Instructors said the training requirement does not infringe on our constitutional rights and without the training requirement, the gun owner could hurt themselves and/or hurt others.
“You might as well not carry it at all if you don’t know how to use it correctly,” said Maxfield.

Source: Firearm Instructors Speak On Controversial Gun Bill Passing Sena – News9.com – Oklahoma City, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports |

It has to be an equal mix of greed and stupidity that launches the mouths of some firearm instructors to blab about government-mandated training.  If by now, any Gun Owner does not realize that regulations that come from political hacks have no basis in real life and are actually a gateway to restrictions, simply in a disconnected idiot.

Should Gun Owners get training? Yes. If you are an instructor offer affordable classes in different levels of guncraft, from basic pistol handling to weapons retention. But do not latch yourself to legislators in order to keep your gravy train running. The Four Rules of Gun Safety were not designed by a Washington Think Tank under orders of Congress and after spending millions of dollars in “research.” It was a cranky old SOB who came up with them and have served us very well. The same goes for basically all firearms training: Individuals coming up with the best way to shoot and be safe using only their own money and time.

Stop The Fudd.

“It’s just not the whole picture,” said Jennifer Doleac, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Virginia, who studies the connection between gunfire and crime. “There’s a lot more gun violence than what is reflected in homicide rates.”

The more telling number about gun violence might be “shots fired.” And now, thanks to broader adoption of new technologies, it is getting easier to show just how common gun violence is in America.

Last year, there were 165,531 separate gunshots recorded in 62 different urban municipalities nationwide, including places such as San Francisco, Washington, D.C., St. Louis and Canton, according to ShotSpotter, the company behind a technology that listens for gunfire’s acoustic signature and reports it to authorities.

This may be the best way to measure gun violence in America. – Washington Post

Please retrieve your lower jaw from the floor and return it to its locked position. I understand that this level of intellectual ineptitude is new and frankly awesome in “derpiness”, but we must try to remain calm and collected and not laugh so hard at them.

You have to understand that for the Gun Control Intelligentsia, every shot fired represents nothing but deadly violence. Do I need to remind you about one of the favorite slogans? Gun are specifically designed to kill! If you factor that in, then the study makes sense for them and every shot was done in anger.

My first thought after reading that quoted section was all those shots “in anger” that are popped every weekend across the country at different shooting activities. I went to the IDPA website and found the results of the MVSA Mountain Valley Regional in Hot Springs, Arkansas:  112 stages with a round count of 200 in which 168 shooters participated. That comes out to 33,600 shots fired  during the match. Two days of competition netted one fifth of the alleged number of “violent shots” in what passes for scientific study.  Yet, no mass killings, no brawls ending in High Noon shootouts among 168 competitive people carrying guns, not one of the usual predictions came to happen… but “shots fired” is  a “better way to measure gun violence”… yeah right.

“But Miguel, they do not mean it like that! Besides, those are the results of a very scientific form of measurement by ShotSpotter in urban areas!”  And I am not sold on that thing either. I have seen results first hand and where the “spotting” has been off by two blocks and even not recorded at all.  I used to work in Miami Gardens where there is a decent amount of gang activity and saw first hand how useless the system was because if you are not only off geographically but arrive to the wrong location between six and none minutes after the fact, you pretty much get less data and results as if the incident was called via 911.

Some years back while enjoying some quiet time in my back porch during an afternoon, I heard several shots nearby three to be precise. My brain made a quick calculation and figured they were within a 4-block radius and they were high velocity rounds, probably .22 LR. I called 911 to report them and cops arrived at my door not long after. I explained what I heard and pointed at the general direction where the shots might have been fired.  They replied with no amount of smugness that “no shots had been reported” meaning the ShotSpotter that covers our little patch of Miami Dade did not say anything. I insisted that I had heard shots and added that I was a competitive shooter, well used to gun fire and that if they  reluctantly got back in their car and drove towards where I indicated. Some 20  minutes later, I saw them go by again, but this time with two young individuals in the back seat and I could not get officers to make eye contact with me. I wonder why.

So, I am not impressed with this “new” and “improved” way to measure “gun violence” as it is probably more packed with political manure than the Clinton campaign. And I give you one last piece of smoky beef jerky to chew on: “165,531 separate gunshots recorded in 62 different urban municipalities nationwide” in a year’s period. Does that include the celebratory gunfire during the Fourth of July and New Years? That is a bunch of shots right there.

But when your movement is slowly sinking into oblivion, you hold on to anything to see if it floats, even an anchor.

Dear reader,

How are you? I am fine. My name is Andy, and I’ll be contributing various features and essays to Gun Free Zone on a regular basis. Now, I dont often enter a GFZ willingly, but the chance to write for one of the most informative and entertaining pro-gun websites in the 2A blogosphere was simply too good to pass up. I’d like to thank Miguel for this unique opportunity, because, while I’ve written hundreds of articles for other outlets over the years (and still do here and there when an increasingly rare thought occurs), I’ve never actually had an established avenue through which to share my musings on the topics that actually mean the most to me and mine (and, I hope, you and yours).

And that’s firearms.

Well, not just firearms. Dont get me wrong — I love those. I love everything about them. Even Jennings has a tiny place in my heart. But I also love what firearms represent. Guns literally mean the world to me, as they are the literal means to preserve the world in which I live — my world. Guns secure and thus embody that most fundamental right to exist as an individual, free (or near as dammit) from the yoke of aggression and its ultimate tyranny.

Of course, that also means that tyrants dont like guns in the hands of thinking citizens, and restrictions creep. But 50 million Bloombucks and 21,000 gun control laws cannot erase 27 words put to parchment 229 years ago. Indeed, the anti-gun movement is failing faster and falling farther than ever before as post-Boomers are booming and blasting and rat-a-tat-tatting from sea to shining desert. (The Pacific’s right out because potato California.) Gun sales are clogging up NICS lines month after month, new shooters are charging thumbs-forward to weekend CCW classes, and the 24-hour mainstream news cycle designed to scare folks into submission is having the exact opposite effect: The public sees more and more clearly the ancient and immutable need for individual self defense in a crowded, chaotic, natural world.

Yep, Gun Culture 2.0 is pushing back. Hard. And it kicks like a motherf****** mule.

Yet far from uncouth, this is a culture of peace, patience, respect, and dignity. We are winning the culture war. Without aggression, without coercion, without threats, we are standing firm in the belief of the sanctity of ourselves. We are winning by educating and recruiting the erstwhile ambivalent, the fence-sitting, the fearful and hesitant. We are winning by forcing our garbage lawmakers to repeal their garbage laws through true grassroots political means, all while exposing gun control (and its exploitive “Gunsense” branding) as a cult of fraudulent, fear-mongering bigotry and hate.

So, you know, that’s pretty badass.

Anyways, I’ll be discussing this kind of thing (and a whole lot more) in the weeks and months to come. Expect gun and gear (p)reviews, lifestyle commentary, half-baked memes, bad puns, rambling tangents, and clunky turns of phrase. I ain’t no poet, after all.

But William Wordsworth was, so I’ll leave you with this little mashup I made a few years ago. It’s still one of my favorites:

Many thanks to Miguel for inviting me aboard, and many thanks to all of you for reading!

The first reports/rumors are that he might have died of an overdose or related to over-medication. If so (and a big one) I find that ironic knowing that deaths by overdose have long overtaken all deaths by gunfire in the United States:

The United States is experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose (poisoning) deaths. Since 2000, the rate of deaths from drug overdoses has increased 137%, including a 200% increase in the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids (opioid pain relievers and heroin). CDC analyzed recent multiple cause-of-death mortality data to examine current trends and characteristics of drug overdose deaths, including the types of opioids associated with drug overdose deaths. During 2014, a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States, representing a 1-year increase of 6.5%, from 13.8 per 100,000 persons in 2013 to 14.7 per 100,000 persons in 2014.

Source: Increases in Drug and Opioid Overdose Deaths — United States, 2000–2014

But remember, #OnlyGunDeathsMatter to the Vulture Brigade.

Please click on the link and watch the video.

AUSTIN—Many female UT students have never been in a fight before, but now want to know how to pack a punch. It’s all in the name of self-defense.The murder of Haruka Weiser has spiked interest in the Rape Aggression Defense System.”I’ve seen a lot of things on social media, like links to YouTube videos that explain some self-defense tactics,” said Katie Goodfellow, a UT student. But, interest in self-defense hasn’t just piqued on the web. Instructors at Rape Aggression Defense System classes say more students have been asking about signing up for the free self-defense courses on-campus.

Source: UT Murder Spikes Interest in Self-Defense Program

If you have not heard about it, Haruka Weiser was an 18 year old Freshman and ballet dancer at the University of Texas who was murdered by Meechail Criner, a homeless teen with a history of  Mental illness and violence.

Although I support that women learn Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) System, I am afraid that selling it as the only thing a woman may need to stave off an attacker is a dangerous disservice.  Let’s get one thing out-of-the-way: A male attacker for the most part will outweigh and out-strength a female victim and to expect that the RAD system will somehow nullify that disparity is asinine. Just look at the pictures above and compare the different body types. You cannot cheat anatomy and physics, the advantage is clearly with the bigger mass.

RAD would be a great initial response to create a time/distance event that would throw the attacker into a momentary confusion and distraction enough for the intended female victim to deploy a weapon that will tilt the balance of the confrontation heavily in her favor. Notice that I am not asking to “even out” or “Make things balanced” but demand that the women have an overpowering advantage over their attackers. I want the woman to win by either making the attacker reflect he may have poorly chosen his victim and decided to leave or to have him feel pain and bleed out on the ground reflecting too lately that he committed a major mistake in the victim-selection process.  Self-Defense is not a sporting event, screw fairness.

With the advancement of Campus Carry, some progress is being made in allowing women to have a real fighting chance against attackers. But there is another problem: It only covers those who are 21 or older for the most part and leaves the 18-20 crowd at the mercy of the schools’ weapons policy which in general is so restrictive not even the mildest of less-lethal devices are allowed under penalty of expulsion leaving the unfair concept of hand-to-hand combat as the only approve method defense.

Colleges and Universities must be forced to change that unfair and dangerous policy. And I say forced because as any institution, they are notoriously reticent to change the status quo or simply they just rather not face the fact that bad things happen. Also, allowing women to have the necessary weapons for their defense is an admission that the  advertisement to parents about their institutions being safe and not to worry about the well-being of the kids is in reality a big lie that must be kept at all costs, even if tragically proven a lie, just as it happened in Virginia Tech.

My only recommendation to women in the 18-20 bracket is to discretely and legally carry a defensive even if it contradicts college policy. And also it is time they start a movement just like Campus Carry but directed at the ability to carry Less Lethal tools on campus for their defense.

Your life is more important than any diploma.

I made a command decision (more like kamikaze impulse) and decided to augment my initial idea of adding just one writer. We will soon have two regular writers and two columnists. The writers will have the immense fun of writing several times a week and they belong to Gun Culture 2.0; One is confirmed and I am waiting for the other to get his/her mallards on a line.

The columnists will publish once a week (I am thinking Sunday) and they will make longer and more in-depth pieces. I have also one confirmed columnist and waiting for the other to take care of some personal stuff.

After eight years of posting 3 to 4 times a day, I need youngings to relieve me from the burden of keeping you clowns entertained 😀

Remember to be nice and don’t abuse the noobs.

And to those who applied but did not make it: I was honored and I want to thank you deeply for your consideration. It was not an easy decision to select the “winners” and I wanted to let everybody in, but the blog would have ended looking like a forum and not a blog.

We begin Monday…. unless somebody jumps the gun…

PS: I lost an email… Video Guy, please get in touch with me!