Yes, that is a letter written by Gandhi to dear Adolf.  I was young once and for a while believed in this idiocy of the Pacifism movement. But I was cursed with the idea of always reading a bit more and find out if there was indeed a “Happily ever after” on things and ended up realizing there was a lot of damage done by these people. Yes, even Gandhi and if you have doubts, find out what happened in India after the Brits lowered their flag.

To keep it short: Pacifists believe in peace, not necessarily in freedom and are willing to sacrifice the latter in order to get the former.

“Gandhi and Stalin.” “What?” John asked. “I used to tell Monica that when we’d get into politics. She’d always talk about how great Gandhi was. I’d tell her the only reason Gandhi survived after his first protest was that he was dealing with the Brits. If Stalin had been running India, he’d of been dead in a second, his name forgotten.”
One Second After by William R. Forstchen.

“A man’s home is his castle; attacked there, he need not retreat.” It’s a catchphrase known even to people who don’t keep weapons for self-defense. It’s a tenet of the English common law, from which American law so largely derives. It’s called Castle Doctrine.

But as with any law, we don’t fully grasp it until we read the fine print. Anti-gun Senator Nancy Pelosi famously—or infamously—said, “We won’t know what’s in the law until we pass it.” The senator’s quote lives on today as a classic example of irresponsible stupidity.

And if any of us ever have to shoot a home invader in defense of ourselves or our families, and are forced to invoke Castle Doctrine, if we don’t know what it actually says, we would be just as irresponsible and just as stupid

via What is Castle Doctrine? Massad Ayoob on Self-Defense Law.

Do I even have to tell you to go read it?

The impasse in the United States was dispiriting for Mr. Mauch and his 30-odd colleagues at Armatix, who are split between the headquarters and a production facility near Jena, in eastern Germany. It’s there that the company set up machinery capable of churning out thousands of smart guns. It did an initial run of 5,000 pieces, a “limited edition,” says Mr. Mauch, destined for the U.S. market and now sitting idle. The project has already cost the company’s financial backer millions of euros.

Mr. Mauch is developing a larger, 9-mm calibre smart gun more suited to law-enforcement personnel, dubbed the iP9. It will be able to operate in both “smart” and “conventional” modes, he said, and will be able to communicate information on when and where it is fired.

Mr. Mauch is hoping police departments in the United States will give it a try. In early 2015, he’ll travel to various cities on a trip organized by a group called the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, a network of multifaith, community-based organizations. Law-enforcement officials “will understand that he’s serious and knows what he’s talking about. He respects police greatly,” said Rabbi Joel Mosbacher, who is leading Metro IAF’s gun-safety initiative.

via German-designed ‘smart’ guns rerouted after cultural backlash in U.S. – The Globe and Mail.

The beginning of the article is a tale of woe about how Mr. Mauch did not see criticism for his initial gun coming. Of course we evil American gun owners were responsible for his failure to understand the market:

For Mr. Mauch back in Germany, it was a bewildering disaster. Ordinary Americans, he felt, would understand the value of the product. But “the John Wayne-type guys, they always want to have the gun ready to kill,” he says, putting his hand on his hip to simulate drawing a weapon. “They feel – what I don’t understand – so threatened.”

And now he doubles down on stupid by building a gun aimed for cops who to a man will not only not accept it but will make sure there is a law passed at the federal level exempting them from Smart Gun regulations citing safety issues…such as the gun probability of failure when needed the most.

Oh well, if Mr Mauch has that many million Eurobucks available for wasting, go ahead. I am sure once bankruptcy is declared, HK will give you a job, just not in marketing.

I would also like you to read yet another blog post from yet another friend of mine, Caleb Giddings. This one postulates that “Winning is the Only Thing:”
I don’t enjoy competition shooting that much these days. Sure, I still like to shoot matches, but for me the juice isn’t really worth the squeeze. See, the problem is that I like winning more than I like getting better. You’d think those two things would go hand in hand, but they really don’t. Sadly, it’s an easy trap to fall into.
Sadly, true…a trap I’ve fallen into once or twice myself. Still, it is a trap, and traps are to be avoided. If we’re going to be the shooters we want to be, we have to learn to love the process. I refer you to Mastery by the great George Leonard. My few conversations with George were wonderful, like having a few friendly conversations with Yoda. Once a year I tread Mastery, and I learn something new each time.

via The Michael Bane Blog: John Farnam: “Little Mistakes”.

Maybe I approached IDPA the wrong way and luckily turned out for the best but I got cured of the competition bug early enough.  I did not have the money for a custom-tuned 1911 or tricked out G34 on a slick kydex holster and all the “legal” bells and whistles. When I got to reloading, I actually did it to save money and not find a  bullet & powder combo with enough recoil to operate a slide and make a hole in paper but as close as I could to my everyday carry +P ammo. In fact, my competition gear was my everyday gear. I was one of those freaks that could actually arrive at the range and start shooting without having to go to the tactical dress room and change into the performance stuff.

So who I competed against? Myself and the cardboard targets that came to life after the beep. Weird? why yes! In my mind they were bad guys doing bad things that required my intervention. . If you are practicing for life, those brown suckers  do have guns and they probably shoot better than you so.. take frigging cover and as much as you can!  Transitioning from Point A to Point B? The course of fire tells you there is nobody so you can run, but are you willing to take the chance in real life of going blind? screw that…go slow & scan.

And then put enough BBs where it hurts. Ammo is cheap, a coffin is expensive. My goal was zero points down for accuracy (never achieved) so if it took three shots instead  of the two required by the CoF, who am I to argue?  Shoot till you figure he is down, that is all.

Does that mean you cannot learn anything from those who do it for competition alone? Quite the contrary but be smart. A pound and a half trigger not the smart thing to do but gun manipulations & reloads? You may wanna bet they have it down with an economy of movement that is amazing and you should duplicate.

In the end, it goes back to mindset which is probably the most important part of shooting. Training begins in the mind, not with the finger.

Last week, people had fun in Twitter with the  #ImBlockedByShannonWatts . Some, smartly enough, showed  their own  blocks by Shannon so I went ahead and pulled mine and two more for purely giggle reasons.

I was amazed to see that I was not blocked by the Bradys, but I remembered that I never posted a thing in their Twitter account. Also, and as Linoge put it, we need to thanks Shannon for introducing us to thousands of gun people that we were not following and came to be known thanks to her silliness and the hashtag.