Thinking About London

So I ended up sleeping all day, waking up every so often to read my email and pet the Wonder Beagle, who was methodically pushing me off the bed. In my periods of lucidity, I thought a lot about the London terror attack and what it can teach us. In truth, when a person gets knocked down by a car, the first thing that goes through that person's mind isn't likely to be that the car's drivers and going to jump out and attack with meat cleavers.

There are limits to situational awareness...nothing works all the time in every situation.

Make what you will about the Londoners who stood around watching. As one person noted in the previous post, after Gabby Giffords was shot, bystanders pounced on the shooter and subdued him. Honestly, I think that is a locational issue. Giffords was shot in Arizona...had the same shooting happened in NYC or the hell-hole of Chicago, I believe the reaction would be exactly the same as London. Had it happened in Detroit, the bystanders would have joined in the murders and helped out with the video.

What do we learn?

As I said yesterday, be armed all the time! We don't get to pick the time or the place or the circumstances.

Secondly, each of us who carries every day needs to IN ADVANCE make the decision as to what circumstances we will intervene if we or those we are responsible for are not DIRECTLY involved. This is a bigger issue that you might think. I have been very specific in DOWN RANGE Radio that our first responsibility is to those within our care. In a public situation, our responsibility is to get our loved one or our friends to safety. At what point do we intervene? I'm thinking that if two dude jump out of a car with cleavers and start wailing on someone, I'm going to shoot the blade-weilders a lot...but, again, I will not know for sure until that situation happens to me. Easy to write the words on the Internet; harder to perform the actions in the Real World.

I do think we ought to take the guy in the front page above at his word...despite what Glorious Leader says, we as a culture (and, increasingly, personally) in a battle to the death with radical Islamists. What "battle to the death" means is that we will die or they will die. Until we grasp that subtle point, there's a guy out there with  cleaver with our name on it.

Lesson Learned

From the Brit papers tomorrow.

The lesson?

Never, never, never be unarmed! A flashlight or walking cane is better than standing there with your thumb up your ass while someone gets their head cut off.

Vaguely Human...

I must be feeling better, because I woke from an afternoon nap thinking about my Turnbull 1911. When I wake up thinking about guns, it's usually a good thing.For the last week I've been waking up thinking about snot.

Anyway, what I was thinking was that the Turnbull 1911 featured in last season"s SHOOTING GALLERY episode on Wild Bunch shooting (where my Sweetie and that bowler-hatted devil Turnbull conspired to build me a custom 1911, those scalawags!) was that it is so good it needs to be morphed into my semiauto BBQ Gun. Get Doug to color caseharden the frame , which looks just soooooooooo cool. Save my pennies until I can afford some real, honest to goodness ivory grips, although bark mammoth ivory would certainly be considered. I suspect a couple of things from Wicked Grips might be forthcoming. And the leather! That'll take months of agonizing! LOL!

I hope this is a good sign vis-a-vis recovery.

I did locate and but some Federal 7.62/.308 168-gr Match, which the Colt 901 I have prefers, which is a Good Thing!

Srill Struggling With Bad Head Cold & Work!

Sorry for slow blogging....

Perazzi Arrest?

Since I can't make heads or tails of this story, I pulled the original "Perazzi Arrested" story. Perazzi says  it ain't so; people on the ground at the gun show say yes, it is. Me, I say call me in the morning.

A POINT TO REMEMBER...

Remember...

• They don't hate "assault rifles."
• They don't hate "Saturday night specials."
• They don't hate "sniper rifles."
• They don't hate "handguns that spray death."
• They don't hate 3-D printed guns.
• They don't hate "easily concealable pistols."
• They don't hate "cop killer bullets."
• They don't hate magazines that take more than 10 rounds.
• They don't hate $100,000 shotguns...

THEY HATE US!

This from Forbes, The Life of a Beretta Man: Why Gun Control Measures Misunderstand America;

This large and growing part of American gun culture has many other icons they understand and cherish. Grown men shoot in Cowboy Action competitions and so own six-guns and more. Americans hunt for deer and waterfowl and more and have firearms that fit these various categories. They see guns not as negative things, but as positive things, as works of art, family heirlooms and mechanical wonders that can stop a stronger person from raping, robbing or killing them. They see guns as a responsibility and an ultimate sign of freedom. There are a growing number of these people—more than 100 million Americans now own guns—and they resent it when politicians treat them as criminals because they want to shoot recreationally and to protect themselves and their families. 

This is a big enough part of voting America to change elections. President Barack Obama’s time in the Ivy Leagues and then in inner-city Chicago didn’t teach him about this part of American culture. The same goes for Attorney General Eric Holder, who spent much of his time in Washington, D.C. Only people without this understanding could have made the mistake that became the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal that was run by the U.S. government. Only people like O’Malley, Obama and Holder could misunderstand America enough to think they can get away with treating law-abiding American gun owners like criminals.

Here's another from Dan Baum, writing in Harpers:

Gun control will be back, though. Not because bans are sensible policy (see: Prohibition, alcohol; and Drugs, War on), but because guns are a perfect stand-in for one of the fundamental, irresolvable, and recurring questions we face: To what extent should Americans live as a collective, or as a nation of rugged individuals? 

We have the same fight over health care, welfare, environmental regulations, and a hundred other issues. The firearm, though, is the ultimate emblem of individual sovereignty, so if you’re inclined that direction, protecting “gun rights” is essential. And if you’re by nature a collectivist, the firearm is the abhorrent idol on the enemy’s altar. This is why no amount of bleating about crime statistics ever seems to change anybody’s mind, on either side.

I've said for years we're in the middle of a great culture war, a war for the heart and soul of America. The cascading scandals are simply more dominoes falling, hopefully opening the eyes of more people (and, heck, maybe even the MSM...though that's certainly a reach). We need to "mind our knitting" and remember who our enemies are!

Ebola...

...okay, maybe not ebola, but I do have my annual spring head cold, which I would argue is much worse than ebola since you keep on living and suffering. I'm on my second box of tissues already. Certainly the head cold had something to do with my performance in yesterday's cowboy match, where I was simply unable to find 5th gear, much less overdrive. I eked out 8th place out of 70 against a bunch of pretty good shooters and was happy happy happy to have it. I went back to my .357 competition guns after a month of .44 Russians, which bumped me up a little in speed but ran smack into the head cold.

3-Gun next weekend. I'm planning on shooting the He Man 3-Gun Championships at Whittington end of June (the match is run by my old friend Denise Johnson). That match requires a .308 or 30-06 rifle, a 12 gauge pump shotgun and a .45 ACP pistol. I don't that I can ramp up my Colt LE901 by then — I'm still juggling trigger and scope on that one, not to mention the fact that I'm not exactly rolling in 7.62 match ammo — but I may shoot my 870 and a .45. I was sorta thinking of shooting a FNH. I bought one a few years back after an extended T&E session where I really liked the big gun. Might be fun to shoot it in competition. OTOH, I can always default to a 1911. All I need is a Designated Shooter, and smoebody to carry all that gear around!

Colorado Lawsuit Filed!

From the Independence Institute, via Dave Workman, late yesterday afternoon:

This morning in Denver, 54 Colorado sheriffs and other plaintiffs including disabled gun owners,will file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Centennial State’s new laws affecting sales and temporary transfer of firearms, and placing limits on magazine capacity. 

Joining the Sheriffs in the civil rights lawsuit are disabled individuals, Outdoor Buddies (a charitable organization for disabled individuals), licensed firearms dealers, Magpul, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Colorado State Shooting Association, the Colorado Outfitters Association, Colorado Youth Outdoors, and Women for Concealed Carry, according to a press release from the Independence Institute.

A suit of this nature with 54 of Colorado's 62 Sheriffs joining in a suit against unconstitutional laws is pretty unprecedented.

A full video will be uploaded to http://www.youtube.com/user/davekopel shortly after the conclusion of the press conference. Again from the Independence Institute presser:

Sheriffs are coming from as far away as the Western Slope to participate in the press conference. Also at the press conference will be disabled citizens in wheelchairs, and representatives of Women for Concealed Carry. 

After approximately 15 minutes of prepared statements by the Plaintiffs, the Plaintiffs, as well as Sheriffs' attorney David Kopel, will take questions from the media. There will be photo and video opportunities. Plaintiffs will be available for interviews.

We will also have the video up as quickly as we can on DRTV. From the presser:

According to the Independence Institute press release, “The suit points out that House Bill 1224 outlaws the majority of firearms magazines, which are an essential component for a functional firearm. The bill directly outlaws magazines of more than 15 rounds. The bill indirectly outlaws many smaller magazines with its vague language about "designed to be readily converted." This appears to outlaw all handgun and rifle box magazines with removable floor plates, and all rifle tube magazines with removable end caps. 

“This violates the Supreme Court's rule in District of Columbia v. Heller against prohibiting arms which are ‘typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes’,” the release asserts. 

“Another problem with the magazine ban is the requirement for ‘continuous possession’ of grandfathered magazines,” the release explains. “This makes it illegal for a wife to let her husband use her magazine for self-defense, or to borrow her magazine and take it to a target range.”

The laws are scheduled to take effect 1 July. At the NRA Convention and through my private contacts, I am hearing that the word used to describe the Colorado hunting and shooting event boycott is "disaster." Outfitters have repetaedly told me of cancellations for their whole autumn season this year, and we anticipate the 2014 hunt to be much, much worse if these laws stand, A hunter or shooter would be crazy to expose themselves to the kinds of risks outlined above.

Once again...DO NOT VISIT OCCUPIED COLORADO IF YOU ARE A GUN OWNER WHO PLANS TO CARRY CONCEALED, A HUNTER OR A SPORT SHOOTER! THE RISKS ARE TOO GREAT!

MagPul is out, Hi-Viz is out, all my production has been pulled from the state, and I have heard from dozens of other business owners who are relocating rather than put money into a slave state. The recall efforts against these antigun shills are gaining traction, especially against Senate President John Morse of conservative Colorado Springs, who famously said on the Rachel Maddow MSNBC show that he instructed Senate Democrats in the Colorado Legislature to ignore the voices of their constituents.

UPDATE: Video now up on DOWN RANGE TV! It's a great video and it helps explain the ludicrous unconstitutional nature of these laws.

UPDATE: NSSF Joins Colorado Sheriffs Lawsuit:

“In addition to Constitutional infringements and unenforceable requirements regarding magazine capacity, as the sheriffs have pointed out, we believe it will be impossible for citizens to comply with mandated firearms ‘transfers’ through federally licensed retailers,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “Colorado’s federally-licensed firearms retailers are being asked to process these transfers as if they were selling from their own inventory and to monitor both seller and buyer through a state-administered check process that can take hours or even days. They will not be able to recoup the actual cost of providing the service, which is capped at $10, but they will be liable for paperwork errors and subject to license revocation. Not surprisingly, we expect few, if any licensed retailers will step forward to provide this service.”

UPDATE: MagPul joins Colorado Sheriffs Lawsuit:

Duane Liptak, Director of Product Management and Marketing for Magpul Industries, said that these gun control laws do nothing other than restrict the ability of law abiding citizens to defend themselves and Magpul is committed to invalidating these infringements: 

“Colorado’s recently passed gun control laws are a direct assault on the constitutional rights of the responsible people who live in and visit this great state. These laws will do nothing to enhance public safety and only place unreasonable limitations on the ability of law abiding citizens to defend themselves. While Magpul is currently in the process of moving its operations out of Colorado, we will not turn our back on our native state. Extreme gun control interests have forced the passage of these unconstitutional laws in Colorado, and as a company, we are resolved to restore those rights to the people.”

And props to the Sheriffs, including my friend Larimer Country Sheriff Justin Smith, who told it like it is at the press conference. Said El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, "We each took an oath. The line in the sand has been drawn, and we will stand united."

Meanwhile, the state continues to dance around the shoddily written Michael Bloomberg boilerplate passed Democrats in the state legislature, scared spitless of a primary challenge funded in toto by Bloomberg, and signed by the increasingly pathetic Governor John Hickenlooper, who reportedly has been guaranteed a place in national Democratic politics for his sell-out of Coloradans. Most recently, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, a Republican, issued a "guideline" that the laws don't mean what they say. This from KTVU:

Republican Attorney General John Suthers, who's responsible for defending the state in the lawsuit, issued a statement Friday giving guidance to law enforcement on how the new magazine limit should be enforced. He said magazine features "must be judged objectively" and that magazines that hold 15 rounds or fewer can't be defined as "large capacity" simply because it [sic] can be modified to include more.

At issue is a provision of the Bloomberg bill that specified not only magazines with a capacity of greater than 15 rounds were illegal, but that ANY magazine that could be converted to hold greater than 15 rounds was also illegal after the 1 July deadline. That means any magazine with a replaceable baseplate, pretty much all semiauto pistol magazines except the 1911. The Attorney General's non-binding "guidance" goes directly against the wording of the bill...

The bill prohibits the sale, transfer or possession of an ammunition feeding device that is capable of accepting, or can readily be converted to accept, more than 15 rounds...

...and the specific intent of the bill as stated by Rep. Rhonda Fields, the former criminal (larceny, shoplifting, writing bad checks) tapped by the Bloomberg organization to introduce the magazine capacity bill and the Governor himself, who stated upon signing the bill that the bill meant what it said.

Hickenlooper immediately began walking back his support of the bills with a rare "signing statement" issued after he signed the bill, which read in part:

In considering the language of HB13-1224, we have consulted with the Office of the Attorney General and we concur with its advice that the large-capacity magazine ban should be construed narrowly to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Second Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. We have signed HB13-1224 into law based on the understanding that it will be interpreted and applied narrowly and consistently with these important constitutional provisions.

Translated from cowering Bloomberg shill-ese into English, it means the Governor and the Colorado Legislature know the laws are unconstitutional, but they're hoping that a non-legally binding "narrow interpretation," e.g., the AG asserting the law actually doesn't mean what it says...nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, will pass constitutional muster. The Colorado Sheriffs addressed that issue up front in today's news conference. Under the Colorado Constitution, laws do indeed mean what they say, and non-binding "guidance" is, well, non-binding.

Cowboy Action Shooting Nerdboy Stuff

I just picked up my Winchester 73 reproduction of a Winchester 73! Basically, it's part of Winchester's long-term plan to offer some of their classic models back into the market. The 73 is made by Miroku in Japan, which has a reputation for building world-class firearms. I think the Browning 92s in .357 and .44 Magnum, clones of the Winchester 92s, are some of the finest lever guns ever made.

Some quick first impressions....The wood-to-metal fit is every bit as good as the fit on my pre-'64 Model 94, which is pretty impressive. One thing to immediately notice is that in spite of the fact that I love the color casehardening finish on the Uberti receivers, the Winchester 73 carries the same, deep blue-black finish as my pre-'64 30-30, which I believe is indeed the standard all lever guns are compared against. Here's the 73 on top, my pre-'64 Winchester 94 on the bottom:

The wood is very nice, and I like the matt finish better than the shiny finish of both my pre-'64 and my Ubertis. Definitely a step up from even my older Marlins. The trigger's not bad...not as good as a tuned Uberti, but QUANTUMS better than an out-of-the-box Italian gun. Ditto on lever motion...it's a little stiff, but not even in the same universe as the last Italian '73 I purchased...I needed an Iron Man suit to run that lever!

Here's the Winchester 73 on top, my match Uberti '73 on the bottom:

Here's the wood comparison between the 73 (on top) and hte pre-'64 94 30-30:

...and the 73 versus my match Uberti:

Finally, for all you cowboy action shooters out there, here's the picture you really want to see, the comparizon of the stroke on the Winchester 73 to my short-stroked Uberti 73:

Will be shooting it Saturday!

I Like That "Can't Be Trusted" Line...

Still, you’ll hear voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works; or that tyranny always lurks just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

— Barack Hussein Obama

Commencement Speech, Ohio State University

• FAST AND FURIOUS, where elements of the United State government, including the State and Justice departments, facilitate gun-running into Mexico to create a firestorm against United States gun laws. Two American agents are killed and literally hundreds of Mexican nationals, including women and children, are slaughtered by the smuggled guns. No resolution, and as recently as last week B-Ho once again repeated the now-discredited trope that, "American guns are responsible for crime in Mexico."

• BENGHAZI, where an American ambassador and 3 American citizens, including 2 former Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, are killed while the full power of America sits on the sidelines without taking action. Elements of the U.S. government, including the State Department and probably the White House launch a massive cover-up to protect the "Al Qaeda is on the run" narrative just weeks before what appears to be a close election.

• ROGUE BILLIONAIRE Michael Bloomberg launches a major campaign to subvert state and local legislators with threats (the threat of a fully financed primary challenge from the left) and massive campaign contributions (both in cash and "administrative help"), all focused on having state and local legislators "ignore their constituents" and vote the fascistic Bloomberg line. 

• IRS ENEMIES LIST, where arguably the most powerful and feared agency of the U.S. government reveals they were targeting conservative groups such as the Tea Party and other groups who were perceived as against the present Administration.

• JUSTICE DEPARTMENT "RAIDS" THE ASSOCIATED PRESS phone lines. Despite the fact that the Mainstream Media have been little more than cheerleaders or apologists for the Administration, Eric Holder's Justice Department issues secret subpoenas on AP, sending a chill through even the lapdog MSM and supporters of the First Amendment.

And on and on...the disaster of ObameCare, passed by a clever legalistic "trick" rather than a heads-up vote ....crippling government regulation enacted without public input or Congressional oversight... the continual lies from Eric Holder, from Hillary Clinton, from Obama himself...more than four years of a vicious, cynical campaign, headed by Barack Obama himself, to turn black against white, rich against poor, American against American!

Maybe it's time for us to maybe spend a couple of minutes looking at history, then ask ourselves the most important question of our, and maybe America's, lifetime...how is it that the tyranny referenced by B-Ho in his commencement address begins? We Americans live in a country that might be best described as the "Great Anomaly," a stable representative democracy. Even our most contentious national elections, think Bush versus Gore, don't end up with tanks in the street.

But there's a catch...the incredible "machine" built by the Founders' genius only works if its citizens believe it works. The reason the tanks aren't in the street is that despite the white hot flaming rhetoric we believe that at its core the system itself is honest, that the elements of change will work for both sides. Central to that believe is that the instruments of government are not used as a weapon against its citizens...that is the signature of tyranny.

Because we are citizens of the Great Anomaly, we have only a distant, and distracted, view of tyranny. We imagine that history's monsters, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Hussein, Amin, Milosovic, Mussolini, Hilter, are somehow the modern incarnation of the vampires of lore, that at some point the citizens of those respective benighted countries answered the midnight knock on the door and invited the great vampire to step over the threshold.

But as even a casual reader of vampire lore will recognize, vampires are not just tricky, but subtle. They understand at an albeit mutated DNA level what constitutes an "invitation," and they're quick to step across thresholds. So we come back to our question, "How is it that the tyranny referenced in B-Ho's commencement address — a tyranny that the President assures us is of course not lurking around the corner — begins?" At what point does the vampire step across the threshold and into our home?

I'm going to send you to Charles Cooke's headlining piece in today's NRO to prove that I'm not completely insane here, and his thoughts align with mine:

“Paranoia is just having the right information,” William S. Burroughs once observed. We have that information. Who can look at the 20th century with a cold eye and conclude that the problem was that people were “too fearful” of their governments? Who will claim that our blood-drenched last hundred years was the product of people insisting too emphatically that they must retain their liberties? Who will claim that the great flaw of the last century was that the people were armed — or able to speak freely? Most important, who will claim that the progressive conception of government has proved superior to that of the Founders? 

The news that the IRS was targeting pro-Constitution groups with “patriot” and “tea party” in their titles is almost implausibly ironic. But that the IRS was “targeting” anyone is flatly unacceptable. Herein lies the silver lining: By reminding its citizenry that government tyranny is not an abstract concept, the IRS has done America a considerable favor. “Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then,” wrote Philip K. Dick in A Scanner Darkly. Indeed. Next time an authoritarian explains how, say, a national gun registry will be just swell — and labels its naysayers as neurotic — his opponents will have a new and useful shorthand: “IRS scandal.”

If history teaches us anything, it's that for we struggling humans, the vampire is always outside the door, always asking its singular question: "May I come in?"

On Shooting Themselves in the Foot...

Excellent piece by Kurt Schlichter in Townhall on how the Democrats continue to shoot themselves in the foot on guns:

We need to understand that the motivation behind the gun grabbing campaign has always been more than just naked political calculation. Certainly, liberals think it will help motivate their base and maybe shore up the squishy suburban mom demographic for 2014, but this is really a campaign fueled by emotion. 

That emotion is hate. 

This isn’t about dead children. If saving kids was their real motivation, liberals would have long ago allowed the police to end the daily slaughter in Democrat-owned war zones like Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C. No, this campaign is driven by elitist hatred for regular Americans who refuse to bend to their will, who defiantly live life on their own terms, and who stubbornly resist accepting the moral supremacy of the urban liberals who would rule them. 

They want to show us who is boss, to put us in our place, to take away the proud symbols of – and the tools that protect – our independence for one reason and one reason only. 

They want to show that they can. They want to demonstrate that what rights we have come not from our maker but from them, to be granted or withdrawn as they please.
They want us disarmed, demoralized and defeated. They are furius that we refuse to allow it, but anger is a poor foundation for building strategy.

Brilliant! Read the whole thing.

Here's another excellent read from Jacob on the 9 reasons why gun control advocates may be deluded...definitely worth the time to hit all the links. And for al those people who don't believe the ridiculous laws will be informed, this from The Blaze:

Gregory Dean, Jr. was pulled over in New Lebanon, N.Y., Sunday for a light on his license plate being burnt out. But what began as a simple traffic stop ended up with Dean being arrested over two bullets in his registered firearm, which put him in violation of the state’s new law, the Journal News reported.

Gosh, I hope the New York State Police get those cool "SS" slashes and death's head emblems for their uniform soon! Combine those with a thigh holsters, and, presto! Warriors! 

Speaking of which, Herschel Smith from The Captain's Journal does a great job of disassembling the new militarized world of law enforcement:

The militarization of the police and police tactics in America is an effort to sidestep Posse Comitatus. It’s a way to have a standing army police Americans rather than have the existing standing army do the policing of Americans. It’s a typical progressive, statist trick.

I've been talking about the dangers of a militarized police for years and years, but Boston really, really bought it home.