Interesting Teaser From Kimber

Kimber, well-known for their 1911s and hunting rifles, sent out a teaser yesterday on Instagram and in a press release. They say they are announcing a new platform on Monday, January 18th, that “will change the way that you think about concealed carry.” The new platform will be available at Industry Day at the Range which I will be fortunate enough to attend.

Here is their teaser:

Either it is a false flag or they are getting into the revolver business.

Frankly, I think it is a false flag. It is hard enough to be successful in the revolver business for the established players. Making a solid, working revolver is harder and more expensive than making a new pistol. If I had to guess, they are coming out with a striker-fired pistol. We’ll see in little more than 48 hours.

As it is, kudos to Kimber for coming up with a teaser that is artistic and that makes us speculate wildly.

The SHOT Show Cometh – What Interests You? (Updated)

The 2016 SHOT Show begins in less than three weeks. New introductions are starting to appear such as the Ruger American pistol and a hunting rifle from Ithaca.

I will be lucky enough to be attending the SHOT Show and Media Day at the Range again this year. The venue is huge as is the number of vendors. This leads to the question I asked at this time last year – what do you want to see?

I can’t see everything though I’ll try! I need to prioritize and start my planning. So go to the SHOT Show website and check through this map and list of vendors.

Tell me in the comments what you want me to check out. Alternatively, you can pop me an email at jpr9954 AT gmail DOT com.

I am bringing a new (to me) camera, an Olympus OM-D EM-5, which is lighter than my old camera so I hope to publish a lot of pictures here and on Instagram. If you are on Instagram, follow me at @jpr9954. I even got a ultra-lightweight chest harness to keep the camera at the ready as I go around the show floor.

Let the requests begin!

UPDATE: The press releases kept coming along with invitations to visit this booth or that booth. I’m bumping this back to the top as the SHOT Show begins this coming Tuesday. So if you read this blog or listen to the Polite Society Podcast, tell us what you want to us to check out. I’ve already gotten some good suggestions and would love to have more. I can’t promise I’ll make it to every booth or product suggested but I’ll do my damnedest.

One of my plans is to devote a day to the first floor in the Sands Exhibition Center. That is where the smaller companies tend to be located and where you can find some really interesting stuff.

Single Issue Voting

I used to be against single issue voting as I thought politicians should be evaluated on the totality of their views and positions. It was one of the reasons that back in the 80s I dropped my yearly membership in the NRA for a while. I think the rise of voters who only voted based upon abortion was part of that decision. I was trying to be somewhat logically consistent.

However, I’ve come to appreciate how a candidate’s position on gun rights is indicative of how he or she may vote on other issues of interest to me. Michael Bane has made this point many a time on his podcast and has argued the efficacy of it in electing like-minded politicians. A candidate who supports gun rights tends to be liberty minded and that is what I want.

Now it seems the President is in agreement with me (and Michael) on this and urging single issue voting on the matter of gun rights. Of course, his position is diametrically opposite of mine.

His Press Secretary Josh Earnest made this clear in a press briefing on Friday.

Q Can I ask about the President’s campaign pledge in his New York Times editorial (on gun control)?

MR. EARNEST: Please do. (Laughter.)

Q Yes. I’m just kind of wondering if you can put some parameters on that — what a candidate would have to do or not do for the President — or I guess what a candidate would have to do or not for the President to say I’m not going to vote for you, I’m not going to campaign for you, I’m not going to fundraise for you. And also how he would kind of extricate his actions with the DNC or the DSCC or whoever else in that.

snip


Q What about somebody like Heidi Heitkamp, who was a big vote for you guys on TPA, and the President made a big point of saying, I’m going to go out and campaign and raise money for these people who put their neck out?

MR. EARNEST: Well, look, there is no denying the fact that I think that when it comes to most issues, the President agrees with Senator Heitkamp on them, particularly when it comes to a whole range of economic issues and national security issues — that there are a lot of reasons for them to be on the same page. But what the President made clear in that op-ed is that when it comes to this issue, he’s prepared to be a single-issue voter. And he hopes that other people will, too.

And he’s hopeful that that will have an impact on the kinds of decisions that Democrats and Republicans make on this issue in the future when they’re serving in the United States Congress and when they’re called to vote on them.

Whether Democrat voters pay attention to his advice is another matter. As rare as it might be, I wonder whether they would vote for an anti-gun, pro-life, pro-fracking, pro-coal, and climate warming denier or some combination of those so long as the candidate in question is anti-gun. For some reason I doubt it. The interest groups supporting abortion, the environment, etc. seem to be much stronger than either the Brady Campaign or Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors. Moreover, for most Democrat voters, I think abortion, women’s rights, and the environment would be considered more of a core belief than gun control which is more peripheral to these voters.

Overall, I think this works out in our favor especially if we can get Gun Culture 1.0 to get on board with Gun Culture 2.0 in protecting our gun rights. We need to do more outreach to those in Gun Culture 1.0 so we don’t hear “I’m a hunter but no one needs (fill in the blank)” anymore. Unifying both cultures behind candidates who support gun rights will be the key to winning in 2016 and to keeping our rights in the face of the President and “nasty little fascist” billionaires like Mike Bloomberg. Now we just have to do it.

Shocking News!!

I know you will be as shocked (shocked!) by the news below as I am.

I wonder if it was her endorsement of Australian-style gun confiscation or her decision ignore the experience of Democrats in 1994 and Al Gore in 2000 to go all in for gun control. It could have been her proposal of a “cash for clunkers” approach to gun buybacks with yours and my money. And let’s not forget that she is the Brady Campaign’s Governor Mario M. Cuomo Leadership Award winner! It could be that an organization full of bullying old harridans recognized her as one of their own.

If Bernie Sanders actually pulls off a win in Iowa and/or New Hampshire, I wonder if they will reconsider. The Qunnipac University Poll shows him retaking the lead in Iowa and holding a lead in his neighboring state of New Hampshire.

The Brady Campaign is going all in as they have even set up a website proclaiming their strong endorsement of Clinton.

On Texas, Whiskey, And Other Stuff

If you noticed that my blogging tailed off around midweek, it was because I was in Texas for my cousin Bill’s funeral. I flew down Wednesday evening and returned Friday night.

It was both a sad and joyous occasion. Sad because his wife Annie lost the love of her life. Sad because Bill was killed by a reckless driver who crossed the center line and hit him head-on. Sad because so many of us lost a friend.

It was joyous because everyone had a story or two to tell about Billy. These stories usually revolved around fishing because Billy was the consummate avid fisherman. Whether it was going on the “trip of a lifetime” to catch big yellow fin tuna which he ended up repeating a number of times or using somewhat controversial methods to catch a big rainbow trout at Yellowstone’s Fishing Bridge, they all epitomized Bill. When he went on his “trip of a lifetime”, he thought nothing of fishing 20 hours out of 24 when they were on the fish.

The wreath above was from his fishing friend Todd. I thought it was the perfect touch for the reception after the funeral where we all gathered to share a meal and tell Billy stories.

Bill had managed the food service operations for Aramark at the huge Dow Chemical plant in Freeport, Texas for many years. How Aramark handled things the day of his funeral says a lot about them as a company and the respect that Bill’s co-workers had for him. Aramark closed the food service operations on Thursday and gave all the employees the day off with pay so that they could attend the funeral. From the looks of it, virtually all attended the funeral.

The thing that stands out in my mind about Texas and Texans is how generous they are in times of crisis. Neighbors and friends were constantly bringing in food. Mike, their next door neighbor, was a retired Houston fireman and he cleaned the belongings out of Bill’s truck so as to spare Annie even more pain and grief. His fishing buddy Todd and his wife Lisa were there from day one of the tragedy. The list goes on and on.

Texas, in addition to great people, is blessed with some really good liquor stores. On my way to the airport I stopped at the Spec’s in Pearland to see what they might have in the way of Texas offerings. The Spec’s salesperson first asked my price range and then recommended the Rio Brazos Boxcar Texas Whiskey. Rio Brazos is a craft distillery located in College Station. It will be interesting to try given that the whiskey has a final filtering through coarse pecan wood.

Finally, I need to say something about Southwest Air. I like the fact that they don’t charge for checking bags and I like their boarding system. Very few people try to cram everything they’ve brought into the overhead bins. As a result, boarding by number instead of assigned seat is quick and efficient.

The Empty Chair Makes An Empty Gesture With The Empty Chair

Sometimes the headline just writes itself.

So it is with the announcement that President Barack “Empty Chair” Obama will leave an empty chair in the First Lady’s box at the State of the Union Address. The empty chair is help vacant for the victims of gun violence (sic).

A Vacant Seat for the Victims of Gun Violence

Last week, the President took a series of commonsense steps to help reduce gun violence in America and make our communities safer.

We leave one seat empty in the First Lady’s State of the Union Guest Box for the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice – because they need the rest of us to speak for them. To tell their stories. To honor their memory. To support the Americans whose lives have been forever changed by the terrible ripple effect of gun violence – survivors who’ve had to learn to live with a disability, or without the love of their life. To remind every single one of our representatives that it’s their responsibility to do something about this.

To see what an empty gesture that this is, let’s drill down through the numbers. The gun prohibitionists at Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors tell us that 88 people die daily due to “gun violence” (sic). Using their own numbers, this includes a daily average of 55 people who commit suicide using a firearm. This is disingenuous as it blames the instrument for their deaths. We don’t talk about intentional overdose violence or Golden Gate Bridge violence or subway violence but all are a means by which people have killed themselves. Realistically we should be more concerned with the why of suicide than the how but then that wouldn’t fit the narrative.

After you take out the 55 people a day who commit suicide using a gun, you are left with 33 deaths per day. Of these, still using Everytown’s averages, about 2 daily are due to unintentional injuries and undetermined circumstances. That leaves 31 homicides per day and here is where it gets interesting.

During 2013, according to the CDC, there were 11,208 homicides that involved a firearm. Breaking it down by race and ethnicity, you find that non-Hispanic blacks accounted for 56.8% of homicide victims, non-Hispanic whites for 25% of homicide victims, and those of Hispanic ethnicity for 15.6% of homicide victims. Asians, American Indians, Pacific Islanders, and “other” only were victims in 2.6% of homicides.

Current census statistics show that non-Hispanic blacks are only 12.4% of the total US population with those of Hispanic ethnicity making up another 17.1%. Non-Hispanic whites account for 62.6% of the population. So while Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks make up only 29.5% of the US population, they account for 72.4% of homicide victims.

Given that non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics make up the great majority of homicide victims, I had to speculate about the age distribution. The CDC 2013 aggregate statistics didn’t give this info but their WONDER database did allow for searches by race and age groups.

Whites showed a fairly even distribution with tails for the young and elderly. The 25-29 age group was the peak age group for homicides among whites at 12% of white homicides. Murder victims between the ages of 15 and 34 account for 38.8% of all white murder victims. Keep that number in mind.

Hispanics and non-Hispanic black murder numbers were skewed younger and less evenly distributed by age. Hispanic murder victims between the ages of 15 and 34 accounted for 68.6% of all Hispanics murdered. The peak age group was between 20 and 24 with 24.1% of all Hispanic murder victims. Non-Hispanic blacks showed similar results. 71.9% of black murder victims were between the ages of 15 and 34 with the peak age group being the same 20 to 24 years of age as Hispanics. That age group accounted for 25.9% of black murder victims.

I am not a criminologist but even common sense (a word beloved by President Obama) would indicate that gang and drug-related crime is behind the significant concentration of deaths among younger blacks and Hispanics. Efforts concentrated on suppressing gangs combined with a more realistic policy on drugs would have a greater impact on reducing so-called gun violence (sic) than any of the gun control efforts that President Obama is seeking. However, given the unholy alliance in cities like Chicago between gangs and the Democrat machine, I doubt anything will be done to suppress the gangs. It is far easier to demonize guns and legal gun owners than it is to attack the root causes of either suicide or homicides.

GSSF Celebrates 25 Years

The Glock Sport Shooting Foundation is celebrating its 25th Anniversary. While I’ve never had the opportunity to attend one of their matches I hear that they are a lot of fun. In addition, GSSF is a CMP affiliated club which satisfies the club membership requirement when you go to buy a Garand or one of the 1911 pistols from the CMP.

GLOCK Sport Shooting Foundation (GSSF) Celebrates 25th Anniversary


SMYRNA, Ga. – Jan. 6, 2016 The GLOCK Sport Shooting Foundation (GSSF) celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year. GSSF was formed in 1991 and continues to exceed the goal of introducing new shooters to the shooting sports.


Since 1991, GSSF has seen more than 120,000 members, over 200,000 match entries, and more than 700 outdoor events. Planned for 2016 are 55 outdoor matches scheduled throughout the United States and another 500+ Indoor League matches available for members who wish to demonstrate their marksmanship, win prizes and enjoy family-oriented atmosphere that is safe as well as fun.


GSSF matches are low-pressure competitions using standard GLOCK pistols and there is no need for expensive match gear. Members compete with others according to their respective skill levels and GLOCK models. The courses of fire are simple yet challenging. There are 10 competitive divisions and also special awards for Juniors, Seniors, Super Seniors, Ladies and 3-Person Teams.


“Millions of dollars in prizes and GLOCK pistols have been awarded over the years,” said Alan Ramsey, Director of Training & GSSF. “We hope you will come out this year and shoot with GSSF as we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Mr. Gaston GLOCK’s vision.”


To view the 2016 match schedules and for more information on GSSF, visit www.gssfonline.com.

Congratulations to GSSF on their 25th.

December NICS Checks

The National Shooting Sports Foundation released their adjusted NICS checks for December 2015 on Monday. Let’s just say that if I had an investment that went up that much I’d be ecstatic! Compared to December 2014, the NSSF-adjusted NICS checks rose 37.6%. This wasn’t the highest December on record – that was December 2012 – but it missed hitting the all-time December high by only about 2,000 checks out of over 2.2 million.

The December 2015 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 2,235,560 is an increase of 37.6 percent compared to the December 2014 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,624,524. For comparison, the unadjusted December 2015 FBI NICS figure of 3,308,199 reflects a 43.7 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,301,386 in December 2014.

You can see the increase graphically below. Look at December 2015 and December 2012 in particular. Both months saw a tremendous surge in anticipation of more gun control coming from the Obama Administration. People were buying firearms while the getting was good.

The firearms industry and those that hold Ruger, Smith & Wesson, and Vista Outdoors stock are probably saying, “Keep talking big guy”.

NSSF Response To Obama’s Executive Actions

Like the NRA, the National Shooting Sports Foundation issued a response to President Obama’s Executive Actions on gun control. Their response is a bit more detailed than the NRA response and they note that they will be issuing more responses as the days go by. They bring up a good point about making the shipper – not the recipient dealer – responsible for reporting guns lost or stolen in transit.

NSSF Statement: “Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence and make Our Communities Safer”
We
all share the goal of reducing the intentional misuse of guns and
enhancing the safety of our communities. As the trade association for
the firearms and ammunition industry, the National Shooting Sports
Foundation (NSSF) will carefully review all aspects of the executive
actions that President Obama announced today. Much remains to be spelled
out. In the interim we have some initial reactions:
  • We support further resources being allocated to staffing and
    increasing operational hours for the FBI’s National Instant Criminal
    Background Check System (NICS) to make the system more efficient and
    responsive.
  • We represent Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs). The criteria
    for what will constitute being “engaged in the business” going forward
    needs considerable clarification and raises questions about
    enforceability.
  • The number of firearms lost or stolen while in transit to or
    from FFLs is less than 0.15 percent of the number manufactured and
    imported in a given year. In these rare occurrences, FFLs already
    actively participate in ATF’s long-standing voluntary reporting program
    and FFLs and common carriers work closely with ATF to investigate them.
    Proposals to make a shipping FFL responsible for tracking and reporting
    firearms no longer in their inventories, after the legal title has been
    transferred to the purchaser, are misdirected, as the receiving FFL is
    in the best position to know if it receives its shipment.
  • We have long called for the effective enforcement of the
    numerous laws already on the books regarding the criminal misuse of
    firearms and would encourage the administration to carry through on this
    directive.
  • NSSF has been working actively since early 2013 through our
    FixNICS initiative to encourage states to report all appropriate
    adjudicated mental health records to NICS and has succeeded in getting
    legislation passed in more than a dozen states. We welcome the
    administration’s attention to this issue.
  • With regard to the development of “smart-gun” technology, the
    industry has never opposed its development. How additional government
    research into this technology would advance it is unclear. Law
    enforcement agencies and consumers themselves will have to make the
    determination whether acquisition of firearms with this technology
    “would be consistent with operational needs,” as the White House itself
    states. We would continue to oppose mandates for this technology,
    particularly since there are well proven existing methods to secure
    firearms, and firearms accidents are at historic low levels.
NSSF
will have additional responses in the days, weeks and months ahead,
especially as federal departments and agencies begin the work of
carrying out the executive orders.