Gun Free Zone

Sign that is found at the Chappell Hill Bank in Texas.

According to their website their motto is “Modern Banking with Old Fashioned Courtesy.” Check the pics of the inside of the bank. Five gives you ten the cashier has a coach gun under the counter.

I wouldn’t mind having a branch here in Miami.

Seriously, if you haven’t shot one, stay away, they are seductive as hell.  We are talking Angelina Jolie in bouncing off a chain link fence or Gwyneth Paltrow being “unmummified” kind of seductive.

In the era of Wonder Plastic Pistols, there is something to be said for this crafted chunk of steel. The feel in your hand is that you will demand respect and you will get it. It is Old School-Been There-Done That feel that you get once you shot a couple of hundred rounds. The old “Making Rounds Count” takes on a new and important meaning since you can’t spray and pray out of the situation. Only hits count goes from a cute saying to a way of life. Even the most ferocious .45 caliber aficionado, the usual critic of any caliber “that does not begin with a 4” will bow his head to a .357 Magnum. It is the spatha of the post-Industrial Age.

I finally shot an IDPA match last Saturday with my trusty S&W Mod 65-2 (4″bbl) with 357 Magnum reloads instead of the .38 specials and by all the gods of burning sulfur, I loved it. I know that it is not the recommended thing to shoot in competition because of the recoil, but I don’t really give a darn anymore. It is a joy to see the Safety Officers being caught unaware and jumping just a little at the boom-noise, to see the dirt geyser erupting out of the berm and see the darn steels being knocked down with authority, not as a suggestion.  And I am not even loading the darn cartridges to max specs but they do shake the props and release curses from the mouths of nearby shooters.

I am gonna be so much more hated at the club from now on. 🙂

Back in the day, there were less people worried about what the rest of the world would think about us and what we did. 65 years later somehow we turned out to be the bad guys because we dropped the big one in Hiroshima while the poor peaceful Japanese nationals were farming, playing with kites, doing origami and having fun with Ikebana. And we now have some people in Japan demanding an apology for dropping the Bomb.

Bullshit. They deserved it.

Nobody talks about Japanese atrocities, Nankin, Mongolia, the Death March, the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” which was Japanese for “we are gonna steal your stuff, rape your women and behead everybody on the way out.” And nobody has apologized for that and even more creepier shit.

If anything, Hiroshima (and Nagasaki) should serve as a reminder to America’s enemies that we shouldn’t be trifled with. If you piss us big enough, long enough, we are willing to convert your cities in glassy parking lots or at least the future sound stage for the remake of The Road Warrior.

This is part 1 of a great article by Mike Seeklander about compettitive shooting and the skills that you can fine tune for self defense situations. Here is an excerpt:

During my time in law enforcement, I keenly remember hearing this statement: “That competition stuff will get you killed on the streets.” This was sometimes followed by a polite refusal of my invitation to attend a match (I invited those around me every month). More than once I heard, “I’ve always wanted to do that, but I’d better get some practice time in before I go, thanks anyway.”

Wow!  Get some practice time first?  What happens if the stuff goes down tonight? Will you tell the bad guy to wait until after you practice to start the fight? I think not.

Unless you have a decent gun store heavy on the reloading stuff, you probably depend of online merchants for your brass cleaning supplies. Cleaning media and polish is not that expensive, but when you add shipping and handling plus wait time, it gets to be somewhat silly. A friend gave me a great tip for cleaning media: Lizard Bedding.  It comes in different sizes but the biggest one is 10lbs costing $12.99 at PetSmart. Compare that to Frankford Arsenal Brass Cleaning Media Treated Walnut Hull 7 lb Bag at $13.79 or the 15 lbs bag for $22.99. As for polishing, you can use Frankford Arsenal Brass Case Polish 8 oz Liquid for $7.79 or splurge all of $3.00 for the same amount of good old Brasso bought at WalMart.

A spoonful of Brasso per tumbler load will suffice. do pour on the media and let it mix for 4-5 minutes before adding brass.

The three on the right were treated with the bedding+brasso combo and the ones on the left with bedding only. Sorry about the flash wash, but I think the difference is still visible.

PETA takes shot at ‘American Idol’ singer Kristy Lee Cook’s new hunting series, ‘Goin’ Country‘ says the L.A Times. I don’t think they would dare, specially when the intended “target” can shoot back… and well.

Doesn’t PETA have to go do an Auschwitz on the dogs they rescue? Go bother somebody else.

Via NRA-ILA we find about armed citizens in Ashtabula County, Ohio captured an armed criminal. That on itself is newsworthy and congrats to the citizens of Ashtabula for keeping themselves safe. The County was deprived of their normal LEO numbers of five vehicles to two when the County Commissioners cut down on the budget. funding and this two cars are supposed to cover a total area of 1,368 square miles. Of course we heard from the Sheriff and the standard “leave this for the professionals” speech but reality is a very different bag of cats and there is no way that 102,728 people, 39,397 households, and 27,774 families can depend on two cars to keep them safe.

In the comment section of the original link above, the praise and support for the “posse” makes the majority of the entries. Of course we have the whining bunch afraid of armed citizens defensing themselves. How come they are not afraid of the damned criminals intent on doing their nasties on them is still something I can’t quite comprehend. Here are some of the comments:

Mac
Mentor, OH
This is just hilljack justice at its worst. People like Kusar and his band of thugs are the reason we moved out of Ashtabula county. Let the professionals do their job.

This individual stop doing any kind of thinking after reading the word “posse.” He was told by another contributor that there are not enough professionals to do the job but it still shows the kind of numb-mind that populates our country.

llamamamma
Oslo, Norway
This is rather scary. Has it become common, to wander armed in large groups or is this a regional thing?

Scary only if you are a criminal.

Wait a second
North Olmsted, OH
Thankfully, this story had a “good” ending. But what if it hadn’t? Encouraging people to tote guns and engage in vigilante justice is just asking for somebody to get killed.

Nobody engaged in vigilante nothing but that is lost on this individual. The armed criminal (again, armed) was apprehended. Did I say ARMED? How do you engage armed criminals? With 911 and a can of wishful thinking?

It is good to see that we are recovering some backbone and testicular fortitude in this country. Good for the people of Ashtabula County.