Here is the question: should I spend 1400 beans on the following items.
1. A pre-lock SW 627 Performance Center .357, which also includes a Trijicon red dot, 20 moon clips, a de-mooning tool, a moonclip saver, a moonclip loading tool, and a Blade-Tech holster.
I have from a reputable source that the going rate for Pre-lock PC 627’s is about 1100 beans, and I’d estimate that the Trijicon and other gear is worth about 300, so the question is do I buy the thing?
That’s right guys, tonight on Gun Nuts Radio at 9pm, Breda will be hosting the show, live on the webcam feed as well! As usual, I cannot strongly enough recommend that you join us live for the show – if you’re not listening live and catching the cam-feed, you’re missing the experience, which includes the New and Updated Gun Nuts Drinking game, now with rules for when Breda hosts.
The topic of the show is going to be some of the unique issues that the ladies face in the shooting sports, from sexism to clothing, holster selection, you name it and it’s on the table. But here’s what we want from you – call ins. We want the ladies out there listening (and we know you’re out there) to join the show live by calling in at 347-539-5436. Bring your range stories, your jokes, your gripes, you name it and Breda and I will talk about it on the air. Listen live, and we’ll do what we can to get your 15 minutes of fame! That’s tonight at 9pm Eastern time at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts – be there!
The trend continues – NICS checks are up 15.4 percent from this time last year. If you can stretch your memory back to May, we were still in the depths of the ammo shortage and run on rifles, which we just now finally seem to be coming out of. MidwayUSA has 9mm in stock again, and so did Gander Mtn the last time I was there, which almost made me fall down.
The jokes about Obama being the best gun salesman ever, while jokes, do seem to be true don’t they.
In the post titled The Tyranny of Superstition, down in the comments a point was brought up that I wanted to address, because it’s something that I see happen every now and then, but is generally the exception rather than the rule. Specifically, in this comment:
I live in Middle TN and the closest gun club is Middle TN Shooters and a few years ago when I showed up for one of their Sun shoots (nervous as all get out), no one approached me … no one introduced themselves. They saw me standing there and they continued their IDPA practicing and I finally left as I felt like a the odd man out…I would love to shoot IDPA, but who wants to try and break into the “gun club group” who walk around like peacocks and almost dare you to interrupt them.
Maybe I’m the exception, but I have always felt that as a newish shooter, you are considered an outsider until you can prove your acceptance into the group.
Being a young guy in the shooting sports, I have from time to time felt like the “odd man out” at some ranges and shops. That being said, I have found that the vast majority of the shooting community is very open and welcoming. It’s unfortunate that sometimes you run into clubs and ranges that have adopted a “members only” attitude; but I don’t think that those guys represent the majority of shooters inside the community.
It does happen though, and I think that it’s a legitimate issue that we should take steps to address, but the question how do we address it? A big step that many clubs take is to put “pro-growth” leadership in place – something that happened recently at my club, Atlanta Conservation. Apparently before I joined there were issues with “old guard” essentially stifling the growth of the club; so after a while the remaining membership said “enough is enough” and put new leadership in place.
On a personal level though, the biggest thing we can do to help the problem is be personally welcoming to new shooters. Honestly, you see a new guy at the IPSC match, introduce yourself – make him (or her!) feel welcome. If we all do our part, we really can grow our community.
Rob Pincus, friend of the show and founder of I.C.E. Training will be holding a combat focused shooting class at Coal Creek Armory. If you’re interested in practical defensive shooting, Rob and his team come highly recommended. More details at the link below.
http://coalcreekarmory.blogspot.com/2009/06/ice-combat-focus-shooting-course.html
The more I enteract with people outside of our relatively close knit shooting community, the more I realize that our greatest struggle as a civil rights and advocacy movement is not the political whims of our elected officials, but rather the superstition which which firearms are regarded by the vast majority of the public.
It has become a predictable pattern these days. When most people find out that I’m carrying a firearm (which I am as I write this from my blackberry) their reaction if they’re not a member of the shooting community is universally “You have A GUN!?!?” as though the concept of carrying a firearm is as alien as little green men. I used to take offense to this, and offer pithy little comebacks; however that did little to help the situation or educate the person to whom I was speaking.
So I spent a lot of time thinking about what causes this reaction, and after a lot of thought I have reached the conclusion that gun owners are subject to the tyranny of superstition. If you’d prefer a less melodramatic phrase, then you could say that we are subject to the whims of misinformation. Think about a conversation you have had with an undecided non-member of the shooting community. How much of their info is based on fictional ideas or heavily biased main stream reporting? That is the superstition that we face, just as many researchers and scientists have faced superstition.
That is the issue – as long as people allow their education on firearms, self defense, and civil rights to come from fiction and the media, we will continually be at odds with the myths and superstitions imposed by those sources. Remember, the arguments for the right to keep and bear arms are built in facts – when we resort to arguing from a position of emotion, we are then arguing from the same place that the other side does. To draw a very heroic parallel, think of gun rights supporters as the Galileo of our time, using truth and observation to defend our points, and our opponents as analogous to the Catholic church of Galileo’s day: interested in control, superstition, and suppression of the truth.
(Author’s note: this is by no means a shot at the modern Catholic church)
Sorry guys, but it looks like we’re going to have a slow blogging morning. I’m posting this from the road as I’m working on the next step for Gun Nuts. I hope by the end of the week to have some great information for dedicated fans of Gun Nuts Radio and of this blog.
I’d also like to offer my congratulations to everyone that shot the Pro-Am in Tulsa this past weekend. I heard Phil set up a great, challenging match; despite the foul weather issues I hope everyone had fun. I’ll post match results as soon as I have them.
“A .25 ACP is nice to have when you can’t carry a gun.”
-Tam
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
This is actually a pretty good idea – you visit Gander Mountain’s website, see what they have in stock, and then call the number for pricing and to order. Once you order, they ship the gun to the closest Gander Mountain to you, and you’re off to the races. If you’re like me and have a Gander Mtn 10 minutes from your house, this is a pretty slick way to get guns that might not be in stock locally.
I have been remiss in not mentioning that the USPSA Indiana Sectionals were held recently, with top honors going to Bob Vogel of Team EOTAC. Bob also claimed the Limited-10 division title, taking home 1340 match points; the highest score of any shooter, including the Open Division shooters. For the full results, click here to be taken to the USPSA.org results page.
Indiana has a vibrant shooting sports culture – we have at least two major USPSA matches each year, an IDPA State Championship, a Steel Challenge State Championship, and hopefully next year we’ll be able to swing an ICORE major as well. To give you an idea of what the recent State Sectional match was like, here’s a 9 minute video from one of the organizers. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it out next year with my 625 and shoot some revolver.