Category Archives: Gun Owners

Guns In National Parks is such a bad idea because….

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According to the L.A. Times, the law allowing citizens concealed is bad because:

Opponents say the law ratchets up the potential for violence in parks, where for seven consecutive years rangers have been the most assaulted federal law enforcement officers, according to data compiled by the park service.

And

There were 1,844 weapons-related offenses reported in national parks last year.

Wait one minute. So Federal Agents have been regularly getting their butts kicked, assaulted and what-nots so it makes sense that the common citizen should be disarmed so we can get our butts kicked also? And not counting that guns were already in National Parks, just in the hands of those willing to break the law, you know? CRIMINALS.

Seriously people. If you wanna make a case, use logic before opening mouth.

For a more detail explanation of what the Law does or does not allow, check this great article by David Codrea.

More On Babes, Bobbies and Pink Guns.

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Terri Strayer shoots a good one across the bow with CandyApple Red, Pink, Purple. It is obvious she feels strongly and rightly about the issue, but we agree on the “the damn thing must work & screw the color”  point. And let’s face it folks, the Battle of the Sexes is the longest running one in the history of humanity without any end in sight. Sex sells, sexism doesn’t or disrespect. Pink guns sell even if you don’t like the color. I draw the line with a polka dot Mossberg 500.

By the way Ms. Pepin, you can put the rifle down now. The red dot on top of my bald spot is getting kind of old. ;)

Dump the Ego.

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A trial ended yesterday. The case involved a shooting on a female by a male resulting in the grievous injury of the female. She sustained damage to her arm both muscular and neural. Her arm will never again be 100% functional and she has, no joke, developed a mongo aversion to guns. The male was a childhood friend of hers and one silly night and because one silly stupid argument, two lives have been changed forever.

The fight was about a truly irrelevant object but it escalated to the point where the male produced his firearm and a shot rang out. Was there intention to kill? I don’t think so and he was not charged with that  but a much lesser count. Still the jury found him guilty and he will probably be sentenced to 8 years in prison. The male had a Concealed Weapons permit and there is no other way to put it: he fucked up. According to what I was told, during trial he initially tried to say that it was an accidental shooting, that the gun went off, but with modern firearms (read: basically anything built in the last 50 years) that is near impossible and he got shredded by the expert witness. His lawyer tried to pull a mid trial switch for Self Defense but a male facing a 5’4″ female armed with a car key and a cellphone does not rise to the necessary standard for self defense. Basically BOTH sides suffered from runaway mouths with almost deadly consequences. The cause of the incident was plain old ego on both sides. She caught the bullet, he caught the prison time.

I tell my students and anybody considering having a gun for self protection that they are about to embark in a life-changing trip. This trip will have “casualties” and the first one must be ego. No longer will you feel the need to right perceived wrongs by verbally or physically counter an insult, wave off or even a direct taunt. You have with you the power of creating immense harm and that is something that you cannot take lightly. I don’t care if they call your Mom names, accuse your wife of being a $10 whore or dirty comments about naked pictures of your favorite aunt in the Internet, your first duty is to disengage and step away from the person trying to incite you. Allow your manhood or womanhood to be dragged in the mud, let them call you coward, faggot, chickeshit, whatever: Words don’t hurt, prison time does.

So remember the this phrase:

Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

A bit of disclosure is in order. The female is a dear friend of mine, almost like an adopted crazy niece. We worked together and I still remember the night I was told she was shot and the Gordian knot that my stomach became. She was out for six months recovering from her wound and with a new dose of maturity. It was radical but instructive for the both of us. Although she is still the same vibrant spirit, the innocence is gone and there will be a dark cloud following her for a long time. I don’t know the guy and I really don’t hold any particular personal grudge against him (I know, I should but I think I matured after all) but as a Gun Owner and CWP holder I will cut him no mercy: He misused a gun, hurt an innocent person and rightly he should serve his punishment. Most Gun Owners agree with me on this. We don’t give freebies to our fellow members that break the faith and eschew responsibility. We are not forgiving just because you  are a fdellow gun owner, say you are sorry sorry and fly to the nearest detox clinic. We come down on you hard and you better get used to it. We hold ourselves to a higher standard.

I will try to get a transcript of the trial and I plan to use it in future classes and in this blog. I think there is much to be learned by everybody.

Again people: Words don’t hurt, prison time does. Dump the Ego.

Kids, Guns and other politically incorrect stuff.

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Our club just celebrated our annual Picnic Match which tends to be a working affair for the busy bees and fun more most everybody else. The highlight is the side Kid’s match where the parents are encouraged to bring the little ones to shoot a variety of .22 caliber weapons against targets that provide immediate feedback like spinners and such. It is grueling work for whomever gets stuck with running it, but it is satisfactory at the same tome to see youngins just rip round after round of ammunition and beat the lights out of those spinners.

Jeff J. instructing a young New Shooter
Jeff J. instructing a young New Shooter
Kid & Evil Black Rifle... and nothing bad happened!
Kid & Evil Black Rifle… and nothing bad happened!

My personal highlight was to see the face of absolute joy of a girl who had never fired a gun before, connecting with her target for the first time. The combination of surprise, joy and pride was just perfect. In fact the girls were scary in their their dedication and accomplishment. They took the “task” seriously spinning targets with an almost boring regularity but they never got bored themselves, they just had that fierce determination to bet the heck out of brothers, cousins, friends and acquaintances.

Future Police Sniper in the making.
Future Police Sniper in the making.

The club is not a “serious” club by any means. But the Picnic Match gives it a more relaxed tone once a year. With range space a premium in South Florida, to be able to just take it easy, shoot a couple of IDPA stages, have lunch, take a raffle, BS a while and then get back to shooting.

Olympia Restaurant!
Olympia Restaurant!
Getting some good burgers and franks.
Getting some good burgers and franks.
Relaxing afterward.
Relaxing afterward.

A Rainbow coalition (whites, blacks, hispanic, orientals and some undetermined breeds were present) of armed citizens enjoyed a day of shooting with family and friends. No crimes were committed, no fistfights, no stabbings, no rapes, no crimes even though 75% of those present had a gun affixed to their waist. Intelligentsia says this was not supposed to happen, that a concentration of guns like this mixed with kids is a recipe for disaster, that bodies must fall bleeding profusely by bullet holes specially since there was an <gasp> “assault rifle” in the mix.

I am guessing Intelligentsia is wrong and has been wrong for a long long time.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

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Here in South Florida we have the chance of shooting IDPA at least three times a month with Florida Keys Shooting Club in Key Largo (cutest little range you’ll ever seen and they hate me when I say that) and with Tropical Sport Shooting Association which is the club I belong. I am tasked with the score keeping duties for the club and that gives me an unique perspective on how the shooters are doing.

We have shooters of all levels. From the ones that just picked up a gun for the first time to some really amazing practitioners that will leave you scratching your head in amazement.  Even though the local ranges run the physical gamut from crappy to downright useless for action shooting, Roger the mentally twisted Course Of Fire Designer manages to come up with challenging set ups that will include shooting from every conceivable position and none of them comfortable. About the only time we shoot behind a Bianchi Barricade is while we shoot the Classifier, other than that we get to shoot from non-standard cover that include leaning walls, sidewalks, vehicles, etc. plus lots of shooting on the move.

What I have been noticing while scoring is the low amount of points down our shootings are getting. For those not in the sport, IDPA is scored not only on the basis of speed but also accuracy. Making cute little holes in the wrong areas penalizes you by adding seconds to your total time. Also shooting the wrong target or a designated No-Shoot will increase the penalties.  I am pleased to see that our shooters of all levels are doing a great job keeping the rounds on the appropriate areas of the target while moving, kneeling, walking and laying prone.

I wanted to make a point because I had Tivoe’d a new series with a famous Hollywood action actor that is also a deputy sheriff in the South. One of the episodes has him training a fellow deputy for his upcoming firearm qualification. The deputy qualifies on a static range by the skin of his teeth and the target looked like it was used to catch shotgun pellets shot by somebody with a caffeine overdose 40 yards away.  Unfortunately most police officers do not shoot their firearm but in two events: the day of their quals or the unfortunate day they are forced to use it in the line of fire.  The former is not practice enough and the latter is too late to do something about it.

If you are in Law Enforcement, you know that your sidearm is a life-saving device. You have the personal responsibility to be trained and “practiced” to a level that will give you a fighting chance in case you need to use it and also in the safest most accurate way so bystander lives are not threatened by your actions. It is imperative that you do good practice with it and as much as possible. About 10 years ago when I got somewhat serious about firearms and started with IDPA, there was an institutional mindset among LEOs that they did not need to practice or to engage in silly competitive games because, By God! they are trained Cops with Guns and will out-shoot any darn civilian out there. More than one LEO who dared to come shoot a match, left the range humbled and furious when they could not even begin to compare themselves with the lowest scoring of the darn civilians. Many never returned and the lesson was lost on them and us. Fortunately the mindset changed and we see more LEOs coming to shoot and improving greatly on their craft. Many have brought others to practice and as eye opening moment to make them see that quals every six months or every year are not the solution.  They also learned that those civilians with guns are not “the enemy” and “Right Wing Fanatics” or “Domestic Terrorists” that White Shirts or politicians kept mentioning but just regular folks that competed with guns and are Law Abiding and respectful of the Constitution not that different than themselves.

So, if you are a LEO take a chance and join any shooting discipline you think you may like. There is actually no downside to it. Trigger time is always well spent even if it is just shooting the bull with like-minded people.

Captain Obvious speaking…

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THERE IS A MAN WITH A LEGAL GUN AT A POLITICAL EVENT! OH MY GOD!

That has been the cognoscenti reaction to New Hampshire and Phoenix. where law abiding citizens had the unspeakable gall to legally carry firearms in the open. Immediately the race card was brought into play (“You know them rednecks just wanna kill our black President!”) but MSNBC pretty much shredded it when it manipulated the video of a man with a rifle at the Phoenix rally and vapid newsgirl Contessa Brewer explained that “because people feel like, yes, there are Second Amendment rights for sure but also there are questions about whether this has racial overtones. I mean, here you have a man of color in the presidency and white people showing up with guns strapped to their waists or to their legs.” Unfortunately for the MSNBC Race Card players, other outlets (Mostly Internet) showed that the alleged racist redneck was in fact a Black Gentleman.

After that colossal failure, the “reasonable” crowd of reasonable morons entered the fray. “Well yes, you do have a right but is it reasonable to have a gun at a politically charged event? What if…?” The Reasnoally Afable Idiots want to point out that tempers could flair if a gun is brought to such an emotionally charged event and bad things could happen.  HELLO? There are no “what ifs” here my dear moron. There were TWO EVENTS WERE WEAPONS WERE PRESENT AND NOTHING HAPPENED! q.e.d.

I know, it is obvious, but some people need to be foresmacked with a cricket paddle to loosen up the gears inside the cranium and process the information right in front of their noses.

Now, should I scare them and inform them about the people attending these rallies and carrying a concealed weapon? I better not, they would not look their best if their bowels loosen up in front of the camera.

Bits and Thoughts. 5/13/09

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The Mexican Drug War Weapons lie still goes strong in the media. In today’s Washington Post’s editorial we see it once more:

Mexican President Felipe Calderón and President Obama said during a news conference in Mexico City last month that roughly 90 percent of the weapons seized in operations against organized crime in Mexico came from the United States.

But MSNBC’s “hard hitting” article on the same subject accidentally provides the truth.David Berryhil at the 10-8 forums posted the math behind the media bullshit:

Doing the math gives a much lower number of firearms traced to the U.S. than the media would like you to believe:

“In all, the military has 305,424 confiscated weapons locked in vaults….”

“The Mexican government has handed over information to U.S. authorities to trace 12,073 weapons seized in 2008 crimes…”

“About a third of the guns submitted for tracing in 2007 were sold by licensed U.S. dealers….”

One third of 12,000 = 4,000 firearms traced to U.S. firearms dealers in 2007. That number is quite a bit smaller than what the media has reported. They report the large number of illegal weapons in Mexico and imply (or lie) that all of them come from the U.S.

Or in much simple numbers, only 1.3% of firearms confiscated by the Mexican Army from Drug Dealers can be tied to licensed firearms dealers. Sorry but fucking up the data by 300,000 firearms is not a mistake, it is a boldfaced lie in anybody’s book. Then again, “journalists” do not care as long as their legs tingle anticipating acknowledgement in the form of a waving of the pinkie from the White House Supreme Being.

Enough with the ammo hoarding people! Yes I understand that the Obama administration wants our rights deceased and that many state legislatures have put forward microstamping, ammo registration and other assorted loads of legal crap, but enough is enough. This madness is starting to affect shooting sports and and we are begining to lose new shooters because they can’t find ammo for the new gun they just bought. We are poisoning our own well and killing the joy of shooting. Even reloading supplies have disappeared from stores.

The last batch of 1,000 rounds of Wolf 7.62×39 I bought cost me $120.00. This is just absurd!

And this is just insane! Not two months ago or so you could buy 4,000 primers for that price including shipping and Hazmat fees. Now people are being auto-shafted  because they are buying in full panic mode. It has to stop. And no, there is no conspiracy by the manufacturers, just our own idiocy.

Be very afraid. At the end of this month and coinciding with my hotel firing everybody including yours truly, I’ll be taking the NRA Instructor’s class.  Hopefully I’ll be an instructor in Basic Pistol, Home Firearms Safety Instructor and Personal Protection in the Home. Amazingly, I already have 4 people interested in classes so there is certainly a demand. I gotta figure how to set up the whole thing and get to it. We need more shooters!