by Thanks to a tweet from the ArmedDiva, I came across this YouTube. Miko Andres was 6 years old when this was shot in 2009 during an IPSC competition. He is a better shot than many adults and he seems to handle himself in a safe manner. I understand he is still competing in the Junior Class.
Month: March 2012
Or You Could Just Allow Campus Carry
TV station WAVE-3 in Louisville, Kentucky ran a story this week on self-protection for women. They wanted to know if some of the “secret weapons” for women were worth the money and they asked a University of Louisville police officer for his opinion. Some he liked and some he didn’t.
I do agree with his suggestion to be aware of your surroundings and to avoid getting into risky situations. That is good advice for anyone. However, neither the story nor Officer Graham mentioned the one thing sure to make a rapist think twice – a legally concealed handgun.
Lighting The Man Cave
You’ve retreated to the man cave. You can’t take any more of the garbage that passes for entertainment on TV nowadays and have decided to read a good book. But a cave being a cave, it needs some lighting as it gets to be bothersome using night-vision goggles for reading.
Fortunately, a company called Tactical Lamp Worx has the solution. Since not just any lamp will do for the man cave they have created lamps out of AR-15 parts.
All the lamps are custom-made. The prices begin at $400 but you can lower the price somewhat by providing some of your own parts. While not cheap, I’m guessing this would comparable to what you would pay for a “designer” lamp. I doubt anyone else will ever have a lamp just like yours.
I love the motto of Tactical Lamp Worx – Pissing off liberals, one lamp at a time!
H/T Soldiers Systems
More “Insurrectionists” Than I Imagined -#EFAD Is Number Two
The favorite epithet that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) and their leaders love to throw at gunnies is “insurrectionist”. It doesn’t matter which end of the political spectrum you are on, if you believe the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms then you are labeled an “insurrectionist”.
Imagine their consternation to see that the number two book on the Top 100 Free Kindle books is none other than Matthew Bracken’s Enemies Foreign and Domestic. That is because in their worldview this is one of the classic insurrectionist novels for its portrayal of an out-of-control ATF and the armed response from Ranya Bardiwell, Brad Fallon, and friends. It ranks right up there with John Ross’ Unintended Consequences as subversive literature in their narrow-minded opinion.
Matthew Bracken is making this book available for free in Kindle format until March 5th. Frankly, he is hoping the attention given the book will start a discussion and has penned an essay called “Gangster Government, and Sakarov’s Immunity” that should serve as a basis for discussion. I would suggest downloading that as well.
I have all three books in Bracken’s EFAD triology and I paid full price. You can get the first volume for free if you go to Amazon.com and download it. Here is the link to make it even easier.
I’ve been re-reading it today and I had forgotten how engrossing the book really is. It will keep you hooked. Now pass on the link to friends and family and encourage them to download it so we can continue irritating Josh, Ladd, and others of their ilk.
Astroturfing In Syracuse?
A letter appeared in the Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard’s Opinion Blog Reader’s Page today concerning Operation Fast and Furious. The letter was signed by a “J. Wagner” of Solvay, New York which is a suburb of Syracuse. The letter accused the Republicans of being hypocrites and said Obama inherited Operation Fast and Furious from George W. Bush.
To the Editor:
The Grand Old Party should change its name to the Grand Old Party of Hypocrisy, and I was a Republican.
The Grand Old Party’s attack on Operation Fast and Furious shows their hypocrisy. It was started by George W. Bush and his attorney general as Operation Rolling Thunder. Every Republican on the hill supported it. They don’t want the hard-core supporters to know they started it. The Republicans and their attorney general are responsible for Fast and Furious; Obama inherited it, just like the war, the bad economy and the cost of the two wars they didn’t carry on the books.
I was a registered Republican for 40 years; no more. I’m changing my registration to Independent.
Operation Rolling Thunder? Even Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and the Minority on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee never found an “Operation Rolling Thunder” in their attempt to blame gunwalking on the Bush Administration. The only Operation Rolling Thunder than I am familiar with is the bombing campaign over North Vietnam during the 1960s. A Internet search finds the local law enforcement agencies in Syracuse did have a program called Rolling Thunder that was aimed at area criminals with open warrants for their arrest.
As to whether “J. Wagner” is really a Republican, I don’t know. However, he or she does have a number of letters to the editor over the past year that were scathing in their condemnation of Republicans. For example in a letter from June 2011, he or she says “I’m sick of the Republicans in Congress lying about the president’s stimulus plan.” In another letter from August 2011, he or she says “The GOP wants to destroy our democracy and replace it with a country run by oligarchs, like the Koch brothers.” Finally, in a letter from March 2011, he or she writes “If you voted Republican, you have no business complaining about gas prices. You got what you voted for.”
I’m sorry but these are not the statements one would make if he or she were really a “registered Republican for 40 years” as J. Wagner claims. It makes you wonder if the Carrier Dome is missing some of its Astroturf.
Quote Of The Day No. 2
Bob Owens has a good point. You’d think that organizations who are ostensibly dedicated to ending “gun violence” would be leading the charge against Operation Fast and Furious. After all, it was a gun running scheme that has lead to hundreds of dead Mexicans and at least two Federal law enforcement officers. If that doesn’t meet the definition of “gun violence”, then what does.
I’ll let Bob continue from here.
Both CSGV and Brady claim to be organizations dedicated to stamping out gun violence, but a search of both of their web sites show that neither seems to have the slightest problem with Operation Fast and Furious. The gun-walking plot is the deadliest political scandal in American political and Presidential history, costing the lives of 300+ Mexican nationals and only came to light after three U.S. federal agents were gunned down using walked weapons from separate gun-walking operations in Arizona and Texas.
If the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign really represented sincere efforts to end gun violence, then they should have been two of the organizations leading the charge for accountability here. Brady and CSGV should wage a public relations war, helping the House and Senate investigators, and demanding answers and accountability from the Obama Administration…
These organizations remain graveyard silent as the bodies continue to fall. Far from fighting gun violence, they use their silence to enable it.
And In Local News…
Cities and counties in North Carolina have been trying to evade the changes wrought by the General Assembly since it passed HB 650. Particularly, they are bent out of shape over not being allowed to prohibit concealed carry by legal concealed carry permit holders in parks with the exception of clearly defined recreational facilities. Those include specifically “a playground, an athletic field, a swimming pool, and an athletic facility.”
Now the debate has come to the Town of Waynesville or, to paraphrase SayUncle, The Town (My The Town).
Town leaders including Mayor Gavin Brown and Town Manager Lee Galloway are working to amend Waynesville’s ordinance that prohibits concealed carry in all parks to one that would only ban it in recreational facilities.
The law passed last year prevents concealed guns from being carried in recreational and athletic facilities and schools. And, under the law, weapons are legally allowed in some formerly prohibited places such as bars and state parks. While the state tried to be specific where guns are banned, however, the verbiage is ambiguous in some respects.
“There are a lot of questions in our mind, ‘what is an athletic facility? Is a dog park an athletic facility?’” said Town Manager Lee Galloway during a meeting with town leaders earlier this month.
The town’s recreation center on Vance Street and the nearby baseball and soccer fields could be classified as athletic facilities and still ban weapons. The dog park, which is completely surrounded by athletic facilities, would also remain gun free.
With all due respect to Lee Galloway whom I’ve known well and liked for many a year, I don’t think a dog park was exactly what the General Assembly meant by a “recreational facility” nor do I think “greenways” were included as the title of the article suggests.
The article by reporter Caitlin Bowling of the Smoky Mountain News (a free paper) contains many errors including saying that HB 650 allowed firearms in bars and that the law “prevents concealed guns from being carried in recreational and athletic facilities and schools.” Concealed carry in eating establishments and restaurants (HB 111) has passed the State House but still not the State Senate. Moreover, HB 650 allows but does not mandate that concealed carry be prohibited in recreational facilities. As to schools, it was never on the agenda.
The Town Attorney has been instructed by the Mayor “to draft an ordinance even though a likely court battle over the legislation would leave a final outcome up in the air.” The court battle referred to seems to be an anticipated challenge by cities and counties to Section 21 of HB 650. Given that North Carolina state law preempts cities and counties from enacting their own firearms regulations, I don’t think it will go far.
The most telling point of the debate comes from Police Chief Bill Hollingshed when asked if there had been any problems with those Concealed Handgun Permits.
Police Chief Bill Hollingsed said he could not find incidents involving a permitted carrier using a gun at a sporting event or in a park.
“I can’t say that we have a big problem with this; we can’t find any city in the state that has a problem with this,” Hollingsed said.
The people that the town and police need to be concerned about are those who do not have permits but carry a weapon anyway, the town board agreed. The law will not prevent that individual from committing a crime.
“You worry about the people who are going to carry a concealed weapon no matter what the law is,” Hollingsed said.
I think Chief Hollingshed has the correct perspective on the matter. Moreover, given that there have been no problems with those of us with Concealed Handgun Permits, I think the Town of Waynesville Aldermen would do well to do like the City of Hickory and not put any additional restrictions in place.
Quote Of The Day
The quote of the day comes from Jim Shepherd of The Outdoor Wire. As I noted a while back, Dan Richards, President of the California Fish and Game Commission, is the target of a jihad by Humane Society US for his successful mountain lion hunt in Idaho. Now they have gotten 40 Democrats in the State Assembly to join in their call for his resignation.
Forty legislators (all Democrats) have sent Walters a letter telling him he should resign. The letter says “Your actions raise serious questions about whether you respect the laws of the people of California, and whether you are fit to adequately enforce those laws.”
Seriously, guys, are you serious? This is the same gang of legislators that has effectively run California’s finances into the ground while passing enough dopey feel-good, eyewash legislation to keep succeeding legislators (and litigators) busy for the next millennium trying to restore some sort of fiscal sanity.
The photo that started a firestorm. Courtesy Western Outdoor News.
But Richards’ trip to another Idaho has, as they say, “offended the sensibilities” of these forty moral stackpoles of the people.Remember, the hunt was completely legal.
I’m certain they’ve also called for the resignation of all the members of the State Assembly who have ever traveled to Las Vegas or Reno to go gambling (or gamboling with the occasional lady or gentleman of the evening). Not to mention the legislator who said she had a brain tumor that made her shoplift, or the Lieutenant Governor who had a little error in his personal moral compass.
If the same standard of scrutiny this gang of 40 moral compasses applied to Richards, a guy who went hunting-legally, were applied to the all government officials, the Assembly of California (and most others) would dismiss for the lack of a quorum (not to be confused with a Quram – we wouldn’t want to offend anyone).
What is that old saying about people in glass houses and rock…