Instamatic Grins

I'm havIng a little trouble a finding mine this AM...part of it is the Tulsa airport runs everybody through the millimeter wave machines:

"Step on the yellow footsteps...place your thumbs on your head...wiggle your ears...make your favorite animal face...may we pat you down? Oh, well, yes, we just x-rayed you down to your bone morrow, but our bazillion dollar machine has detected the presence of an apparent penis and we have to manually check in case it is harboring a fugitive...may we touch Mr. Weasel? Remember we're making America safer, you flag waving piece of scum..."

Maybe it's just me, or something about my hamster kibble from Starbucks didn't agree with me. Yesterday at the range went great, though. Hopefully, in about 2 weeks you'll see the traindasinga snippets with Stag Arms guns and Mike Seeklander instructing on DRTV.

I get to pick up a couple of guns today -- yeah!!! Including the Remington shotgun I won a month or so ago in Memphis.

I'll be shooting the Wild Bunch match up in Ft. Collins tomorrow, so saif you're around, check it out.

Still hanging fire on the new series..so very close! Hopefully will have a green liGht in the next couple of weeks. I have meetings on asathe show in Columbia coming up. Both SG and The Best Defense will begin filming in September. I thought of a new feature for DRTV yesterday, but I'm afraid to mention it to the already swamped Marshal...LOL!

Gotta go get on the airplane...

Take Me Back to Tulsa

Doing a day at U.S.Shooting Academy with Mike Seeklander for Stag Arms. Probably be working with the Stag piston gun, which I've only handled in proto.

I've got a Wild Bunch local match thus weekend, then the World Championships, which we'll be filming for SG. Still planning on using the Para 1911A1 for the Championships, but I'm probably going to run the Remington Saturday.


-- Post From The Road

Reharnessed!

And back in the saddle again, safely home for a vacation swilling wine in the Russian River Valley of California!

A couple of quick announcement for the week...there WILL be an audio podcast, lest the Pillars of the Earth collapse; there MAY BE be a video podcast, as I'm a little too short on production time for that one and all my trashy looking shirts are dirty, but hey.

The Best Squid Restaurant on Earth

Yeah, it's on tourist pier in Monterey...get over it!



-- Post From The Road

Smarter Than Congress!!!

-- Post From The Road

When Alf decides...

...to hit the road, this'd be perfect for her...too cool!



-- Post From The Road

The Doctor Is...

...in...sorta..



-- Post From The Road

Lindsay Fears for Life as Giant Jellyfish Sighted Near LA Jail!

You heard it here first! I bet it'll be on Drudge in a couple of hours. The Governator may call out the National Guard if the tendrils get any longer.

I got some kick-ass hot Hungarian paprika today, which I'll use on fish...hard to get hot paprika outside of Budapest these days.

Going to be working with Mike Seeklander at USSA next week for some carbine training videos. We're going to be using Stag carbines...that'll be fun. You'll see the videos on DRTV. Also just finalized a sporting clays episode of SG (been requested for years!) with Dan Schlinder at Paragon School of Shooting (http://www.paragonschool.com/)...I'm really looking forward to working with Dan...I've read a bunch of his work, and he seems like one heck of an instructor. Will probably be using a Ruger O/U or "Cartman," my old Winchester X2 Sporting semiauto.

My Remington 887 (http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/shotguns/model-887/model-887-nitro-mag-tactical.aspx) I won at that Rem event a while back is here! It's going to go straight on to Hans Vang, then it'll replace my Remington 870 as the Official Bedrom Shotgun. I'm looking forward to shooting it. Unlike my '97s, I anticipate it working all the time!

You Just Can't See Him From the Road...

Nice post over at Say Uncle (clink the post's title to get to the link) on the flurry of posts about the disappearance of "real men." His take — it's all B-S. My take? He's right. Out here in the rural west, we never much bought into the post-macho metrosexual sensitive to the point of tears paradigm for men. We work for a living. Times are too darn scary to be overcome with nonsense angst.

Male or female, I really like the abbreviated version of The Cowboy Way as a handy way to orient one's life — "If it ain't yours, don't take it; if it ain't true, don't say it; if it ain't right, don't do it." Covers most of the things that happen in life, doesn't it?

The New Workstation

So far, so good...

A Thought for the Day...

....tequila cayenne dark chocolate truffles...I think I may have had a religious experience...

Whew!!!

All systems are more or less go, whatever that means...the iPad seems to be working, so expect some blogging off it, assuming it doesn't blow up or something. Maybe I'll become a Pad Person.

Spent all day in production meetings for THE BEST DEFENSE and maybe (fingers crossed, please), SHOW #5, which I've been trying to midwife for some time now. We're at a 99% "GO," far enough along that the production team and I thought we should sit down and plan episodes. 99% is a scary place to be, for sure...I've been close a couple of times only to have the whole deal fold up at the last minute. I'm optimistic, or as optimistic as I ever am. Honestly, you guys will freakin' love the new show!

And no, I have no idea how I'll add the 5th show to my work schedule! LOL! I always default to the sublime Edna St. Vincent Millay:

My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -

It gives a lovely light.

Hey, she was hot!

I'm sort of looking forward to RUBICON, AMC's new conspiracy series — "Not every conspiracy is a theory..." There's nothing else on, anyway. My absolute favorite conspiracy movie is ENEMY OF THE STATE, which sort of looks moderate these days.

Can't wait to shoot my next cowboy match, hopefully with the new Stoeger from Goatneck Clem. I am going to tone down my .44 Specials a bit, at least get to a 160 power factor.

Sorry...

...trying to get the iPad up and running before leaving on vacation...more tomorrow...

Great Day at the Range...

...at the cowboy action shooting match at Pawnee Station in Ft. Collins. It was a super match, and my Sweetie had her first clean match, not to mention that she opened a big ole can of whoop ass on yours truly in 5 out of 6 stages! She shot superbly...CONGRATS are in order!

My first match — heads up, Wallaby Jack! — shooting a manly SXS with 2 triggers, an ancient Stevens 311 12 gauge coach gun. I figure I lst a couple of seconds a stage on the reloads, but it actually went much better than I thought it would. In fact, it was fun. I called up "Goatneck Clem Gunsmithing," Fred Bursey, and ordered one of his CAS-ready Stoeger SXS as a main match gun. Now, sadly, all I gotta do is practice!

BTW, here is a beautiful essay by Kevin Williamson over at NRO that I strongly urge you all to read it and pass it on:

To use lethal force in self-defense is the ultimate declaration of independence, a kind of momentary secession from the authority of the government whose laws and prisons and police officers have, in that moment, failed the citizen. To acknowledge the right to self-defense — and the concomitant right to be forearmed against aggressors — is to acknowledge that some things are outside the state and its authority, or at least that some moments are outside the state and its authority.

The horror that progressives feel for gun owners is in many ways like the horror they feel for homeschoolers, whom they recognize, correctly, as one of the few truly radical movements in America. Prof. Robin West of Georgetown University’s law school offers a typical reaction to the phenomenon: “The husbands and wives in these families feel themselves to be under a religious compulsion to have large families, a homebound and submissive wife and mother who is responsible for the schooling of the children, and only one breadwinner. These families are not living in romantic, rural, self-sufficient farmhouses; they are in trailer parks, 1,000-square-foot homes, houses owned by relatives, and some, on tarps in fields or parking lots. Their lack of job skills, passed from one generation to the next, depresses the community’s overall economic health and their state’s tax base.” God defend the holy tax base!

Homeschooling families in fact have higher average incomes than non-homeschool families, a fact that Professor West acknowledges and then magics away through the device of the “radically fundamentalist movement family,” the one she locates on tarps in parking lots. Like Mr. Ignatius, Professor West is forthright about the statist origins of her horror: “Parents in many states have full authority, free of all state oversight, to determine the content of their children’s education,” a situation almost as unendurable as life in a 1,000-square-foot house. Professor West writes longingly of the golden age when practically all education was conducted under the tutelage of the state and opting out of the system was forbidden — and “parents who did so were criminals.”

You will not be surprised to read her lamenting a “constitutional culture” dominated by “militias, gun collectors, and ideologues constructing, with little help from courts and no resistance from liberals, an individual Right to Bear Arms.” She connects this Second Amendment horror to other challenges to unlimited state supremacy — the anti-tax movement and citizen border patrols — and, like David Ignatius, she cites Hobbes, framing the debate as Leviathan vs. anarchy, leaving no room for well-ordered liberty under constitutionally limited government: If those rubes out on the tarps can fill the young skulls of their plenteous broods with any old rubbish, without the least privity or countenance of authority, then they’re bound to get funny ideas about guns and taxes and illegal immigrants. And they are bound to chafe at having their lives run by Georgetown law professors.

Just as state schooling is not about education, but about the state, gun control is not about guns: It’s about control. A citizen who can fend for himself when the predators come or the schools fail is less inclined to look to the state for sustenance and oversight in other areas of life. To progressives, that’s an invitation to anarchy. To the men who wrote the Second Amendment, it was a condition of citizenship in a free republic. It’s what free men did, and do.

Win Mel Gibson's Voice on Your Answering Machine!

Okay, I made that up...but wouldn't that be great?

"&%^^%!!! This is Mel. %&^%$% Michael isn't at his &^(&^^ miserable piece of rat ^&*^^%& Secret ^&*((&& Hidden Bunker! So #%%#% YOURSELF, you %^*&^% &^%$#@! Leave a ^%$#%$ message, you $^&^%$, and I hope a gang of %$#$$%% shoves your phone up your ^%$#$% #$^%$#$!!! Have a nice day."

I may be onto a million dollar idea here!

Yesterday I picked up my Remington R1 1911. "You got another 1911?" my Sweetie asked incredulously? Not another 1911, I said, but one with a totally different name roll-marked on the slide! "Well," she said, "that certainly explains it!" I think I detected a note of sarcasm in her voice.

I will say it is one beautiful gun. Fans of retro will be blown away. I might be able to get to the range today and out some rounds through it.

Caleb has a long piece on the Ruger SR9c compact, the gun he's using in his Quest for Master Class.

I received a PM from a friend at the Indiana Gun Owners forum about how I’m liking the Ruger SR9c that I’ve been shooting in the Quest for Master Class at DownRange.TV (latest episode here). So far, I really like the Ruger SR9c – as I’ve said in all my pieces on DRtv, it’s easy to shoot, easy to conceal, and generally a good gun. But let’s look at some specifics about the little 9mm. First off, it’s not really a little gun, but it’s not a big gun either. In terms of size, it’s smaller than a Glock 19, but bigger than a Glock 26. That’s nice, because it has a little bit more gun to hold on to than a Glock 26 when you’re actually shooting the thing.

The whole Ruger SR9 project has been pretty interesting to watch. I got an advance one, went through the GUNSITE 250 pistol class with it and stacks of 9mm Hornady self-defense ammo, had zero failures and shot pretty much the same score as I'd shot with a 1911. I made 2 changes on the pistol ay GUNSITE — I removed the little dohickey that enabled the magazine safety and I put some electric red nail polish on the front sight, a concession to my old eyes. I've had 2 of the post-recall guns, and the triggers are quantum better than Ver. 1.0. The SR9c has the best trigger yet, is accurate, easy to shoot, light and best of all THIN!

Yet the SR9 series of pistols has taken a huge amount of heat, largely from people, largely from people who haven't shot one (or, heck, haven't even seen one). Yeah, the manual safety — a feature I really like  on striker-fired safe-action style pistols — is a little hard to engage. It is, however, very easy to disengage. The magazines have gotten easier to load over the generations, but 17 rounds in a new, narrow magazine can be a challenge.

I've been carrying the SR9c and I like it...10 + 1 9mm, thin, light and accurate...what's not to like? The only thing that keeps me from exchanging my Sig Sauer 226 9 mm bedroom gun for a Ruger is the Crimson Trace LaserGrips on the Ruger. My cherubs and seraphim tell me that the CT for the Ruger is under development...soon...

Just When I Think It Can't Get Any Weirder...

Well, I smell ACADEMY AWARD!!! For the S&W .500, of course...Best Performance by a Penis Surrogate with Lindsay Lohan's Tongue. This is actually for a movie that, I can assure you, every one of us are going to queue up to see: Machete. How can it miss? Lindsay Licker, Robert DeNiro, Don Johnson (Don Johnson!?!?!), Steven Seagal, Michelle "Don't Let Me Drive" Rodriguez, Jessica Alba (be still my beating heart!), Jeff Fahey, Cheech Marin (not "yeah," but "HELL yeah!") and the incomparable character actor with knives Danny Trejo, one of my personal heroes, all directed by the Lord of Mayhem Hisself, Robert Rodriguez.

And machine guns...oh yes, machine guns...

It's Plot 2, BTW — REVENGE! Bring it, dog!

Meanwhile, in the important news, I've mentioned this before but it certainly still seems germaine, and that's Tactical Corsets.

Admit it...you'd pay money to see Jessica Alba in one of these things, if, of course, you could hide the expenditure from your Significant Other. It's available in both overbust and underbust version, there's also a tactical corset for menfolk, but believe me, I'm not going there! BTW, in addition to holsters and flashligh carriers, there are pouches for handcuffs (natch) and an "Interrogation Pouch," which holds the cutest little tactical cat-o-nine-tails...I wonder if the cat is from Blackhawk?

I was reminded of this today by a cool post on Tacticalgear.com titled "13 Ridiculously Tactical Items." One of the commenters suggested this Tactical Sporran, in which you can keep your Tactical Cheese Holster. Of course, now I've got to figure out where to get some Tactical Brie.

BTW, do you think I should start wearing a tactical kilt on SHOOTING GALLERY, to match my Hawaiian shirts? Too much? Scratch the plaid beret?

With visions of a corseted Jessica Alba in my head, I gotta go reload some .357s...

Sorry About Yesterday

With a day if running around in the studio planned, I put off blogging until yesterday evening...Denver had close-to-record heat, the grid hiccuped and the local power went out until the wee hours of this morning. I got up in those self-same wee hours to finish some work on today's video and audio podcast, so I'm nice and groggy this AM.

I note that my friend Buz Mills has suspended his campaign for Governor of Arizona...too bad...he would have been an excellent one.

I also note that Washington cartoonist Molly Norris, who thought up the May 20 "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day," has been warned by the FBI that Islamic terrorists have targeted her for death. Welcome to the 21st Century.

In gun world, Masterpiece Arms, which builds the surprisingly good Mac 10/11 clones, has jumped into the Great .380 Sweepstakes with their Protector (via The Firearm Blog):

Looks like the North American Arms Guardian, a great little gun, which of course looks like the Seecamp LWS .32, which started the whole thing. I've carried .32s as pocket pistols off-and-on for years, both the NAA and the Kel-Tec...will probably do so again. With Corbon DPX.

Welcome to Reality Television, Dude!

Oh Monty, Monty, Monty, I am walking down your hall

Got beat, lost my seat, but I'm not a man to crawl

I didn't get rich. son of a bitch

I'll be back just wait and see

Cause my whole world lies waiting behind door number three

Yes my whole world lies waiting behind door number three

Jimmy Buffett

"Door Number Three"

My friend Caleb Giddings at Gun Nuts Media got voted off the island on Top Shot last night, but you can still follow his Quest for Master Class over on DRTV. Don't worry, Caleb...you're safe on our island! In all honesty, I've sorta lost interest...they're doing some cool stuff, but it seems to move with glacial slowness. I'd have edited it a different way, but that's a Jealous Executive Producer talking!

Anyhow, not much going on yet this AM. Did a long hike with Alf the Wonder Beagle yesterday — she's getting her strength back after her paw injury. Speaking of "glacial slowness," stitched some more on my Taylor's Model 3 rig belt...believe me, hand-stitching a double-layer gunbelt causes one to have fantasies about sewing machines, even ancient ones.

I also sketched out my next project, a leather pouch for the Ruger LCP and other small semiautos. If it works out as well as I hope, I'm going to pass it on to my friends at Ted Blocker and see if they want to offer a version. Of course, the speed at the speed I do leatherwork projects (slightly slower than the speed at which I write new books), it'll be done when the glaciers start moving south. I'll post pixs of the Taylor's rig when it's finished...

I'm going to spend the week working with a double-barreled shotgun and see how that feels. If I'm not a complete monkey with it, I'll try it in a club cowboy match this weekend. If I like it, I'll start shopping for a good solid double for me to abuse to death.

Is It Sunday Already?

This being off the road is confusing me. I usually blog when I get back to my hotel room after a day on the set...I've got to figure out the old non-road blogging waypoints! LOL! It'll be all too short...I glanced at my August calendar a couple of days ago, and it's back to the road. Sort of like a country song...

The results from last week's Hell On Wheels up in Cheyenne were posted yesterday, and I couldn't be happier. I finished 78 out of 241, 9th in my division (out of 23). I'm creeping my way toward competitive. In fact congrats are in order for the whole COWBOYS team — Indiana Jackson and Pic-Y-Une — who turned in impressive performances.

Of course, you've couldn't have seen me creeping toward competitive at yesterday's club match in Boulder, where I once again proved conclusively that if you pull the trigger when the sights aren't on target, you will, amazingly, not hit the target! Another LOL! My Sweetie, OTOH, watched the sights, shot fast and clobbered me. Congrats due on that!

Gonna have to address a shotgun conundrum. As you all know I had that solid-frame 1901 vintage Winchester '97 overhauled as my back-up shotgun. It has a 24-inch barrel that, for me, points a little faster than the short-barreled Chinese guns (which are not availble with longer barrels). However, after 2 years of waiting for the gun to come home, it is still a thorn in my side. It's a bundle of doesn't-work-right quirks...occasional failures to eject, leaving the shell in the gun; failures to go completely into battery; and a new one yesterday, the carrier failing to completely rise even with the pump fully forward, requiring me to use thumb-power to shove the carrier back up so we could continue running the gun. The key word here is "occasional" — if it did the same thing every time one could diagnose it and maybe fix it. Intermittent problems are bears!

Winchester 1897 shotgun

Joke! Joke! A Super-Soaker is a lot more reliable than an 1897 Winchester! I keep working with it because I kept trying to separate my failures with the gun — and old '97s are WILDLY susceptible to operator-induced errors...hey, my gun is more than 100 years old! — from the gun's failures. I swore yesterday the thing would be on Gunbroker.com by this morning, but now I'd feel guilty if I pawned my problems off on anyone else. I woke up this morning and decided to clean it and relegate it to the back of the gun safe...maybe a few more years will improve it's demeanor.

In the meantime, I need another back-up '97, since the odds of a Chinese clone running 100% for any length of time are pretty much on par with the originals running 100%. Sometime in the next few days I'll either get a Cimarron '97 clone or try and find an original that isn't a complete and total POS, then send one or the other to "Jim Bowie" at the Cowboys and Indians Store with a whining note and my credit card number.

This week, I'm going to start tuning up for the Wild Bunch World Championships in August in New Mexico, which we'll be filming for SHOOTING GALLERY 2011. My plan right now is to run the Para 1911 A1 copy from C&S. I've been talking to Remington about running an R1, but I'd need a couple of weeks with it to see how it runs with lots of ammo. I'll be shooting the 1911 from the Ted Blocker 1911 rig. I'm not crazy about the flat spring mag pouches (wasn't crazy about them when I was using them in IPSC back in the day, either, although Mike Dalton swore by them), but I've tortured them into shape. I will probably use the Taylors 1866/Long Hunter .44 Special lever gun (which I use regularly in my club matches) and '97#3, an old Norinco "Trench Gun" that I'm very careful not to run too many rounds through, saving it for the big Wild Bunch matches.

The "New Normal"...

...is spreading like peanut butter over warm toast. This from the National Review at no less than NPR, National Pubic Radio's website:

The Supreme Court's rejection of Chicago's handgun ban in McDonald v. City of Chicago is more than a recognition that the Second Amendment applies to the states as well as the federal government. The McDonald decision is a harbinger for the end of gun prohibition as an idea. The simple, undeniable truth is that gun control does not work.

McDonald brings the law up to speed with reality, where advocates of gun control have been wrong since the issue became a national discussion.

Strict gun-control policies have failed to deliver on their essential promise: that denying law-abiding citizens access to the means of self-defense will somehow make them safer. This should come as no surprise, since gun control has always been about control, not guns. 

[...]

A generation from now, legal and policy discussions will look back and see gun control for the sham that it has always been. The real shame is that it took decades of political action, millions of dollars in litigation, and thousands of lives lost to end the preposterous idea that governments can reduce the number of victims of violent crime by first taking away their means of resistance.

IMHO, the challenge for those of us in the gun culture is multiple:
• While our organizations continue the attack on restrictive gun laws at state and municipal levels, we need to be vigilant on a local level. Gun control advocates know they've lost the war, but it doesn't mean they can't win battles on a local level. And blocking the passage of local antigun legislation is both faster and a heck of a cheaper than fighting those laws all the way through the court system!
• We need CCW reciprocity. I personally favor the "Constitutional" permitless carry of Vermont, Alaska and Arizona, but that isn't going to fly (at this time) in many states. Reciprocity would be the next best thing. I think we'll probably get this in 2011.
• We need to focus our organizations on egregious anti gun laws that fly under the radar, For example, the fact that New York, Boston and Chicago airport jurisdictions have decided on their own to ignore federal "safe transit" laws and jail unwary travelers who get stuck in their cities while carrying guns is completely unacceptable. This needs national legislative remedy.
• The main battlefield is now access. The Second Amendment becomes meaningless if we have no place to shoot, to introduce the next generation to our gun culture. This is both for shooting on public lands and formal ranges.

America In SHOCK!

...as our beloved "Little Tramp," yes, Lindsay Lohan, was bundled off to the slam for doing the same thing 11 million illegal aliens do every day — pretend U.S. law doesn't apply to them. I was glued to the All Lindsay All The Time channel yesterday as our own Little Curly Top — no, wait, that was Shirley Temple, who gave her name to an non-alcoholic drink — okay, our own little whatever wept, wept I tell you, as the evil judge, who clearly needed a Hollywood Makeover, sentenced this cherished, talented actor to the place where they seem to send all the cherished. talented actors.

A sad day for America. I think there's a silver-lining to this dark, dark cloud, though. I believe Lindsay-In-The-Big House could totally re-invogorate the flagging "women in chains" B-movie genre. After such classics as Girls in Chains (the great granddaddy of them all), Women in Chains, The Big Dollhouse, Chained Heat, etc., the genre seems to have wound down...maybe because of all the Pop Tarts in Real Chains. Reality can be a bummer, to be sure.

Anyhow I'm seeing Lindsay in the role Pam Grier role, struggling to survive in the Big House, with Martha Stewart as the head of the biggest prison gang, Aryan Bitches, and Paris Hilton as her enforcer. Of course, Charlie Sheen — the greatest living American actor — shines in the role of Big Richard, the prison warden. Watch for an unattributed guest appearance from Miley Cyrus in the hilarious "conjugal visit" sequence.

Maybe I need to get back on the meds...in the meantime, from Say Uncle, a pix from the upcoming Green Hornet movie scheduled for next year:

Dare I say it? This is the future of defensive handguns! There'll have to be a whole new category in IDPA for these bad boys! I do have some technical questions...does the trigger fire each upper alternately, or is there a selector switch of some sort? Can you get them with different calibers on each upper, say .45 ACP on the right and 5.7 X 28 on the left? Does Crimson Trace make a LaserGrip (LaserGrips?) for it? Is there a bayonet option? Will the movie suck? Well, I think we can safely answer that one...

Interestingly enough, the MSM is in full howl on the Utah CCW, which is reciprocal in 30 states. Both the NYT and WaPo (via a Reuters wire service article) are baying at the moon, insinuating that reciprocity will certainly result in millions dead, hours-long firefights in the streets and blah blah blah. The interesting thing is timing on the stories and the subsequent Brady release...obviously, Brady shills contacted their pet "reporters" and handed them them the story on a platter. Since the reporters are in the tank, they did as they were instructed and bleated like goosed sheep.

This amazing journalistic convergence does tell us what Brady is worried about in these post-Heller, post-McDonald days. You can bet that reciprocity is going to keep coming around until it becomes the law of the land.

Finally, when I was up at the Cody Firearms Museum filming for COWBOYS, I lusted for the beautiful Dardick pistol they had on display. In case you missed it back in mid-1950s, the Dardick shoots triangular cartridges, called trounds, holds 20 trounds and is the ne plus ultra firearm for repelling aliens of all sorts. Now Mechanics Illustrated (tip of the hat to The Firearm Blog) has their 1957 article on line:

I wish I'd written the lead: "The revolutionary new Dardick open chamber revolver is as versatile as a six-armed monkey!" Says it all...

Make my day, you bug-eyed six-armed alien slimepot!

One HELL of a Pro-Gun Article...

...in an amzingly surprising place...the Daily Kos, bastion of liberal commentary. Every one of you needs to read this brilliant summation of the Second Amendment:

We talk about the First Amendment as a unique and revolutionary concept -- that we have the right to criticize our government. Does it matter whether we do so while standing on a soapbox on the corner of the street or on a blog? No. Because the concept, not the methodology, is what matters.

And the Second Amendment is no different. It is not about how much ammunition is "excessive" or what types of guns are and are not permissible. Liberals cling to such minutia at the expense of understanding and appreciating the larger concept that underlies this right.

So.

What is the point? Is this a rallying cry for liberals to rush right out and purchase a gun? Absolutely not. Guns are dangerous when used by people who are not trained to use them, just as cars are dangerous when driven by people who have not been taught how to drive.

No, this is a rallying cry for the Bill of Rights -- for all of our rights.

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "I just don't like guns."

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "No one needs that much ammunition."

This is an appeal to every liberal who says, "That's not what the Founders meant."

This is an appeal to every liberal who supports the ACLU.

This is an appeal to every liberal who has complained about the Bush Administration's trading of our civil liberties for the illusion of greater security. (I believe I’ve seen a T-shirt or two about Benjamin Franklin’s thoughts on that.)

This is an appeal to every liberal who believes in fighting against the abuses of government, against the infringement of our civil liberties, and for the greater expansion of our rights.

This is an appeal to every liberal who never wants to lose another election to Republicans because they have successfully persuaded the voters that Democrats will not protect their Second Amendment rights.

This is an appeal to liberals, not merely to tolerate the Second Amendment, but to embrace it. To love it and defend it and guard it as carefully as you do all the others.

Because we are liberals. And fighting for our rights -- for all of our rights, for all people -- is what we do.

Because we are revolutionaries.

Yo, July!

Amazingly, there's no snow left on the property surrounding the Secret Hidden Bunker in the Rocky Mountains! Ah...this must be what they call summer...I wonder how long it will last?

Had a great weekend...my Sweetie and I shot the cowboy action shooting regional, Hell On Wheels, up in cowboy world in Cheyenne. It's always a great match, and we had a couple of good days pulling the trigger. My Sweetie shot the best match of her career (so far), dropping only 1 shot in the course of 12 stages...her times were about half what they were in last year's H-O-W.

I shot the match clean with pretty good times. I did fumble a couple of shotgun reloads with my '97 clone. I've been focusing my practices on marksmanship with the pistol and the rifle. Say what you want about cowboy targets being big and up close...the ability to deliver the shot is central to any shooting sport, not to mention the Real World uses of firearms. One of the tricky parts of cowboy action shooting is the different shaped targets — diamonds, spades, buffalos, the iconic cowboy, etc., like these from Action Targets. When we look at those targets, which are usually about 16 inches at their widest point, we tend to reflexively see a 16-inch diameter circle.

The Evil Little Shooting Demon in our head says, "Big target up close? Point-shoot that bad boy!!" Since we typically train on round or square targets, the Evil Little Shooting Demon gives us a nice 16-inch circle to shoot. Except it's not a 16-inch circle, and those curving bullets my friend Todd Jarrett talks about slip between the legs of a cowboy or right through that little crease in the middle of the heart.

In my training I try to see the small circle in the center mass of the target, and that center mass circle is more like 6-8 inches. I also have to remember that sport shooting augments my Real World training, and in the Real World (to borrow a cowboy quote), "Speed is fine; accuracy is final." Push the speed but keep the accuracy. Your results may vary...objects in the rear view mirror, etc.

Seeing the "real" target in the larger target obviously has major application in the Real World. Should we have to use our weapon to defend our lives, there will be a tendency to see our aggressor as a Really Big Target. However, the "real" targets — targets that will lead to incapacitation of the aggressor and a stopping of the threat — are much smaller.

Our close-to-the-match training sessions were on an MGM Targets "Whirlygig" — the MGM version of the Texas Star.

These are great training targets because they're designed to play against some of our hard-wiring. Our monkey vision is designed to pick up motion very quickly...we are drawn to moving objects. Comes from being purpose-designed as a predator. Hit the first 8-inch plate and the start begins to move...if, however, your vision gets sucked into watching the targets, you can't hit them. Tricky tricky...

I'm just glad I got through the match without my main match guns tanking. I ground on my Cimarron 1873 rifle's ejector, which was acting up, and luckily I was able to get it running and ejecting, definitely a plus. My Cylinder and Slide match Blackhawks — I don;t shoot puffball loads — are starting to show the wear of tens of thousands of rounds, and they definitely need a minor overhaul.

Today being a holiday — or so I'm told — I'm going to finish up the leather rig for the Model 3 break-top .44 Russians. If I get real ambitious, I might eviscerate my 1866 .44 Special and torture it into running with the shorter .44 Russian, thanks to an Adirondack Jack .44 Russian carrier. Pass the Dremel and heaven help me...

Happy Birthday, America!

I am struck on this 4th of July that today is a holiday for Americans, and that really doesn't include many of the people inside the Beltway. Oh, inside the Beltway they wave Old Glory like crazy, wear red, white and blue shirts and blouses and loudly proclaim their commitment to "American values" or something equally vague. But inside the Beltway, they look on the Gadsden Flag with a a feeling of uncomfortableness bordering on fear. They see in the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court decisions not a reaffirmation of fundamental American liberties  but the stirrings of some rough beast; in the Tea Party movement they fear a rising of "the rabble," the unlettered, people who foolishly believe that they are better suited to control their own lives, their own fortunes, than those wise ones inside the Beltway who so obviously know better. They dream of a world of cameras, of papers, of control, a world where American exceptionalism is a failed dream and all the reaffirmed liberties so eloquently stated by the Founders are words, only words.

Out here in the hinterlands we're celebrating, and part of what we're celebrating is that for the first time in many many years, America is awake — and angry. So you faux-Americans over in your little enclave keep waving the flag and telling us how much you care — really care — about us little people. Out here in the boonies, a tidal wave is building...

Happy Birthday, America! It's a great time to live in this country!

Light Blogging Alert!!!

I'm going to slide a little over the holiday weekend, although I'll probably get all antsy and post something anyway.

Whatever, but I'll be back to normal on Monday...

THANKS!