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All I Want For Christmas…

January 10, 2012 by 1 Comment

The National Shooting Sports Foundation paired with social media monitoring service Radian6 to search blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other sites to get an idea what brand of gun people were desiring for Christmas. They used the search words “Christmas”, “firearm or gun”, and the names of leading firearms manufacturers. The chart below shows the results.

The marketing managers at Glock and Ruger have got to be happy with these results. Colt should be happy that they placed third on this list as their proportion of the civilian market is, I believe, much less than its ranking here.

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Funny? No. Sad And Pathetic – Yes.

January 9, 2012 by 1 Comment

The gun prohibitionists at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence are seemingly upset by Weer’d Beard’s organization of gun bloggers to do more than just light a candle to combat criminal violence.

I don’t think any of us found the Brady Campaign’s Too Many Victims campaign that funny. It think the majority of us found it sad and pathetic that they thought they could fight criminal violence by standing around with a candle.

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Florida Knife Law Preemption Bill Filed

January 9, 2012 by 1 Comment

In news from the Second Front for the fight for the Second Amendment comes this from Florida. According to Knife Rights, Florida St. Senator Thad Altman (R-24) has filed a bill that would reserve regulation of knives to the State Legislature and pre-empt all municipal regulations of knives and cutting instruments.

As promised in our New Years message, we are pleased to announce that another Knife Rights bill is now in play. Florida State Senator Thad Altman (R- District 24) has filed a Knife Law Preemption bill developed by Knife Rights with cooperation of our friends at Florida Carry. We’d also like to acknowledge former president of the NRA, Marion Hammer, the executive director of United Sportsmen of Florida, who was very helpful in this effort. SB 1732 is “a bill…providing legislative intent to preempt the regulation of knives and weapons to the Legislature.” You can review the bill here: www.kniferights.org/SB-1732_Knife-Preemption_Altman.pdf

This bill builds upon the success of last year’s revised Florida firearms preemption law that provided for painful penalties to political jurisdictions that were previously ignoring the existing firearms preemption law. Our Knife and Weapons Preemption bill voids local laws and regulations and includes these same severe penalties if local jurisdiction were inclined to ignore this expansion of state preemption to cover knives. This puts real teeth into this bill, ensuring “the repeal of rules, ordinances, and regulations prohibited by the [new] section [of law].”

Two encompassing definitions are provided in the bill for “common pocketknife” and “knife” that are otherwise referenced in Florida law without constructive definitions. A “common pocketknife” is defined as “any knife that can be carried in a pocket, purse, handbag, backpack, briefcase, or sheath, or similar container.” “Knife” is defined as “a cutting instrument that includes a sharpened or pointed blade, including a sheath knife commonly used for fishing, hunting, outdoor recreation, or work activities.”

We are working diligently to get a companion bill filed in the Florida House of Representatives, which is generally required to assure passage. We will keep you posted.

It is interesting to note that Florida Carry and former NRA President Marion Hammer are assisting in their efforts. It is encouraging to see primarily gun groups working with knife groups to broaden protection across the board for the Second Amendment. This is the equivalent of hunting groups working with fishing groups to protect both game and fish from the PETAfiles.

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Creative Responses To “Too Many Victims”

January 9, 2012 by 8 Comments

There have been many creative responses to the Brady Campaign’s politicization of the anniversary of the shootings in Tucson. Yesterday, through the inspiration of Weer’d Beard, many blogger featured pictures of a lit candle and their means of protecting home and hearth. A couple have gone even beyond that.

The first comes from bloggers Joe Huffman and Barron Barnett who produced a video featured Joe’s daughter and members of the Lewiston Pistol Club.

The second comes from blogger Sean Sorrentino who held a counter-protest in Raleigh, NC across from the United Community Church of Christ. His counter protest garnered interviews from both the Raleigh News and Observer – the largest newspaper in eastern North Carolina – and from NBC17.

Sean writes about both of these stories here and here. Sean lives in Wake County which has a population of over 900,000 people. One person with an effective counter protest garners as much attention from the media as approximately fifty from NCGV.

The creative counter protests seem to be irritating the anti-gunners. As Miguel at Gun Free Zone reports, one south Florida anti-gun lefty blogger equates our countering the Brady Campaign’s plea for attention with that of the Westboro Baptist Church. That’s right – since we believe in self-defense and protecting our loved ones – we are branded as racist, ne’er-do-well homophobes. If that pathetic response is the best they can do, we’ve won.

UPDATE: Barron and Joe’s video generated many comments on the CSGV Facebook page including Joan Peterson’s “OMG”. Barron provides an admirable fisking to their comments here.

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Reflections On My 2011 Goals

January 9, 2012 by 3 Comments

Normally, one would reflect on their goals for the past year right around New Years. I’m just a week late. Life goes on!

1. Attend the NRA Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh. I really enjoyed the show in Charlotte. The difference will be that this time I’ll attend as a blogger.

I can say that I not only did this but I had a great time doing it. I met many of the other bloggers whom I had read over the year for the first time. I got to attend get-togethers put on by the NRA-ILA and the Second Amendment Foundation plus Breda’s Gunny After-Prom Party, Iain’s Tilted Kilt bash, and SayUncle’s impromptu cocktail party. It was a 9 hour drive each way but darn well worth it.

2. Take a training class. Last year I got my North Carolina Concealed Handgun Permit and it is time to get some more advanced training. There are lots of options available within a day’s drive so I don’t have much of an excuse for not doing it.

I was lucky enough to have been invited to the LuckyGunner Memorial Day Blogger Shoot which allowed me to get a good half day of training with Tom Givens of Rangemaster. This was an appetizer for more training which I followed up in October with a full day at TigerSwan. Two differing approaches but both were valuable.

3. Shoot more often. This goes along with number two above. I’ve got the ammo and now is the time to use it!

I don’t think I was as successful in meeting this goal as I would have liked. Taking time to go to the range can be a problem sometimes which reemphasizes the need to do daily dry fire training. While it doesn’t substitute for actual live-fire training, it is essential to build speed and refine technique.

4. Buy a 1911. I can’t think of a better way to commemorate the centennial of John Moses Browning’s masterpiece than to do this. While I have a Argentine Ballester Molina or, as my late friend Milo called it, a ballerina molester, it isn’t a 1911. I don’t know which one (or two or three) that I want to buy yet but am open to suggestions.

While I had a Springfield Range Officer on order which I cancelled for taking too long and still hope to obtain a Ruger SR1911, I stumbled across a Colt Wiley Clapp LW Commander at a local dealer. He gave me a good deal and I went home with not only a 1911 but a Colt. Enough said on meeting that goal!

5. Drink more whiskey. Obviously I won’t be doing this at the same time as numbers two and three above but life is too short to not to enjoy a good bourbon now and again. The Wall Street Journal ran a list of “cultural resolutions” from some well-known people on Friday and this was on fashion designer Nanette Lepore’s list. It makes sense to me.

When my internist said that one of the ways to improve my HDL cholesterol was to drink more alcohol (but of course in moderation), I knew I had a good doctor! And I have tried to follow doctor’s orders. It hasn’t always been good whiskey as I have also discovered rum and Tiki drinks. The Complementary Spouse and I have enjoyed going through Beachbum Berry Remixed cocktail book and picking out cocktails to try.

6. Keep blogging. I only started this blog in May 2010 and have been astounded by its growth. It has been exciting and rewarding on a personal level. My promise to you is I will try to keep finding and publishing important information as well as some things which just tickle my fancy.

As to whether I accomplished this, I leave it up to you the reader to decide if I succeeded. I have enjoyed this and definitely plan on continuing this blog for as long as I have readers.

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Quote Of The Day

January 8, 2012 by 1 Comment

The Students for Concealed Carry on Campus can be depended on to put things in perspective – and with snark and sass!

Brady Campaign lighting candles inside churches today to remember victims of gun violence. Of course, fires claim five times as many lives by accident every year than firearms, so let’s hope they don’t drop one.

And like the good students that they are, they provide backup validation of their claim here. They point to the bottom of page 19 and the top of page 20 as the place to find the relevant data.

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Do You Need Backup Iron Sights On Your AR-15?

January 8, 2012 by 3 Comments

Andrew at Vuurwapen Blog has just posted a video discussing whether you need BUIS on your AR-15 if you are not in combat arms, a LEO, or similar. He makes a lot of good points and notes that his M-4 wasn’t equipped with BUIS when he deployed as a Navy Corpsman with the Marines to Al Anbar Province in Iraq.

I think I’ll be taking another look at this for some of my future builds. Realistically, I can’t see the need for BUIS on an AR-15 set up for hunting coyotes or other varmints.

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Lighting A Candle

January 8, 2012 by 3 Comments

Weer’d Beard made the suggestion that we light a candle to stop violence and show that we have the means to do just that. I heartily concur and here is my entry.

It features my daily carry Ruger LCR loaded with Hornady Critical Defense .38 Special +P in a Don Hume holster, a Speed Strip, and a Yankee Candle Company candle in Lemon Lavender. I understand Lemon Lavender is supposed to have a calming effect.

Weer’d and Miguel have some roundups of other gun bloggers and their counter vigils. Linoge at Walls of the City has some really nice photos of his candles – and firepower to back it up. Finally, Cemetery goes old school with black powder pistols.

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Realpolitik In New Hampshire

January 7, 2012 by 1 Comment

As a longtime student of political behavior, it is rare to see any politician really express their utter contempt for the electorate in such bald terms. Usually they hide it behind pleasant smiles while uttering buzzwords that are meaningless when strung together.

This is what makes this appeal by New Hampshire St. Sen. Gary Lambert to New Hampshire voters so amazing. Lambert is an operative for the Romney campaign addressing the Republican City Committee in Nashua. Essentially he is saying that Romney is a soulless drone with no ideals and no beliefs but forget all of that because he’s our best chance to beat Obama. Of course, the perception that Romney represents the best chance to beat Obama is his perception and not mine.

The reason our country has a $15 trillion (give or take) debt is because we have too many of those soulless drones, both Democrat and Republican, who have no ideals and no beliefs in Washington.

Use the link above – the video is not currently embedding correctly.