fact, he came along for the ride.

We have met bloggers and other people we would never have met. We have enjoyed the ride and plan to continue. Who knows, you may one day read an eighth anniversary post. How about that?

Post-Christmas

2008-12-28T18:38:00.001-05:00

Yosemite Sam and I are on our mini-vacation. Needless to say we are enjoying the relaxation and getting away from it all, I am using my Blackberry, so this will be short.

Santa was good to us. Yosemite got a sextant. He is a surveyor and cartographer, so it is right up his alley.

I got one of those flintlock pistol kits. I like working with my hands and have tools and equipment left over from when I did art and object conservation. I've also heard building one of those is an excellent way to understand how guns work.

Enough for now--my thumbs are cramping.

Merry Chirstmas and Happy Holidays

2008-12-25T00:15:00.000-05:00

I wanted to wish any one who reads one or all of our posts a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a fabulous New Years.

Yosemite Sam and I are on an all too brief vacation and will continue to blog. Our posts will be short because I'll be blogging from my Blackberry. My thumbs aren't very fast. So enjoy your holidays and if you're traveling keep safe and here's hoping you don't get stuck in an airport.

Hearing while Shooting

2008-12-23T15:05:00.001-05:00

Yosemite Sam and I are getting ready for our holidays. We're taking a mini-vacation and plan on getting a little shooting done.

Speaking of shooting, we went to the range last Sunday. While there, I learned that I have to do something about my hearing loss. I was eight-years old when I started shooting. I shot outdoors, but without hearing protection. It just wasn't done back in those caveman days. Since then, I'm religious about making sure I wear plugs or muffs in or around my ears. Still, I'm hard of hearing (ask Yosemite Sam about my preferred TV volume setting).

What happened at the range you ask? Well, I was practicing bullseye shooting and in my defense I was deep in the zone. I had blocked out the rifle shooter on one side of me, the rapid-fire pistol shooter on the other side, and even my dear Yosemite Sam. The range officer called a cease fire and guess what, I was still potting away at my target. Yosemite had to get right up to the back of my head and yell "cease fire."

With that, my gun went to the table and my hands went up. I wondered what had gone wrong and to my relief found out it was no worse than a target carrier that had fallen and the range staff needed to repair it. No harm done, but I still feel bad. I know that when anyone calls a cease fire, it must be immediate and unquestioned.

I'm going to need muffs that block loud noises, but allows one to hear normal speech. I've seen ads for these electronic things, but have never tried them (they're a little spendy). Can anyone recommend a specific brand or model and mention how well they work? Thanks in advance.

Is John Galt at Work

2008-12-17T14:35:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe it's been a week since I last posted and I was doing so good for awhile. Work has been picking up...yadda, yadda, yadda.

Here's something that struck me enough to grab the keyboard and bang away. Have you ever had an experience of reading a novel and thinking that the plot is unfolding in reality?

I've been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (link below, and since Rand was a capitalist, I get a small cut if you buy it using my link). Politically, I'm a small "l" libertarian who wants to be left alone, so I was aware of Rand's books, but never picked one up. Dr. Helen's blog post on going John Galt inspired me to buy a copy and I finally cracked it open last week.

If you've ever read the book you'll know that it's comprised of over 1100 pages of closely printed text. It has long paragraphs of densely reasoned ideology that Rand puts into the mouths of her characters. That said, somehow the story and building suspense carries you along fairly fast.

John Galt is one of the three main heroes of the book. Galt has decided that society is irredeemable and that the "people of the mind;" that is, those who produce and use their minds to build bridges, railroads, and steel mills should go on strike by withdrawing their abilities from society.

Galt and others are tired of taxes, regulations, unions, social experiments (paying people based on need, not on ability). Many of America's brightest industrialists along with a musician, judge, movie star, and others withdraw. The society begins to collapse although the strikers give it a shove every now and then to hasten its fall.

That's what struck me: Is John Galt(ism) already at work? Look at the crap around us today.

Industrialists move production overseas for cheaper wages and less regulation;
Three car companies are failing partly because of union/retiree contracts;
Laws encourage risky mortgage loans;
People feel that they're owed a living simply by being born;
Our roads are falling apart;
and more.

Of course, our economy and society is no where near to the collapse depicted in Atlas Shrugged, but one still wonders. It's a good read, slow in places, but something that will raise many thoughts as you read it.

The scariest thought I had while reading the book: what if the best and brightest are going on strike and John Galt didn't invite me.

Call a Waammbulance

2008-12-10T09:25:00.003-05:00

The New York Times editorial board has thrown itself a crying fit over the new rule that permits concealed carry in the National Parks. It drips with condescension. Here’s a couple of quotes:

“Anticipating what Barack Obama has called “common-sense gun safety laws,” the Bush administration has rushed through a last-minute gun rule that is the antithesis of common sense.”

It doesn’t discuss why lawful carry of a gun in wilderness is not common sense. I grew up in the West where there are four and two-legged predators. My family always had guns in our camping gear. Parks are comparatively safe and one may never need a gun, but my house is safe and I may never need fire insurance. I still pay for it though.

“The presence of concealed, loaded weapons is likely to change that [safe parks], and it also is likely to pose an increased threat to wildlife.”

The rule change doesn’t change criminal behavior it only allows concealed carry permitees who meet certain conditions to carry a gun in a park. These permitees are among the most law-abiding people in the country. They won’t be shooting indiscriminately or poaching.

Finally here’s the kicker:

“Unfortunately, far too many states have laws that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons. But no one should misinterpret those laws as the will of the people. They too are the will of the N.R.A., which has done everything in its power to force dangerous gun laws through one State Legislature after the next.”

State after state has passed concealed carry laws. In each state, anti-gunners claimed there would be “blood on the streets,” “Dodge City shootouts,” and deadly road rage. None of that has happened. While we can’t prove that crime has not gone down because of these laws, we can show it has not gone up. There is no evidence that these are “dangerous gun laws.”

I don’t know if concealed carry is the “will of the people.” I don’t know how to determine that other than pointing out that legislatures have passed these laws. I believe permitless concealed carry is optimal, but with the current system we prove every day that “the people” have nothing to fear from permitees.

Being able to carry a gun even with a permit is a liberty. I thought liberal editorial boards supported the increase of personal liberty. I guess, not where guns are concerned.

100 Things Meme

2008-12-09T15:10:00.001-05:00

I have nothing today, thanks to meetings and other fun at work. Someone did ask me to do the 100 questions thing in an e-mai. Curious people sometimes get answers so here goes:

100 things I've done - items I have done are in bold

1. Started your own blog. (Duh)
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band. If a high school band counts.
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity. Some time ago anyway.

7. Been to Disneyland. When I was little and to Disney World too, but not to Epcot.

8. Climbed a mountain. If smallish mountains in New Hampshire (in a car), Texas, and the highest point in Florida counts.
9. Held a praying mantis. Yick, no—ever see a close up photo of one of those things.
10. Sang a solo. When younger and in church and I am not a singer—can’t carry a tune in a box.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris. I’ve been there several times and want to go back.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch. I can write and draw a bit, but I am not accomplished.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning. That would be the great shrimp incident of 1992—I still have memory of that misery.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France. Yosemite Sam and I went to the Louvre on a winter evening and were the only people in the room with Mona Lisa.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch-hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill. But, don’t tell anyone….
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb. In a petting zoo, if that counts.
26. Gone skinny dipping. Alright I admit it, now get your minds out of the gutter.
27. Run a Marathon. Are you freaking kidding me!!!
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run. In softball in high school.
32. Been on a cruise.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Seen an Amish community. Not up close, but traveled through them.
36. Taught yourself a new language. I taught myself French, went to France, came back and hired a tutor for my next trip, enough said.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied. I am in that position now and happy with what I have (I will accept any and all raises though).
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo's David.
41. Sung karaoke. See #10 for my singing abilities.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance. I've been lucky.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling. The latter not the former.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business. An art conservation studio.
58. Taken a martial arts class. I’ve taken more than one.
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Got flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma. Not for awhile though.
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67. Bounced a check. A long time ago in college.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London.
77. Broken a bone. I had a greenstick fracture in my arm and my nose has been broken twice (should have ducked).
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle. Been on, but not driving it.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating. Fairly often.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury. I served on a sexual abuse of a child case, one of the most intense experiences in my life.
91. Met someone famous. Several, but they would have no memory of me (including Fred Thompson, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Frank Church, Dirk Kempthorne, and a few others).
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one. Grandparent and I dread the day I lose my parents.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake. When I was little.
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone. You have to ask nowadays, how about “Owned a land-line phone.”
99. Been stung by a bee.
100. Read an entire book in one day.

I'm not going to tag anyone with this. The list is interesting though and it reminded me of the many phases of my life and the things I still want to do. There are a few though I don't want to do at all such as being involved in a law suit, being in an ambulance, and holding a praying mantis.

Reading Stephen Hunter

2008-12-04T13:40:00.001-05:00

This isn’t a book review mainly because I haven’t finished the book yet, but I’m reading Stephen Hunter’s The 47th Samurai now. I got introduced to Mr. Hunter’s novels after I saw the movie Shooter and reviewed the book here. After that, I started reading more of Hunter’s work.

In case you don’t know, Hunter is a movie reviewer for the Washington Post. He once wrote spy/war novels and then invented the character of Bob Lee Swagger and later his father, Earl Swagger. Earl won the Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima and served as an Arkansas state trooper (no spoilers, but Earl died young). Bob Lee was a master sniper in Vietnam.

Both characters are fascinating individuals and I grew to like them a lot, even though Hunter’s novels are far removed from other genres I love (literary fiction, certain chick-lit, sci-fi in particular). I waited for The 47th Samurai to come out in paper and wish now that I had just bought when it first came out in hardback.

As the title implies, Bob Lee Swagger is in Japan. Earl had captured a Japanese sword that proves to be important to a businessman who is tied to Yakuza gangsters. Swagger returns the sword to a family who is later slaughtered. He must fight the Yakuza as a blood-debt to the family. He learns rudimentary sword skills and couples that with his determination and honor.

I’m reading the book with a fine “suspension of disbelief.” Swagger is a master with guns and I doubt one could master the sword as fast as he does—even though Hunter takes pains to depict Swagger as being very lucky. That said it’s a good read and an excellent way to spend some entertainment hours.

Stimulating the Economy

2008-12-03T15:30:00.000-05:00

As it always does, the news cycle has moved on. There are few articles written with indignant tones about crazed gun owners buying guns, ammo, and magazines. Of course, people are still buying and the news cycle may cover it again, but for now it’s quiet.

Yosemite Sam and I gladly helped stimulate the economy. We bought some ammo, a few magazines, and three rifles.

We felt that Obama would win the election, particularly when the economy so dramatically tanked. On Columbus Day, Yosemite Sam bought a Dragunov-type rifle and I bought an AR-15 rifle. When we were in New Hampshire this past weekend, I saw another rifle that anti-gunners hate, an SKS.

Well, it followed me home. The one I bought was made in the former Soviet Union’s Izhevsk arsenal during 1954. It's a welcome addition to the collection even though Yosemite Sam owns another Russian SKS.

Obama may not lead an anti-gun campaign (remains to be seen), but our foes in Congress and the bureaucracy will be heartened. It would only take certain interpretations of existing laws to slow or stop imports of ammo and guns. It would only take passing and signing of a law banning sales of black rifles. It wouldn’t take much to damage our gun rights.

That’s why Yosemite and I decided to spend about $2,500.00 of our hard-earned money on three rifles and other items. They were rifles we had talked about buying anyway, so we can thank the incoming administration for motivating us. And, here they are with a bonus close up of the SKS.

Home and Mumbai Ramblings

2008-12-02T14:04:00.002-05:00

Yosemite Sam and I returned from New Hampshire on Sunday. Traffic was unbelievable that day and the wet weather didn’t help. We helped support out our favorite gun shop in New Hampshire. I’ll be posting more on that tomorrow when I can download pictures from the camera. Let’s just say, something followed us home.

I wanted to say something about the Mumbai incident. I probably have nothing here that you already haven't read, but here goes.

Every gun or suicide-belt attack illustrates how a defensive posture doesn’t work. My point does not include just terrorists, but also rampage shooters, angry spouses, and even garden variety armed robbers. Our leaders hope to defeat these people by giving us security theater. They ban guns from civilian carry in public places, they set up metal detectors, have unarmed guards check luggage and IDs, write security manuals. Then they tell us we’re safer.

Such defensive postures are an illusion. Granted, they may make car bombings more difficult if vehicles are kept back from buildings by barricades or building design. But, all the metal detectors in the world won’t stop a woman wearing a suicide belt, or a man with a gun.

The only thing that stops these attacks is the death of the would-be attacker. The only way to affect that death is to have armed people on the scene. Those people could be police or military, but there aren't enough of them to protect every possible target.

Armed citizens can help. They couldn't prevent all deaths, they may even accidentally shoot an innocent person (police or military could do so as well), but overall they could reduce the carnage by applying controlled and justified violence. In all events, it’s better to have people fight than cower under a table waiting for that fatal bullet.

It’s a sad thing to write that. I’d prefer to live in a world with puppies and unicorns where no violence is done to others for good or evil reasons. I don’t live in that world and neither do you.

It is time to realize that all the security at airports and in our buildings cannot make us safe. It may have a role to play, but without enough armed citizens who by definition are at possible targets at all times, there is no real safety.

If I ruled America, I’d ensure that Americans had access to good training and ranges for practice. I don’t and the security theater will remain our paradigm.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T21:32:00.001-05:00

Yosemite Sam and I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are home in New Hampshire and it is good to be here. Yosemite Sam loves how quiet it is. Our cat loves being able to go upstairs and be away from the dog.

I cooked a small meal with some traditional elements. We called family. In short, we had a great day. It is good to be away from thinking about politics, work, and other stuff.

We took that civics test that many people are talking (no link, not sure how to do links on a Blackberry). Yosemite Sam got every one right and I missed one. I noticed these results are similar to other gun bloggers and commenters. Not too bad for a bunch of cousin-loving, redneck, bitter clingers. The average on the web site was about 78 per cent.

Over The River

2008-11-26T11:10:00.001-05:00

Well, I tried to blog yesterday, but I am taking today off and the boss kept tossing stuff on my desk to get done before my mini-vacation.

Of course I could have blogged from home, but packing took precedence. I am posting this from Yosemite Sam's truck from my Blackberry (phone-blogging, is this a great country or what).

We're on our way home to New Hampshire where we will eat, shoot our new and old guns, and have fun. Talk to you all later.

A Gun Nut Weekend

2008-11-23T13:09:00.000-05:00

Yosemite Sam and I were busy enjoying our gun-nuttiness to its fullest. That also means that we spent more money than we planned. Oh well, such is life. After all, what’s the point of working if you can’t spend the proceeds of that work on something you enjoy?

Friday night, Yosemite Sam and I joined yet another gun club, an Izaak Walton League Chapter here in Maryland. The chapter is also engaged in conservation work, supporting fishing and hunting rights, and other good works. All in all, we believe it’s a good fit. Still a year’s worth of membership and initiation fees does make the pocketbook a bit lighter.

Saturday, we went to the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly, VA (thanks to Matt at Armed Canadian for offering to pick stuff up early for us—we saw his comment to this post too late to take him up on it).

Yesterday was cold with a raw wind. We arrived at the Dulles Expo Center around 10:30and faced full parking lots. After parking, we stood outside in line for about 15 minutes with the wind chapping our faces, the concrete chilling our feet. We paid the $12.00 each admission fee and roamed around.

We bought some books, several magazines for our ARs and a semi-auto handgun of mine. We didn’t buy ammo partly because we had recently bought some and because they had few individual boxes. Dealers had good supplies of 1000 round cases of .223, but we’re waiting for pay day and we’ll be in tax-free New Hampshire over Thanksgiving (wink wink.

We saw lots of guns in this huge show. Dealers showed $25,000 muskets, and $25,000 Thompson submachine guns (not the same dealers). Disturbingly, there was no beef jerky. Sad, but true. Ammo dealers and black rifle dealers were doing a brisk business.

We saw media camera crews interviewing dealers and customers. I hope they don’t focus on militaria vendors with their German helmets and swastikas, but that’s probably too much to hope for. We witnessed the humanity that you see at guns shows; ordinary people who simply like to shoot and go to a gun show for wide selections of guns, gear, and accessories all at 15% included.

In short, we came home poorer, tired, and today I am reading about the competitive AR-15, one of the books I bought at the show.

Sad Commentary

2008-11-20T10:58:00.003-05:00

In going through the referrals in Sitemeter, I noticed a sad commentary on today’s attitude toward gunnies. A Google searcher was looking for how society views people who choose “riflery.” I may be reading too much into it, or even reading it wrong (see screenshot and you can interpret it as you wish).

At one time in America owning a rifle and mastering it was not something that you would even question. For various reasons people valued those skills. The book I reviewed here has a chapter on a famous rifle match in the 1800s held at Creedmoor and how the public was entranced with the plucky American team.

It’s a shame that nowadays we even after worry about society’s attitude toward us. It’s even worse that we have to worry about gun bans and other such nonsense. Life in America today. Sigh.

Voting with Our Pocketbooks

2008-11-19T11:28:00.002-05:00

We have all read of increases in gun, ammo, and accessories sales. Stores are running out of guns, prices are going up, magazines are getting hard to find. The anti-gun people are fuming in numerous editorials and on places like Democratic Underground.

I believe most of the increase stems from concerns that the incoming administration will pass laws that ban sales of black rifles, ban sales of normal capacity magazines, and who knows what they might pass to decrease ammo sales.

The best way to let the incoming administration know how we feel is to continue “voting with our pocketbooks.” When people open up their wallets and plunk down $1,000.00 for a rifle, $100.00 for magazines, and $200.00 for ammo it means that people are serious about owning all three. It means more guns in American hands. It means that enforcing future bans will be a nightmare.

Today is National Ammo Day. If you can’t buy ammo today, get out this weekend and buy at least 100 rounds. In Michael Bane’s words, “Buy, Buy, Buy.”

Yosemite Sam and I are going to a gun show in Virginia this weekend and we’ll be buying magazines (if available) and more ammo. Who knows, maybe another booomstick will follow us home.

Fudds Redux

2008-11-18T11:35:00.004-05:00

(NOTE: Yosemite Sam put up a post on this subject just as I was finishing this one. Rather than toss it in the bit bucket, here it is.)

Bill Schneider has gone and started the whole Fudd thing up again. We all know what a Fudd is. Well, don’t we? Just in case, “Fudd” is derived from Elmer Fudd the hapless hunter of Bugs Bunny. It often describes people who are lukewarm on at least some aspects of gun rights, but could mean more depending on the reader.

I think the name Fudd is too encompassing to be useful. Yosemite Sam said recently “Fuck the Fudds” a sentiment not well received by some. By Fudds, Yosemite didn't mean all hunters, bullseye shooters, silhouette shooters, or others who don’t do “tactical.” Instead he defined Fudds as those gun owners who actively work against gun rights—or at least rights to own some guns (see comment #14).

Schneider went ahead and proved Yosemite right. He said, “Losing some of my gun rights doesn’t make my top twenty concerns. If that makes me a ‘traitor,’ well, we have a pandemic of treason in this country.” He would gladly trade some of his gun rights in order to have Obama fight corporate greed, homelessness, and stop “unwinnable” wars. He even takes us to task for saying we would not buy from Cooper Firearms because company president Dan Cooper supported Obama.

Have you noticed that when union members or others on the left agree not to spend their hard-earned money for a cause it’s noble. When gun owners do it, it’s somehow “a mean-spirited attack” (yes Schneider said that).

I have no argument against Fudds if it means only hunters. Yosemite Sam and I hunt and often have as much luck in the field as good ole Elmer had against Bugs. But I do have plenty to say, none of it nice, about gun owners who would throw me and mine under the bus.

These gun owners aren’t Fudds, they’re turncoats who want to register/license guns, ban black rifles or handguns, and support “common-sense restrictions.” We have enough of these laws that don’t work.

Here’s a big difference between them and me. You see, I’ll gladly protect their rights to own an over/under shotgun and a scoped Cooper rifle. In fact, I own guns that the Fuddiest Fudd would love. But, they’re willing to ban other guns that I own and like to shoot.

Oh, Schneider also took the NRA to task and believes that 99% of us gun nuts belong to it. Let's prove him right. If you're not a member, clicky.

There’s a gun show coming up, I think I need more magazines, ammo, maybe another black rifle. Hmmm….

Fudd the Fudds

2008-11-18T09:52:00.007-05:00

Sebastian has a short post that questions the use of this term. What can I say, I disagree. I think the word Fudd is a useful term for the subset of hunters who just don't get it and will gleefully vote for someone like Obama and throw every other shooter under the bus as long as they get to keep their precious hunting rifles and shotguns.

As I said in a comment on his blog:

I for one have never seen the term Fudd ever used as a general term for all hunters. If that was the case, I would be a Fudd as well. I just can’t get with the program of making nice with a group(Fudd’s & western Democrats) who hold my rights in disdain and tell me that the government would never take away my guns(unless I own a military style “assault weapon” or a handgun or a bb gun or ……).

We (the non-Fudd's) didn't create the wedge in the shooting community. I have absolutely no problem with them as long as they leave me and mine alone. But they don't want to do that. They have been selling our rights down the river for the last 40 years and I for one have no desire to play nice-nice with them.

How many of you out there have a story about a Fudd at the gun club that was giving you crap because of your black rifle or your less than pricey shotgun? I bet just about everyone has a story.

Maybe when Fudds stop looking down on the rest of the shooting community as nothing more than dog shit on their shoes, I can make nice. Anyone see that happening anytime soon?

American Rifle: A Biography (Gunnie Book Review)

2008-11-14T10:40:00.001-05:00

Alexander Rose is an American-born military historian who grew up in Australia, was educated in Great Britain, once lived in Canada, now lives in New York, and a former journalist. He wrote American Rifle as a biography of well, American rifles. Given his own mini-biography (see his website) you might think we would decry the role of rifles in America (given that there is an “America Sucks” school of history).

Instead, Rose has maintained an admirable objectivity. He concerns himself primarily with military rifles. Sometimes he makes room for discussions of what was going on in the civilian market, but mainly as that market would then or later affect the military.

American Rifle opens with a vignette. In 1772, Charles Wilson Peale is painting a portrait of the youngish George Washington who insisted that a rifle be included in the background. The book then backtracks into earlier history of the rifle. Later, Rose states that Washington learned to appreciate rifles as an Indian fighter on the colonial frontier.

Washington became the model of what Rose describes as the tension between sharpshooting and mass firing philosophies. As commander of the colonial forces during the American Revolution, Washington at first stressed aimed fire by small bands of marksmen. He learned that battle still had to be joined with soldiers bearing muskets (in fact, the army had too many rifles and scrambled to find muskets). The conflict between marksmanship and mass-firing continued to affect rifle development throughout United States history.

Rose names the advocates of marksmanship the “progressives” (no relation to people who use the name today) who believed that war could be fought by small cadres of marksmen who would surgically destroy an enemy through long-range carefully aimed shots. He names the mass-firing disciples the “diehards” who believed in throwing a great deal of lead while fighting at closer ranges—much like 18th century lines of musket wielding troops who pointed their weapons but did not aim them.

Rose discusses the development of most of America’s military rifles and shows how the tension between progressives and diehards explain some truly surprising choices in military rifles. For instance, after the Civil War the Ordnance Department believed the “Trapdoor” Springfield had reached the absolute zenith of accuracy and fire discipline. Small bands of marksmen could use it to hit officers and enemy soldiers at 1,000 yards. In this context, former Union officers and others formed the National Rifle Association to increase marksmanship and lead the way to such a military.

Unfortunately for progressives, soldiers experienced something quite different in the Indian Wars. Instead, Indians attacked quickly and tried to get among the soldiers. The soldiers needed repeating rifles that could throw a lot of lead. They pushed the military to consider repeating arms such as the Winchester and others.

Slowly, the army began to adopt repeaters, but even as late as 1900 kept a magazine cut-off that would force a soldier to load one cartridge at a time (as on the 1903 Springfield rifle). Another five rounds were kept in “reserve” in the internal magazine.

Today, we still have arguments between very accurate guns and rapid-firing guns and tactics that take advantage of one or both (see the chapter on the M-14 versus the M-16 especially).

I wish Rose had included more discussion of civilian guns. Granted, most civilian makers have tried to get the military interested in their guns. Also, military developments certainly impact the civilian market (less so now with banning civilian ownership and development of new fully-auto rifles).

American Rifle explains how our rifles came into being. It describes the successful innovations and the failures. It shows that their development was not just one straight line from the Kentucky Rifle to the M4 Carbine. At any point, another road could have been taken. It tells of lost opportunities such as the early breechloader invented by John H. Hall. It is well written and a valuable addition to any gunnie’s library.

Remember what I said about Fudds(or Blue Dogs)

2008-11-13T12:47:00.002-05:00

via Sebastian, we have a new name to add to the growing list of so-called pro-gun, Obama supporting Democrats.

John Patrick Williams is a former Congressman from Montana who wrote another one of those screeds about how I support gun rights, but the NRA is now so radical and partisan and Obama isn't going to take your guns.

They must have a form letter keyed up on the server at the DNC.

He starts by asserting his pro-gun creds:

"During my nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, I had a 100 percent
voting record with the National Rifle Association. Not once did I vote for gun
control; ..."

He goes on to say how the NRA endorsed him in each of his elections.

Now we come to the BUT.

"Thus, I have been both saddened and alarmed to watch that organization's
three-decade-long lurch toward the political Far Right"

But they still supported him, a Democrat and they still support pro-gun Democrats, like Dan Boren from Oklahoma who spoke at the 2008 NRA convention.

He goes on:

"The organization's primary focus should be on vastly improving game habitat in
America, advancing hunting fair play, and the safety of our youngest hunters."

No, the primary focus of the organization should be what the membership vote for it to do. The membership see the 3 decade long attack on their right to bear arms and they want the NRA to fight that.

Now he really gets out the smoke generator:

"First the good news: The federal government, your elected officials, never have
and are not now conspiring to take our guns."

You have to wonder where this guy was throughout the 1990's, on Mars? Does he not remember the Assault Weapon Ban, Diane Feinstein's famous remark about Mr. & Mrs. America to turn them all in. The confiscations in California, which his party runs, lock, stock & barrel.

Finally:

"The urge to blame President-elect Obama is a transparent example of how utterly
partisan the gun groups and far too many of their adherents have become."

Wow, did he really say that. Sorry to be rude, Mr. Congressman, but have you looked on your President-elect's transition web site. It says, right there, that he wants to restore the "assault weapons ban. And we are the ones that are paranoid and partisan for taking the man at his word?

He goes on to say that Obama's record "somewhat favored gun control" Somewhat! The man is on record saying that he wants to ban concealed carry, ban so-called "assault weapons", the list goes on & on & on. He is without a doubt the most anti-gun individual to be elected President in American history.

But Congressman Williams, I'll make you a deal.

If Obama would say the following, maybe a little faith and trust could develop about your party's commitment to the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution:

I will sign no bill or issue no executive order that in any way, shape or form infringes on Americans rights & freedom to own any firearms or firearm paraphernalia they may so choose to own that are legal at the time I was elected.

Guess what, it isn't going to happen.

Folks, get used to this. The Democrats are going to go whole hog to discredit the NRA and gun owners. They are going to trot out their pet Blue Dogs and get them to write editorials like this which I term I support gun rights but.....

It's going to get worse before it gets better.

We Already Have Gun Control Laws

2008-11-13T11:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Ten Ring had 835 hits (a lot for us). Most of them came from links to this post on why gunnies are buying guns now. Thanks to CrankyLitProf for the link and kind words, kudos to Tam, and thanks to SayUncle.

I wrote a comment on CrankyLitProf (if you have a love/hate relationship with a cat, you must read this post). I wanted to follow up on that comment and my original post. If you’re already a gunnie, this will be old hat, but maybe not so much for others.

Many Americans say that they don't want governement to take away our guns. They only want tougher controls. You see that's the problem, most of these people have little ideas about what laws exist now (read the links for more details--I could write too many words about all of them).

Gun owners have watched government impose tougher controls for years. In 1934 there was the tax on machine guns and sawed-off shotguns (among other items). That law is still in effect. In 1968 Congress passed the backbone of gun laws in the United States. Certain aspects of the law proved too draconian and hard to enforce and were ameliorated in 1986 with the Firearm Owners Protection Act.

Since 1986, there have been other laws and executive orders that chipped away at gun rights. Then there was the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban (AWB). The problem with this law is there's no such thing as an “assault weapon” and the law tried to define one as a semi-automatic gun (not machine guns) with certain features (bayonet lugs, pistol grips, etc.). It expired and was not renewed in 2004.

The law made no sense. Worse a gun owner could unwittingly become a felon. For instance, a husband and wife could have bought a rifle in 1998 and both used it for target shooting. The wife needed a shorter stock, so rather than buy a new rifle, the husband puts an adjustable stock on it. If the gun had been made prior to 1994, that act would be legal. If it were made after 1994, the husband committed a felony.

In the final analysis the Center for Disease Control commissioned a blue ribbon panel to find out if gun laws actually reduced crime. After exhaustive research the panel announced, “The Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes.” (They added that the absence of findings was not evidence the laws were ineffective either.)

So, after 40 or 74 years (depending on how you date them) gun control laws have not proven effective. However, hundreds if not thousands of gun owners, gun store proprietors, gunsmiths and others have been prosecuted for technical violations of ineffective laws. Millions of gun owners have had to make their way through a minefield of complicated laws.

More gun laws will not solve the problem of gun violence. Instead, go to the heart of it and figure out why too many young men are shooting, stabbing, and bludgeoning other young men. But, that solution takes too much work. So, instead we’re hearing about another round of ineffective laws. It’s enough to make you cry.

Reconciliation and All That

2008-11-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

I stumbled on a new site (thanks Smallest Minority). People send a message by posting pictures of themselves holding up signs. This one is called "From 52 to 48 with Love." Most of the messages, as the site name implies, are from Obama voters to McCain voters. They make nicey-nicey kissy faces for us. Their messages are things like, "58 to 48 = 1" and "Together we can make us better."

Hard to argue with the sentiment, but that's all it is. Most of them want us to come over to their side. To unite behind their Obama.

I agree that Obama won the election and he's legitimately the President-Elect. But, I'm concerned about what his policies will do to me and mine. For instance, one of the 52's mentioned we can have better health care if we work together. I don't want government to have power over me that health care could entail.

People have told me not to sweat about an Obama presidency. They say he would not want to spend the political capital it would take to pass gun control, socialized health care, green issues, etc.

Here's the thing. What if Obama decides that his ideas are too important to put on hold? What if he feels he won't win a second term because so many oppose him? He could go hell for leather and ram through many of his ideas in his first two years in office. He could then spend the next two years defending his gains against a possibly less favorable Congress (a significant percentage of Americans support almost everything he wants, so he might not even lose Congress).

By the time there's a new President, the damage would be done. We gunnies have never been able to get rid of the Hughes amendment. Could we get rid of an Obama imposed ban on "assault weapons," a ban on concealed carry, a new department for health care, a new civilian security force, etc? We might be able to change or abolish some things, but the damage will be done for years to come.

And, while we're at it, I know that the 52's on the photo site are trying to extend an olive branch and for that I thank them. But, will they promise to support the President after Obama who tries to undo Obama's terrible policies?

The stakes are frighteningly high, which is why I'll resist the new President with everything I can. I will use this blog, my letter writing skills, and everything else I can to slow down the juggernaut. My contribution will be vanishingly small, but united we can make a difference, so--forgive me--Together We Can!

More Guns in American Hands, Yay

2008-11-07T11:30:00.000-05:00

Surprise! Surprise! I glanced at the on-line version of The New York Times (I do not subscribe to that or to any other paper, and still I read a lot of news--ain't the web grand). What do I see, but an article about increased gun sales.

These increases are not just a little bump. I guess the entire country must have read my post advocating we buy guns, ammo, and reloading supplies (I know it's not so, just let me bask in my delusion for a moment...there done).

Yosemite Sam and I already did our part. Once the economy tanked, I suspected that Obama would win. We went to New Hampshire over Columbus Day and I bought a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle to join my AR-15 carbine (an M4gery with collapsible stock and even a [useless] bayonet lug].

Yosemite Sam bought a Dragunov-type rifle that he's wanted for awhile. He likes the AK platform. I found that I can't shoot one. The recoil slams its stock into my cheek bone and bruising around the face is not good.

This weekend, we're going to a sporting goods store in Pennsylvania (we don't entirely trust Maryland gun laws yet) and buy some ammo, AR magazines, and reloading supplies. That is, if they are available.

In case there is an anti-gunnie reading this, I honestly don't expect to fire a rifle in anger. I'm not preparing for a survivalist's wet-dream. I'm buying them to ensure that I will have guns and ammo I need and want no matter what laws you pass. I will have them and I will pass my guns down to my heirs. But, please understand this, if you ban possession of guns and ammo, I will not turn them in, I will not register them, and I will die defending them.

Freedom to speak, to worship or not to worship as I see fit, and to own guns are all freedoms worth fighting for. I could list more freedoms, but that's enough for now.

Constructive Ideas for Hope and Change

2008-11-05T10:00:00.001-05:00

I'm sober now and re-read my last post. The scary thing is that I would change little of it. You see, Yosemite Sam is more strident than I am. When I say things like, "...he will never be my president" you know how despondent I am. I have always cherished liberty and freedom. Liberty is heading out the window and the American people opened that window. That's the source of my despondency.

I called in sick today, but tomorrow I face my liberal coworkers--basically my entire office and boss. I have to face a woman who brags about ripping down McCain signs. A man who bought a $100.00 bottle of champagne in 2004 to toast a Kerry victory and finally blogged about drinking it last night. There's more, but I won't bore you. Suffice it to say I have to suck it up.

But, I want to be constructive here. Let's talk about protecting our firearm rights. Yosemite Sam included some of these ideas in an uber-post, so I'll repeat ourselves a little. Also, don't forget that states might enact laws even if nothing happens at the Federal level.

--Expect an "Assault Weapons" Ban sometime in the next two years. It's possible that Obama and company will not want to spend political capital, but don't count on it. Buy ammo, black rifles, and magazines.

--Expect laws to curb ammo availability such as taxation or purchase/storage limits. Some states and Congresscritters hate the fact that people can make their own ammo. Learn to reload and buy equipment and components. With care, anyone can make safe loads and thus avoid taxes, ammo registries, etc.

--Expect range closings and further demonization of gun owners. Join a local range. Be an advocate for gun ownership. Let them know you're not a cousin-lovin', banjo playin', big-bellied redneck. But, also let them know that you'll never give up your guns and your liberty.

--Expect the introduction of various anti-gun laws such as bans on concealed carry, specific weapon bans (not just AWBs), zoning gun stores out of business, convoluted regulations that are impossible to meet, etc. To fight them join the NRA.

I know that many say the NRA compromises too much. Maybe so, but if government is going to pass draconian laws, it's better to have a lobbyist that can help reduce their impact. The deck is stacked against legal and societal agreement with "the right to bear arms shall not be infringed." We have a long ways to go to get back to a basic and correct understanding of the Second Amendment. Our rights disappeared incrementally, we can protect them or get them back the same way.

Lastly, remember that we gunnies have made a lot of progress. The anti-gun people will have a lot to roll back. We can still win legislative and court victories even with an anti-gun administration. We must work to find and elect good people who will protect our rights. We must fund and file legal challenges to every anti-gun law that comes down the pike.

Let's get 'er done.

President (N)obama

2008-11-04T23:02:00.001-05:00

Well, at this time it looks like Obama will be the President. I am not happy about that at all and I am far from being a McCain fan. I also admit that I've had a little too much Southern Comfort to really make sense so forgive me any faux pas.

In the spirit of reconciliation I will accept Obama as the President. I will give him the same "support" and acceptance that lefties gave Bush in the last eight years. I will give him the same respect that they gave Bush and Condi Rice and Dick Cheney. I will give him the same treatment that they gave to Sarah Palin.

Yep, Obama is the president now. But, he will never be my president. He will also not be the president of almost half of the American people. The other 51% that voted for this empty suit have earned their socialism good and hard. I only hope the blowback from his policies doesn't hit me and mine.

May God have mercy on America.

Get Out and Vote!!

2008-11-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

I hope I'm wrong, but I think Obama will win this election. Granted the polls may be wrong for any number of reasons, but they are consistent and that gives me pause. I also have a gut feeling that we will be talking about a President Obama on Wednesday.

Even if you think McCain will lose, I urge everyone to vote. If there are enough of us, Obama may only have an Electoral College win while losing the popular vote. Even if he wins both electoral and popular votes, we will put him on notice. He will see that 47-49% of Americans do not want him in the Oval Office.

I don't know if that will influence how he governs, but it could. It could also give those who oppose or are affected by Obama's policies (be that "share the wealth," or anti-gun laws) hope that we can change the political landscape in 2010 and ulitmately in 2012. Hey, that means we too can have Hope and Change.

We Aim to Fight

2008-10-31T12:01:00.003-04:00

Sebastain has an interesting post and comment thread about the Cooper firearms issue.

Here is my take:

Well, since the board of directors essentially fired Dan Cooper, there seems to be alot more of us than people like MTGunowner(a commenter on Sebastian's post) and his ilk.

Face it Fudds, you’re a dying breed.

Dan Cooper was willing to sell us out to support a politician that has never met a gun control proposal that he didn’t whole heartedly support and feel that it probably didn’t go far enough. Hell, Obama is on tape saying he supports a Federal ban on concealed carry. That’s telling people in Montana & Alaska that they can’t peaceably carry their firearms as they have been doing for years.

Well, we aren’t going to take it anymore. We aren’t going to give our custom to businesses that will sell us down the river hoping that the crocodile will eat them last.

This isn’t 1992 anymore. We are organized and we are going to fight.

If you support gun banning politicians, we will NOT DO BUSINESS WITH YOU.

Actually, I'll take it further than that.

Fuck the Fudds.

They have been selling our gun rights down the river for the last 50 years.

They are ones who have allowed the anti-gun politicans to get away with the lie that the 2nd Amendement is about hunting.

What I propose is an old fashioned shunning

We will not do business in any way with these people who support by words or deeds politicians who aim to deprive us of our god-given rights.

I've had enough.

Death at a Gun Club

2008-10-27T11:33:00.000-04:00

I was spending a little free time reading the Boston Globe. I was dismayed to read an article about an eight-year old boy dying at a gun club's machine gun shoot.

Evidently, an instructor and the boy's father let the boy fire a fully-automatic Uzi. Before anyone could react, the short-barreled gun's recoil forced it to climb and turn on the boy. A bullet struck him in the head.

The article linked above has, as of this post, 61 comments. All the commenters describe it as senseless. Several betray the ignorance of the commmenters who call for bans on all "assault weapons." Anti-gunners have been very effective in making sure full-auto and semi-auto guns are confused in people's minds.

Still, I must weigh in with an opinion, but it is just that. I was not there at the club and I don't know all the particulars. Given that, here it is: the boy should not have been allowed to fire the gun on full-auto unless its magazine had been loaded with no more than three rounds.

I have never fired a full-auto Uzi, but I have fired several automatic weapons including a Thompson, MP-5, and an AWD M/11 in 9mm. I know about muzzle climb and how to defeat it--trigger control.

The M/11 I fired has a very high rate of fire. It can climb and pivot toward you faster than you think. It comes with a little strap in the front to help you control it. If you fire it without the wire stock extended or the strap around your hand, or a suppressor to provide a forward grip (or all three), it could easily get away from you.

An eight-year old does not have the experience or trigger discipline to control a small subgun with a full magazine. The gun's owner, the instructor, the father, and the gun club made a mistake. Accidents happen, but we must take care to prevent them.

I am sorry for the family's loss and the trauma that all the participants and witnesses to this tragedy will suffer. Unfortunately, they have given the anti-gun people another terrible incident to exploit.

How 'bout That

2008-10-23T13:50:00.000-04:00

Have you ever watched your car's odometer click up to a nice round, fat number? I have. I just checked Sitemeter and Ten Ring is about to hit 300,000 visits (it's on 299,997 right now).

Thank you all for your support even though we haven't won any contests for most blog posts.

We are both planning election/gun posts and taking a deep breath because of the closeness of the polls. Keep watching this space. Thanks again.