Gun Free Zone

According to CBS 2 Chicago, the 2008 summer has not been kind to the residents of the Windy City. One hundred and twenty three residents were shot dead between Memorial day and Labor Day. Now, this was not supposed to happen, no sir. According to Mayor Daley and the cognoscenti from the Brady Bunch, Chicago’s Gun Ban guarantees a violence-free environment where children can play freely and adults live in peace without the threat of death or maiming by bullets.

This would be risible except for the fact that 123 people died this summer. As the report mentions U.S. Service men were safer in a war zone than citizens were in the Gun Free City.  Chicago Eldermen will answer the same way they always do: with more Gun Control and with less Civil Rights with the inevitable conclussion of more innocent people dead that nevertheless will have a chance for the same old Pro Criminal policticians in future elections.

Bloody Lessons not learned. Stupidity and Ingnorance kills.

Update:

Great article in Human Events about the Chicago Summer of Murder. Best quote is this:

But those options don’t appeal to Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis. What he proposes is a crackdown on assault weapons….As of March 31, there had been 87 homicides in the city. When I asked the Chicago Police Department how many of the murders are known to have involved assault rifles, the answer came back: one.

Oy!

My stomach is sounding the alarm big time. The old churning-super-fast-spin-cycle warning of incoming doom tells me Hurricane Ike is going to do a tap dancing act in my neighborhood and I hate dancing in general.

The sucker is ugly as the picture shows and if you take in consideration that he is blowing at 135 miles per hour, what we have is an honest to God fifties horror blob intending on destroying whatever it can swallows.

Tomorrow and the day after are going to be very busy days getting ready for Ike. The shutters are going to be installed, at least in most of the non-necessary openings, generator checked, gasoline hoarded, double check the pantry for items that need to be stocked and of course more water.  Just to be sure I’ll go over Southcom’s Hurricane Survival Kit which is perhaps the best checklist out there.

I am one of those guys who goes to sleep watching horror movies and uses horror books as coasters which makes living with a wife who adores the genre somewhat challenging so I kinda surprised my wife when the book arrived at our abode and I told her it was about monsters and guns. She got her hands on it after I read it (I devour books while she savors them slowly) and she loved it. And as you may guess, I loved it too.

MHI tells the story of Owen Zastava Pitt, a man that tried to run away from his destiny but destiny ran over him and mauled his body with the furor of a full moon. For those who love monster stories, this book has plenty of creatures, some I never heard of before in my life and I was forced to google them. If you like guns, you will enjoy the literary gun porno that Larry Correia describes in detail. If you like both, well friend you will be in hog heaven. The story is fast paced, entertaining, funny and packed with action. As today, I have read the book 5 times, in fact I finished my fifth go-around last night and it does not loose its flavor.

Gun people are very picky about the usage of guns be in movies or books. We want accuracy in its portrayal, smartness in the tactics and no B.S. of any kind. Larry manages to imbue that by a strict description of the firearms used in the book, but somehow he easily get us to suspend disbelief and we buy Master Vampires, Orcs, Werewolves and Wendigos. Did I forget to mention it is his first book? Yep and I can’t wait for MHI2 to come out.

Now the good/bad news. The cover you see in the picture is from what I call Edition Zero. Larry self-published his book after being rejected by everybody but the taco vendor in the corner. He himself admits he was not ready for the acceptance and the books went out as fast as the printer could have them ready. The good news is that MHI was picked up by Baen and it is due sometime next year if I remember correctly. The bad news are that MHI: Edition Zero is gone. There is somebody selling an used copy in Amazon.com for $199 and I could not find copies in either Ebay or Powells. So if you want your copy, you must wait for Baen to publish it.

Larry Correia is the owner of FBMG, a gun store in Utah that would make any human being shriek in glee plus he is a firearms instructor and contributor to SWAT magazine.

By the way, Larry had a great sales strategy: He offered the patch you see in the cover during the distribution of Edition Zero. In a rare moment of insight, I managed to secure two so the wife would not complain. I have not seen hers ever again, something about not trusting me to keep my paws away from it (Damn it, she kinda knows me after 22 years) and I keep mine also in a safe place, unable to decide if it will ever be attached to some garment.

I have not made my mind yet on Sarah Palin’s nomination as VP. First impression is I like her, but I do want to learn a bit more before going full burst. However things look good because the Dems are throwing a gigantic hissy fit about her supposed lack of experience and how 2 years as governor of Alaska cannot prepare her for a job as important as the Vice Presidency which is to say that Dems are afraid that since McCain is old, he may kick the bucket and a woman (Lib Dem Says:Gasp! Only Dems are allowed to have a woman President!) with only two years of experience as governor (Lib Dem Says: Please ignore Obama’s 140 days as Senator) may become POTUS. The Horror! And of course the Lib Media is going after her, her redneck husband (Lib Dem Says: Snowmobile races? Is there anthing more retarded?) and her 17 year old pregnant daughter. Top that with the fact that she is an NRA member, likes guns, fishes and hunts to boot. Lib Dem Says:Oh My G-O-D! Poor Bamby!)

So what we have is a fighting conservative with two years of experience as governor, with guts to shake the corrupted old boys network within her own local party, who won the governorship on merit and not money, large family with problems but loving anyways and loved guns and went shooting & hunting & fishing and may reach the Presidency if something happens to the elected President. It sort of sounds familiar…. I heard something similar that happened before… Oh yes!

Created Equal ? Made Equal!
(Originally posted on May 10th, 2008)

“I hate people with guns. They are cowards.”

In the now defunct TruTV “reality” series Operation Repo, one of the characters is Matt who is the muscle-bound goon/enforcer for this repossession company. If you ever have the misfortune of catching a rerun, you will see Matt doing his specialty: jumping on people about half his size and wrestle them into submission.
In one episode however, the tables were turned when a car owner pulled a firearm and threatened the Repo-Idiots with deadly force. Muscle Matt became a quivering mass of fecal decomposition and was looking for a hole to hide. In the post-event interview Matt made clear he despised armed people and considered them cowardly because they did not fight fairly. This is typical of bullies and criminals who like to have the upper hand on their victims, they bitch and moan about a gun giving an “unfair advantage” as if their physical abilities to pounce and stomp somebody without the body mass or fight training is supposed to be fair. I guess that your average steroid-enhanced moron think he has the OSHA-mandated right to pulp the hell out of a smaller person and such person should not have the means to defend him/herself and having a gun is some sort of Federal Violation punishable by death.

Is having a gun and the ability to administer deadly force in case of attack by Matt or one of his colleagues considered unfair advantage? Well, yes! It is my life we are talking about here and I plan to used every mean and perform every trick in the book if I can stay out of the hospital or the morgue. And if Matt or someone like him makes the tactical error of considering that I am not a physical match to them and thus easy pickings, it will be his mistake by initiating an unprovoked attack and then find himself with a new orifice where one was not that morning. Fair means I get to go home alive. So allow me to repeat those famous words (infamous to bullies and criminals) uttered by somebody but that reflect a deep and enlightening truth.

“God created men, Sam Colt made them equal.”

Whenever I fee too polite, I drop by Monster Hunter Nation and read Larry Correia’s latest which inspired the butchered Photoshop creation displayed above. Click on it for better resolution.

This year we are faced between a shit sandwich and a shit hot dog. Not very palatable options and still we must ingest one.

Set aims for Congress 2010. We were caught asleep at the wheel too many times already. We cannot let it happen again or risk lose everything.

The Responsability of Starting People on the Road towardas CWP.
(Originally posted on July 29th, 2008)
People at my workplace and some non-gun friends know I am involved in guns and IDPA shooting so it is not unusual that they come to me to ask questions. Day before yesterday I found myself again answering the doubts of somebody who wanted to get a Florida Concealed Weapons Permit making him the 6th person this year who has initiated the process by going through me first. I would lie if I say I am not proud that people thinks I know enough and I am approachable enough to confide in me for their initial steps towards self-protection. It also scares me silly because I know how limited my knowledge can be.

I usually don’t ask why do they want to get a CWP since I’ve noticed that I usually get a canned response and I get a better feeling when they start asking questions. Most of the inquirers are people who are truly worried about being defenseless and feel they need tools to protect themselves. The minority have some sort of Rambo complex and feel they can achieve instant justice if they are packing and to both of them I said that they are better off without even owning a gun.

I should not be, but I am still amazed at the amount of misinformation floating out there regarding CWPs. I have no doubt that the Media and Hollywood are to blame and it is a titan’s job to counter all the lies but it must be done. I patiently tell them that no, you cannot shoot somebody in the State of Florida because they are stealing the car and you cannot “shoot in the air” either to scare them. Just get Police on the phone and then call your insurance company. I tell them to repeat over and over Reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm and to memorize it alongside the Four Rules of Gun Safety. I tell them to get, study and know by heart Jon Gutmacher’s Florida Fireams Law, Use & Ownership and to remember that every bullet he shoots has a possible lawsuit attached to it. I also leave politics aside and concentrate on the issue of getting the permit. The Second Amendment will come in full force when they are part of the Gun Culture and realize some cretin in D.C. wants to leave them defensless.

And you want to know what surprises them the most ? When I tell them that the moment they officially put on a legally concealed gun, their first casualties will be ego and pride. They blink hard when I tell them that from then on, no matter how vile the insult, how nasty they were cut off on I-95 by the idiot in the green truck or how maddening they feel when they see somebody cut in at the register line their emotions must be in check and they must avoid conflict at all costs. Add to that that if they never drove by a bad neighborhood before, the gun does not give them permission to do so now, nor to resolve conflicts between neighbors or to assist police when not requested. And also that Avoidance, De-Escalation and Deterrence are now their guidelines for life. The final straw for a few was: “If you ever have to shoot somebody in Self-Defense, that will probably will not be the end of the whole thing but the end of Chapter One with more to come.”

Some, a few, decided that the new responsibility was too much and forgot the whole CWP idea.The rest still went on and obtained or are in the process to get theirs. I just hope the meager basic instructions I gave them serves them to start on the right path.

I want to say that I am not an instructor nor I have any experience as an Operator in any conflict area or have an impressive a rray of certificates from attending many schools of Guncraft. My little experience comes from a dedicated study of those “who have been there, done that have the T-shirt”, one long weekend having a class with a well renowned instructor, the instances where I had the unpleasant experience of having a weapon directed at an unarmed me and those rare occasions when I had to use a firearm to avoid trouble. As of now, I have exact ly the same number of orifices that I came to this world with and the only scars I have in my body come either from utterly mishandling of sharp objects or surgery due to physiological maladies so I guess I haven’t done too bad after all but do take this post with a grain (or two) of salt.