Karma!

I have reported on Dicks Sporting Goods over the years. Their former CEO Ed Stack went off the deep end for gun control, they sold their Field and Stream chain, and eventually stopped selling firearms. Many employees also departed the company in protest. In other words, the company lived up to its name.

I saw this tweet this morning from Rob Romano about a former Dicks building now being used for a gun show.

If you click on the embedded tweet, you can see the inside of the building along with the prices for a table. The replies to Rob’s tweet are brutal for Dicks.

The Lycoming Mall is located in Pennsdale, Pennsylvania which is in the north-central part of the state or about 80 miles due north of the state capitol of Harrisburg.

DSC Convention Day Two

Day Two was much like the first day with a lot of walking around. I did get to talk with a couple of Eastern Cape outfitters about trips in 2023. One was Marius Goesen of KMG Safaris who I really enjoyed talking with. My friend David Cole had gone with him on an earlier trip and plans to go again.

Two highlights from the the day were a seminar that was an accumulation of tips and wisdom about going to Africa. As one of the presenter put it, he was just there in November and some things had already changed. His point was whatever happened for a friend a year or five ago is probably already out of date. Thinks change that quickly. I took 3 plus pages of notes and will do a separate post on that later.

The second highlight was a dinner organized by Africahunting.com for those who participate in its forums. I met a lot of great people there and had some really good Tex-Mex food.

I’m keeping this short so that I can head in to the convention. This will be my last day there so I need to make the most of it.

DSC Convention Day 1

DSC or Dallas Safari Club is holding their annual convention in Dallas. Of course, where else would they hold it! This is my first time attending it so I didn’t know what to expect.

First impressions is that it is a lot like the NRA Annual Meeting exhibitions but without the mega-booths from the major gun makers like Ruger, S&W, SIG, and the like. Having attended the NRA Annual Meeting here at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Dallas Convention Center just a few years ago, I have a decent appreciation for how the space is filled. I would put it at about 3/4 of what I saw at the NRA exhibition.

The gun makers were off in a section by themselves and the mix here is widely different than what you’d see at either SHOT or the NRA Annual Meeting. While SIG and Savage both had booths, they were much smaller. Moreover, instead of seeing S&W, you got Rigby, Holland and Holland, and a slew of custom gun makers. The American Custom Gunmaker’s Guild had a section to themselves and their work there would take your breath away.

You of course had outfitters from around the world. There were the US outfitters with hunts for everything from brown bears in Alaska to guide whitetail hunts in Indiana with the western elk and sheep hunts thrown in for good measure.

The African contingent covered the continent from east to west and north to south. In terms of value, a 5-7 day hunt in the Eastern Cape of South Africa goes for $4-5000 plus or minus. For that you’d get upwards of five animals. By comparison, a guide whitetail hunt for archery in Indiana goes fro $4500.

You also saw some interesting things for sale such as this swamp buggy from Argo. I think I heard the sale rep say that the tires can be used for extra fuel storage. I didn’t ask the price. I think it probably is in the range of “if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it”.

Finally, while I have much more to write about the DSC, I’ll save it for another time. I just want to add this last picture taken this morning from my room. I didn’t realize until I look at a map and then looked out the window again that the Texas School Book Depository and Dealey Plaza were a mere block away. I am of an age that I do remember where I was when JFK was assassinated.

Ruger Is Doing Good

WTTA or Walk the Talk America is a non-profit initiative originated within the firearms industry to tackle the issue of suicide by firearm. Now they have just received a $25,000 donation from Sturm, Ruger and Co.

From the press release:

This donation will go a long way to supporting the WTTA’s efforts to educate mental health experts and firearms industry professionals on the critical need for information and communication between and within our industries to help curb the tide of suicides and gun violence,” Mike Sodini, founder of Walk The Talk America, commented.


“We are happy to support the great work that Mike Sodini and Walk the Talk America has done to bring mental health awareness and suicide prevention to the forefront,” added Chris Killoy, President and CEO of Ruger.


For over four years, WTTA has spearheaded a movement within the firearms industry to bridge the gap between mental health and responsible firearm ownership with the goal of reducing suicide by firearm and gun violence. Through educational material, podcasts, and training programs, WTTA is paving the way of educating mental health professionals about the gun culture and breaking down the negative stigmas around mental health for gun owners.


“We strongly believe we are saving lives, and we thank Ruger for supporting our common mission to end gun-related violence and suicide,” Sodini said.

The more the firearms industry donates and works to tackle this issue, the better. Unlike the gun control industry who uses the numbers from suicides to plump up the number of deaths in which a firearm is used, the firearms industry is actually doing something. I don’t see any of Bloomberg’s billions going to suicide prevention. I could be wrong on that and will gladly acknowledge it if I am wrong.

Polite Society Podcast Back On iTunes

The Polite Society Podcast has not been available for download since approximately April. Paul Lathrop, the executive producer, had a stroke around that time and the worry was more for his health than getting it online. It was still broadcast over YouTube, on Facebook, and on OpsLens as it was recorded.

Episode 512 Yehuda Remer - Polite Society Podcast - Podcast en iVoox

Well, good news! Not only has Paul recovered significantly from his stroke but the podcast will again be available for download.

Starting last night shortly after we recorded Episode 607, the RSS feed was uploaded to iTunes. You will still have to re-subscribe but it is now available. Look in the iTunes library for “Second Amendment Foundation’s Polite Society Podcast” to download it.

By the end of the week the RSS feed will be available on Stitcher and Google podcasts under the name above.

Expect Higher Ammo Prices In 2022

I hate to be the harbinger of bad news but rises in raw materials combined with supply constraints will mean higher ammo prices in 2022. The ammo companies of Vista Outdoor which include Federal, Remington, CCI, Speer, and HeviShot have announced a price increase effective April 1st.

From the story at The Firearm Blog:

December 21, 2021 

Dear Customer: 

Thank you for your business and for your continued support of American jobs and manufacturing. As we continue to see supply chain constraints and increases in our raw materials, we are increasing our pricing to help offset those rising costs. 

Effective 4/1/2022, CCI, Federal, Hevi–Shot, Remington, and SPEER ammunition will take the following price increases: 

  • Primers – 5%
  • Powder – 5%
  • Handgun – 2-8%
  • Rifle – 3-8%
  • Shotgun – 3-12%

Additionally, due to continued demand, NO new Primer orders will be accepted until further notice. 

Unless you notify us to cancel an order, we will reprice all existing and future orders shipped on or after 4/1/2022 to the new prices. 

You will receive your finalized price list no later than March 15th, 2022. 

Thank you for your continued support of our brands and our American workforce. 

Jason R. Vanderbrink

President, Ammunition 

As you can read in the letter from Mr. Vanderbrink, reloaders are really going to be hurt as they are not accepting orders for primers. The price increase by 5% is what it is but it doesn’t matter if you just cannot get primers at all. There are four companies making primers in the US – CCI, Federal, Remington, and Winchester – and three of the four are Vista Outdoor companies. There are foreign manufacturers such as Sellier & Bellot, Armscor, and Fiocchi but they have their issues as well.

80% Receivers

If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you know that I’m a big fan of infographics. I think I first became aware of them by reading political science professor Edward Tufte’s book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (#commission earned) many, many years ago.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has developed a social media share center that is loaded with infographics on a variety of shooting and firearm topics.

Given that the Biden Administration is currently contemplating moves against personally made firearms, I thought this one on unfinished receivers or lowers was particularly relevant.

The gun control lobby conveniently forgets to mention many things in their jihad against personally made firearms. For example, while it is 100% legal to make the firearm for personal use it is against federal law to sell that firearm to anyone. If you want to make firearms to sell, you need to federally licensed by BATFE and each firearm must have a serial number.

The Same Old Same Old In NYC

I think the old saying goes “that the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Eric Adams, Mayor-elect of New York City, has announced a number of his selections to head various departments and agencies within city government.

Among the positions that he filled was that of his communications director.

From the New York Post:

Meanwhile, Maxwell Young, the head of public affairs at gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety, will be Adams’ communications director. He previously advised Sen. Chuck Schumer (D- NY), and led the MTA’s external affairs.

Image
From Twitter profile

According to his LinkedIn profile, Young has been the Chief Public Affairs Officer and Senior VP of Everytown since September 2019. He also seems to have worked on and off for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) since 2007 with interludes working for the MTA and the Rockefeller Foundation. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 2006.

The only surprise here is that he didn’t work in the Bloomberg Administration. That said, Bloomberg and Schumer both hate individual freedoms. I will admit to being amazed that Young announced on Twitter that he bought a subscription to Stephen Gutowski’s The Reload. Maybe he can learn something and have his viewpoints expanded.

Brutal But Accurate

With the 2022 Olympic Winter Games being held in Beijing, I thought this biathlon poster I found today on Facebook seemed timely.

If you don’t get it, do an Interwebs search for “uighurs”.

UPDATE: The above was done by Chinese dissident artist Badiucao. He has won the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in 2020.

Badiucao’s work above is part of a five canvas series criticizing Chinese human rights abuses ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. He resides in exile in Australia where this art was created. It seems some Australian billboard companies are fearful of pissing off China and have refused to allow his work to appear on their billboards.

Jon Wertheim of CBS News just did a long story about Badiucao and his artwork this evening on 60 Minutes.

Here is a preview: