Magazine Half Full/Magazine Half Empty

I guess it’s fair to say that yesterday was one of those “magazine half empty” or “magazine half full” days.

I got to spend lots more expensive time with the ophthalmologist ascertaining how badly the bout with shingles damaged my right eye…the answer is not as much as it could have. I’m also working with a contact lens specialist to get just the right lenses for shooting…there’s been a bunch of new lenses coming to the market.

Still, it’s infuriating to me, Mr. “Class A” Personality, that the dentists who “probably” caused the shingles attack will get off clean…the general consensus is that because both effect the same nerve clusters, the shingles attack was probably triggered by the botched dental surgery earlier this year, but there are too many “might have been” and “could haves” to make a clean malpractice case.

I am hopeful that what goes around will indeed come around!

On the “magazine half full” side of the equation, it’s raining guns here at the SHOOTING GALLERY Redoubt. Yesterday I got two long-awaited surprises, my Ruger Flat-Top Anniversary Model .44 Magnum that has been on order for months and months, and one of the production versions of the Government Model-sized Taurus 1911 .45 ACP. See the specs on the Ruger here and the Taurus here.

All I can say about both guns is WOWIE-ZOWIE!

I’ve said before that I believe we’re in the Golden Age of Handguns, and if you needed proof these two guns would supply it. Fit and finish on both are flawless. The Taurus especially was a revelation…it feels like my custom 1911s…the difference being that the Taurus’ MSRP is $599. Heck, if you wanted a set of the Heinie Straight-8 sights that come standard on the Taurus on your 1911, it’d cost you more than $200 bucks from Dick H.!

Anyhow, I have a range day scheduled for tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Also today, I've been reading a fascinating new white paper from Radley Balco of the Cato Institute on the militarization of police forces and the rise of SWAT in the United States. You can download a copy from the above link.

As regular readers know, I do worry about that trend (for a hardware example, some of the local tiny town cops up here have M-4s they've never shot at a distance greater than 15 yards and with no real full-auto training...not dis'sing the guys at all, but that level of hardware requires far more training than the departments can afford to give them).

Secondly, I've seen an increasing number of no-knock raids go bad...lousy intel from informants, etc...and it weighs on me. Anyway, read the report and make your own minds up!