Mini-Blogger Meet In St. Louis

Kurt Hofmann, the St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner, and I had our own little “blogger meet” today in southern Illinois. We met for lunch in Edwardsville which is home to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. It is also the county seat of Madison County which is also famous – or infamous depending on your inclinations – for the number of class-action lawsuits that have been filed in its courts.

It was nice to finally meet Kurt in person as we had corresponded for many months and I have been reading his columns for a while now. He arrived wearing his brand-new Project Gunwalker T-shirt which will make his fellow 82nd Airborne alumnus Sean Sorrentino very happy. Mine is waiting for me at the Post Office.

We talked about a number of things including deer hunting in Illinois versus North Carolina, shooting, politics, families, the prospects for concealed carry in Illinois, etc. And, of course, we discussed the latest House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearings on Operation Fast and Furious (aka Project Gunwalker). I think we were both amazed at how poorly William Newell presented himself in the hearings drawing even exasperated comments from Ranking Minority Member Elijah Cummings.

While discussing the region’s indoor shooting ranges, Kurt told me an amusing story of how he took out a target pulley system with his .500 S&W Magnum snubby(damn!). Kurt shoots from a lower position due to being in a wheelchair. The angle this time turned out just right for his bullet to clip the cable and sever it. Ooops! Still, anyone who can handle a .500 S&W Magnum snubby is more than OK in my book.

As long as Kurt is up for it, I think these lunches will be a regular thing when I come out to the St. Louis area. If there are other gun bloggers who would like to join us, please let me know. We may even be able to arrange a blogger shoot on the other side of the river in the free state of Missouri.