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Are You A Prepper In The St. Louis Area?

February 13, 2014 by

If you are a prepper or suburban homesteader in the St. Louis metro area and are in the market for a new home, I’d like to point out a real estate auction that will be taking place on Thursday, February 20th in O’Fallon, Illinois. The auction is part of a mega auction handled by Adam’s Auctions of Belleville, Illinois. The auction flyer can be found here. There is an open house this coming Sunday, February 16th from 12 to 2pm. The house is located at 970 Old Vincennes Trail in O’Fallon.

The house and land belong to the Complementary Spouse’s mother who now resides in senior-living apartment. At age 84, it was just too much for her to keep up with. The property consists of a 3 bedroom, 3 full bath brick ranch with a full, finished walk-out basement. It has fireplaces with inserts on both levels. The house is listed as being 4,832 square feet of heated living space. More details on the house are available here.

A virtual tour of the house is available here.

It is situated on 5 acres of partially wooded land on the outskirts of O’Fallon, Illinois. It also has a heated two story outbuilding that has a shop and a two car garage. There is also an old barn at the back of the property which could be torn down or refurbished. At the very least, you could sell the barn wood for decorative uses like picture frames.

Front view of house – picture taken this past Christmas.

The house is surrounded by many farms yet is just around the corner from O’Fallon police department and about a mile from the fire department. A very modern YMCA is in walking distance from the back of the property. It is also about 3.5 miles to the front gate at Scott Air Force Base. Scott is the home to the US Transportation Command, Air Mobility Command, and the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command.

A small stream runs through the property and the property still has a functioning well though it is on city water. In other words, from a prepping standpoint, you have an alternate source of water. The house is heated with propane and there is a large tank. However, you do have the option of
connecting to natural gas as a gas line was run on the property after it
was built.

When the Complementary Spouse’s parents bought this property in 1999, it was supposed to be their dream retirement home. Her mom had a sewing room and lots of space for storage. Her father had his workshop out back, space for a large garden, a private office, and a locked gun room. The house could hold all their three children and all their eight grandchildren comfortably at the holidays. Cancer interrupted those dreams as it is wont to do.

I have spent many a Christmas and summer vacation in this house. I love this house. If I could teleport the house and property to North Carolina, I’d do it in a heart beat. While not perfect, it has all the raw material needed for a suburban homestead – land, trees, water, and space.

If you are interested and have questions, please feel free to pop me an email.

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9th Circuit: “Good cause” Violates Second Amendment

February 13, 2014 by 5 Comments

Great news out of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the case of Peruta v. San Diego, the court found that requiring “good cause” to get a carry permit violates the Second Amendment. The court said the state of California can decide what training and background checks are required as well as the manner of carry. However, they can’t preclude the vast majority of Californians from exercising their right to carry.


Dave Kopel has more here at the Volokh Conspiracy page of the Washington Post.

Here is some background on the original case, the decision by District Court Judge Irma Gonzalez, and the decision to appeal the case to the 9th Circuit. The case was appealed to the 9th Circuit in late 2010 which shows just how long it takes to move Second Amendment cases forward.

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Tactical Crutch

February 13, 2014 by 2 Comments

I stumbled across this on Tumblr and all I can say is…I want it!

Now if I could only have a pair of these with snowshoes grafted on to them, it would be perfect given the 8″ of snow on the ground here in western NC. I’m thinking the connection between the crutch and snowshoes would need some sort of articulated joint with hydraulic dampening.

Oh, the things you dream about when you are stuck in the house due to snow and a broken ankle and are starting to get cabin fever.

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Valentine’s Day Is Coming

February 12, 2014 by 1 Comment

With Valentine’s Day coming, there are a lot of suggestions about what to get your sweetie as a gift. The Rosenburg, Texas Police Department suggests giving the “gift of safety”.

Picture on the Rosenburg PD’s Facebook page.

Rosenburg is a small city located just outside of Houston and is considered part of the Houston metro area. Their police department made the suggestion to give a firearm as a gift on their Facebook page. So far it is has gotten over 2,000 like and 7,600 shares.

As you can imagine, it has generated a lot of comments. However, my favorite one was a response by the police department itself:  “encourage a constitutional right? Of course we would…in fact we took an oath to protect it.”


I think their comment says it all.

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An Interesting Review Of The Glock 41

February 12, 2014 by 2 Comments

Almost lost in all the hoopla over Glock introducing a single stack .380 ACP pistol was their other introduction at the SHOT Show – the Glock 41. This new pistol is a long-slide Glock along the lines of the Glock 34 and 35 but in .45 ACP. Greg Hickok in his review below refers to it being “practical-tactical” in that is could both be used for competition and for self-defense.

The reason I’m posting the review by Greg aka Hickok45 is that it is one of the best reviews of this new pistol that I’ve seen. I think the Glock 41 will probably sell well and give other double-stack .45s a run for their money. I don’t know if I’d trade my 1911s for it but I might add it to the gun collection.

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“Just Say No To Firearm Ignorance” – Billy Johnson

February 10, 2014 by

Billy Johnson is one of the newer commentators for NRA News and I think he is one of the best. In a commentary released last week, he examined how communities respond to the accidental death of children. On the one hand you have accidental drownings and on the other you have accidental deaths involving firearms. Which do you think is responsible for more deaths of children under the age of 15? If you answered drownings you would be correct. A child is 12 times more likely to drown than to die from an accident involving a firearm according to CDC statistics.

Billy noted in his small community in Michigan they had an accidental drowning last year. The community responded with programs for better education and more water safety measures. They didn’t ban water sports, they didn’t move to close the Great Lakes, and they didn’t want to create Swim Free Zones. The community devoted time, money, and education to help handle the problem of water safety. They believe it is a community’s responsibility to make sure all kids know how to swim.

The question Billy asks is why is the response to accidental gun deaths not the same as for drownings.

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Good News From Florida Carry

February 10, 2014 by

Gun rights organization Florida Carry filed suit against Eastern Florida State College on Monday, February 3rd, to force them to comply with state law regarding defensive firearms and weapons storage. State law allows firearms to be stored in locked vehicles parked on the campuses of Florida’s public universities, colleges, and community colleges.

On Friday, the college issued a revised policy and will work with Florida Carry to craft lawful policies. Eastern Florida State College is located in Cocoa, Florida and was formerly Brevard Community College. They changed their name in 2013 when they began offering 4-year bachelor’s degrees.

From Florida Carry’s release:

Palm Bay FL – On Monday Florida Carry, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Eastern Florida State College seeking to protect the rights of students, faculty, and the public from the college’s illegal regulations prohibiting defensive firearms and weapons stored in private vehicles. Today Eastern Florida State published a revised policy that brings them in to compliance with state defensive firearms and weapons laws. We are pleased by the college’s response to the case thus far and greatly appreciate their willingness to work with Florida Carry to craft lawful firearms and weapons policies. We hope to reach a final settlement of the case soon.

In December Florida Carry won a similar case against the University of North Florida (UNF). In Florida Carry v. UNF the First District Court of Appeal ruled that “The legislature’s primacy in firearms regulation derives directly from the Florida Constitution… Indeed, the legislature has reserved for itself the whole field of firearms regulation in section 790.33(1)…” No public college or university has any authority to prevent students and the public from having a functional firearm in places that are constitutionally protected or permitted under state law.

Florida law provides for strict penalties against public entities and individuals who violate the rights of gun and defensive weapon owners. Any public entity which attempts to restrict the statutory and fundamental right to keep and bear arms in Florida is subject to enforcement actions by organizations such as Florida Carry.

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Early Morning Fire At Winchester’s East Alton Plant

February 9, 2014 by 6 Comments

There was a fire in the early hours of the morning at Winchester’s East Alton, Illinois ammunition plant. Fortunately, it seems that only a maintenance shed was destroyed and the fire did not spread to other areas of the plant.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

An early-morning blaze and propane explosion at an ammunitions factory in East Alton was contained to a maintenance shed and caused no injuries, according to police.

A motorist spotted fire in a maintenance shop at the Winchester Ammunition plant, which is a division of Olin Corp., and called 911 about 3:15 a.m., according to East Alton Fire Chief Randy Nelson.

Reports vary as to when the fire was first spotted but it was finally extinguished around 7:30 this morning. The blaze caused propane cylinders to explode and steam lines to rupture from the intense heat.

More on the fire from St. Louis station KMOV:

You can see the morning after pictures in this report from Fox 2 St. Louis:

Winchester has been in the process of moving its center-fire ammunition production from the East Alton plant to its much newer plant in Oxford, Mississippi. Winchester started this move in mid-2010. Rimfire ammunition was moved to Oxford earlier.

 Olin Corporation, the parent of Winchester, has not made any official statement on the fire that I can see on their website. Given that it happened on a Sunday morning, this is not too surprising.

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Black History And The Second Amendment

February 8, 2014 by 3 Comments

This video featuring Craig DeLuz of Cal-FFL was posted on YouTube yesterday in honor of Black History Month. It is an excellent overview of the intertwined relationship that African-Americans have with the Second Amendment and gun rights. The overview ranges from before the Civil War to the modern civil rights era.

While not as comprehensive as Prof. Nicholas Johnson’s Negroes and the Gun, it does cover a lot of ground and is well worth watching.