Good Morning, I Think!!

From this morning's Boston Herald:

Yesterday, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry was campaigning at the Iowa State Fair, a reporter from Politico.com asked him whether he was armed. Perry, a known gun owner and enthusiast, refused to answer the question.

“That’s why it’s called ‘concealed,’ ” Perry told the reporter.

Amen, brother! Interestingly enough, I then turned on morning TV and watched Fox spend 15 minutes savaging Rick Perry and the Tea Party. Man, this is going to be a bloodbath of a campaign!

Another interesting read that is not yet on the Internet if from IDPA's "Tactical Journal," where my friend Ted Murphy argues quite convincingly for the sport to allow hard-shell kneepads. IDPA has traditionally banned the hard-shell pads as gear an average person (not a Washington lobbyist, of course) would not wear on the street. The hard shell pads are also perceived as giving a competitive advantage to people willing to throw themselves into a kneeling position. Wow...if I remember really hard, I can remember being willing to throw myself into strange contortions for matches!

Now I'm paying for those contortions, assorted other stupid sports, marathons and ultramarathons, etc. My knees are shot. Oh well, I never thought any of that cool stuff was going to be free! TINSTAAFL! After my last marathon, Big Sur, a few years ago, I got the exciting news that both my knees would eventually have to be replaced. "When?" I logically asked. "How are you with pain?" my knee guy answered. So I've spent the last 5 or 6 years experimenting with various and sundry weird gooey stuff being injected into my knees every 12 months or so, and when that failed eating Celebrex like popcorn. As long as I bicycle a lot, the knees don't hurt too bad. The SHOT Show marathon on concrete floors, however, is a laff riot!

I mention this because at GUNSITE a few months back I got cute and decided that since my knees were on a pretty good roll (I'd forgotten my hard-shells), I'd do all the kneeling positions. Bad plan, Michael-san! Paid for that Mr. Stupid act!

In fact, one of the reasons I stopped shooting some of the more aggressive shooting sports was the very real fear that it might push my knees to the replacement point. I heard from my pal Dick Henie, the master gunsmith, yesterday and he regaled me with stories of his newly replaced knee (Knee #2 will be replaced after SHOT). Getting old isn't for sissies!

Frankly, when I shoot the IDPA Worlds (as my score will not be recorded or posted and I am not eligible for prizes, etc.) I will probably seek the Match Director's permission to use hard-shells under long pants. I think Ted makes a lot of sense on this. I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice my knees in a Real World encounter, but not for a match score.

I see that Charter Arms has finally rolled out its .40 S&W snubbie revolver, the pit bull. On its face, it's a pretty good idea, given CCW carries who favor the .40 S&W cartridge -- obviously not me -- a snub reviler as a pocket option. It'll be interesting to see if the Pit Bull takes off. There have been several runs at small frame rimless cartridge revolver, and they generally generated more flash than heat, but most of those have been in 9mm.

I also see that powerhouse Beretta is getting into the super lucrative mini-9mm sweepstakes. The Beretta Nano is a striker-fired (a first for Beretta), polymer-framed single stack mini-9mm,, although Beretta was quick to say the platform would also carry a .40 S&W. I have to say I've been really lax over the years in spending time with Beretta's handgun products outside the ubiquitous 92 in various flavors. I'm going to make a concerted effort to change that. No word on when the Nano will be available.