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I’m so proud

Posted on by Caleb

The Indianapolis suburb of Carmel, which borders the suburb in which I live, has made the national news!  Too bad it’s not something that we should be proud about.

The short version of the story is that a bunch of soccer moms with too much time on their hands are all up in arms about the mannequin displays in the windows of Victoria’s Secret at a local open air mall.  The best part is that they’re essentially saying that because their children can see half dressed mannequins, that it’s going to turn their precious little daughters into whores, and their sons into masturbating sex fiends.

One of my friends from the area summed up the issue the best:

Great.  Now these crazy women are on CNN.  What’s really appalling is the guy say that porn is addictive.  No masturbating may be “addictive” but porn is just a mean to an end.  This same guy will be back on the front page of CNN in a month after he is caught in a strip club.  He will then proceed to blame modern society and pornography but mainly Victoria Secret for his “addiction” and disease.

Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what’s going to happen.

I’m all for protecting your children from indecency, and if you’re worried about the mannequins in the window of Victoria’s Secret, here’s and idea: don’t go to that mall.  Or even better, talk to your kids about sex.  Seriously, when did hiding something from children make them less interested in it?

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Huck is leading the polls?

Posted on by Caleb

According to the latest polls in Iowa, Mike Huckabee (who I’m liking more and more) is leading the polls for Republicans.

Also in Iowa, Obamarama has displaced Hillary as the Democrat leader.

Before I continue, I’ll say this: Polls are almost meaningless, and primary polls even more so. That being said, I think that Huck’s strong showing in the Youtube debate had a lot to do with his rise and Romney’s fall. He really appealed to conservative voters with his answers.

I’m going to come out and say it – he has really impressed me lately, enough so that I’m not going to be voting for Fred in Indiana’s primary. Straight up – I’m voting for Mike Huckabee.

revolvers

The Mousegun that roars

Posted on by Caleb

A new, updated and awesome .32 load from Federal, offered in conjunction with a new Ruger SP101. It’s called the .327 Federal Magnum, and I want one. You can never, ever have too many compact carry revolvers; I figure a .32 Super-Dooper Magnum Blaster would be the perfect compliment to my 2 inch .45 ACP.

Now, what really interests me about this gun are the ballistics that Federal is claiming for this cartridge. They say it’s going to beat the terminal ballistics of a .38 Special +P from a snub nosed revolver, and the test figures from Federal would seem to back that up.

Subjected to the standard FBI protocol tests for effectiveness through barriers, the 115-grain .327 Magnum load reaches 15 inches in bare gelatin, 16 inches through heavy clothing, 16 inches through plywood, 14.5 inches through wallboard, 13 inches through auto glass, and 20 inches through single-layer vehicle body steel–all with substantial bullet upset ranging from .40 caliber (steel) to .60 caliber (auto glass).

So it expands, and appears to penetrate well. Of course, you should always take manufacturer’s statements with a bit of a grain of salt, but the numbers for the .327 Magnum are pretty promising. I just hope that Ruger doesn’t dump it to the wayside like they did with the .480 Ruger.

The other thing that I like about this new gun/cartridge combo is that it’s clearly marketing to the small person/woman concealed carry market. But instead of making a pink gun (it’s okay Taurus, I still love you) Ruger/Federal decided to take a proven platform and chamber for what appears to be an excellent self-defense package. Being a small dude myself, I don’t enjoy shooting full house .45 ACP +P loads out of my snubby very much, so I will definitely appreciate a smaller, less punchy cartridge for personal defense.

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National Muzzleloading Rifle Association

Posted on by Caleb

Because I’m a nerd, I Tivo Shooting USA every time that it’s on.  Wednesday’s episode (which I watched last night) was magnificant, because it was about the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association Championship Matches held in Friendship, Indiana.  I suppose I should include a link to the NMLRA’s actual website as well.

I’ve spoken in the past of my love for muzzleloading, and watching the Shooting USA episode was a hoot.  When they showed the part where the guys were dressed up in buckskins and doing the “primitive shoot”, my wife just kind of gave me this weird look.  Primitives are a lot of fun, actually.  You dress in period gear (usually 1700s to early 1800s), cook, clean, and live like it’s 1799.  It’s a neat idea, and it’s a lot of fun.

The end result of last night’s show was that I’ll probably end up joining the NMLRA and get started in competing in muzzleloading again.  Friendship is just an hour and a half from where I live, which means that traveling to the match to compete would be a cinch.  I can hear the conversation with my wife now:

Mrs. Ahab: “You want to run around in buckskins and a loincloth for a week while you shoot really old guns?”

Me: “Uh…yeah.”

Mrs. Ahab: “Have fun sleeping alone.  I’ll stay in a hotel.”

Me:   🙁

Uncategorized

I’ve been thinking

Posted on by Caleb

So, I feel like lately I’ve noticed that the anti-gun crowd is really focusing on going after gun shows and the mythical “gun show loophole”.  Now, to me that seems like a silly thing to go after, because, well…it doesn’t exist.  However, that’s gotten me to thinking.

What if the anti-gun folks are going after the gun show loophole because it’s an easy target?  Think about it – Suzy Soccermom doesn’t know a damn thing about gun shows, and I will confess that a little bit of bad information can make ferreting out the truth that much more difficult.  So it does make “the gun show loophole” a pretty easy target to get people all riled up about.

But why that?  Aren’t there other easy targets they could chase?  Then it hit me that maybe they’re chasing this one because they’re losing everywhere else.  No traction on renewing the AWB, Castle Doctrine laws are passing left and right, the gun market is exploding in evil black guns, and the Supreme Court is poised to rule on a landmark 2nd Amendment case.

The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.  I’ll admit that my line of reasoning does square nicely with what I hope to be happening as well – but it does kind of make sense.  Attacking a relatively soft target when you’re getting pounding can allow you to build morale if you win.

I don’t want people to think that this means we should relax in our efforts, either.  Right now is the time to not yield a single inch, especially in the gun show category.  It is a battle of momentum, and right now it is on the side of the Evil Gun Lobby.

blogs

More on Seattle Gun Violence

Posted on by Caleb

As a follow-up to this post about Mayor Nickel’s “gun violence summit” in Seattle, the Seattle Post Intelligencer ran an editorial from Alan Gottlieb, which is a shocking display of unbiased reporting.  Here’s the Op-Ed by Mr. Gottlieb:

Finding viable solutions to violent crime is everyone’s business and in everybody’s best interest, so it is not simply disappointing but indicative of a myopic predisposition on the part of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and the Harborview Medical Center’s Injury and Research Prevention Center that their much-touted “summit” on Monday on crimes involving firearms has a gaping hole in the program: No participants from the firearms community were invited to attend, much less participate in the panel discussions.

Like everything that he puts out, it’s well written and makes the point quite well.  Remember that this entire “summit” is funded by the Joyce Foundation, which is about as anti-gun as you can get.   I recommend you click on the link above and read the entire entry.

gun control/news

They just couldn’t resist

Posted on by Caleb

In an otherwise decent article about how more states are submitting their mental health records to NICS, the guys at CNN just couldn’t resist the temptation to throw the Brady Campaign press release line in at the very end.

Background checks, however, aren’t necessary for firearms purchases made at gun shows or from a private seller, which, according to estimates, account for about half of the guns sold in the United States each year.

Yes.  They.  Are.  I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but a Federal Firearms Dealer is required by Federal Law to conduct a background whenever he transfers ownership of a gun, whether he’s at a gun show, or in his store.  If he doesn’t, he has committed a felony.

Also, most “private sales” of firearms are a lot less under-the-table than CNN would have you believe.  The average private sale involves me selling a Ruger GP100 to a good friend who I know isn’t a criminal.  It’s perfectly legal.

The actual topic of the article is interested – the general thrust is that in the wake of VA Tech, more states are actually getting in line with NICS and submitting their mental health records.  What’s interesting to note is that California has submitted over 200,000 “mental health records”.  That statistic only becomes interesting when one remembers that it’s the policy of many LE organizations in California to perform an “involuntary mental evaluation” of anyone arrested for a gun related crime.  You think that is a coincidence?

gun control

EU Tightens Gun Laws

Posted on by Caleb

What they have is a bona-fide registration requirement now.

Under the new guidelines, only adults over age 18 would be able to buy and keep guns, with the exception of firearms for hunting and supervised target shooting.

EU member states would be required to keep detailed computer files with data on each firearm – such as type, model, calibre, serial number and names and addresses of both the supplier and the buyer. The data would be kept for at least 20 years.

Now, before this becomes “law” and enforceable on the 27 member countries of the EU, it has to be approved by all 27 member countries.  I don’t suspect that’s going to be difficult, because it has apparently taken 18 months of negotiations to get this legislation, which is allegedly “the perfect compromise” for everyone.

I hate laws like this.  I don’t like things that tread on the sovereign right of a nation to have its own laws as it pleases, and I don’t like mandatory gun registration.  I also fail to see how anything in the new laws would actually prevent a school shooting, or any other crime for that matter.

There’s a line in the linked article that mentions that the EU’s new restrictions on gun ownership “bring it into line” with the UN’s policies on the ownership of firearms.  We’ve seen how well the UN’s gun laws work for people.  I guess Europe is just circling the drain.  I hope that some of the countries in the EU decide to get a wild hair on their ass and tell the EU to take their gun control and shove it.

But I don’t think that will happen.