Around and Around and Around...

From USA Today, oh no! Magazines often have more than 10 rounds!

For years, gun control advocates have tried to ban high-capacity magazines, arguing they have no place in civil society...

Yeah, right. Am stocking up on SureFire 60-rounders, both for 3-Gun and because the darn things work. I'll probably grab some of the 100s when I can find them at a sane price. My pal Iain Harrison can occasionally get 100-round drums to work, but I think it has something to do with some kind of English ju-ju and is beyond my meager skills (and Dremel Tool). Also glad to see the DSA 30-rounders for my FAL are now in stock..just sayin', you know.

Seriously, I expect all this to blow over as it has blown over so many times in the past. But it never hurts to make sure the bread, band aids and bullets are socked away for rainy days.

Antigun Wars Start Heating Up

If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place. 

— William Tecumseh Sherman

I remember a couple of years ago I was taken to task on the weekly DOWN RANGE Radio podcast because I kept referring to antigun zealots as "enemies." I was told they were simply our countrymen with different views, and I thought that argument had some merit. Luckily, I took a few deep breaths with my head between my legs and got over it.

Any and every person who wants to strip me of any fundamental right, especially those rights guaranteed by our Constitution, is not a fellow countryman with a different opinion...rather, they are blood enemies.

And our blood enemies have been busy little beavers lately, hoping to capitalize on the Aurora theater massacre. The newest proposed legislation, introduced by the reprehensible Charles Schumer and Carolyn McCarthy, seeks to:

 “...make it harder for criminals to anonymously stockpile ammunition through the Internet.”

That goes along with the Schumer/Lautenberg amendment to the cybersecurity bill that would ban normal capacity magazines.

I don't think either of these ridiculous pieces of...hmmmmmm....legislation have a chance of passing, but we've got to be vigilant and willing to go to all-in political war on a moment's notice. Dancing in the blood of Aurora victims gives these vile excuses of humanity their best shot in a decade of slipping through legislation.  And speaking of vile excuses for a human being, beware of our "friends" like Bill O'Reilly...I've noted for a long time that O'Reilly is at his very core an antigun zealot...his call for "registration of heavy weapons" and ammunition regulation surely nail that position down.

Queen Kim!

My most sincere congratulations to my friend Kim Rhode for taking the gold medal in Women's Skeet in London, the very first America to medal in five consecutive Olympics! Oh yeah, she also set an Olympic record with 99 out of 100 clays and matched the current world record.

I simply cannot convey to you what a staggering accomplishment that is...when the Olympics canceled Kim's sport, double trap a few years back, she simply switched to skeet. This is akin to a pursuit cyclist being forced to change to mountain biking...yes, they both involve pedaling, but there's a whole different skillset to be mastered. 

But master it she did, taking the silver in Beijing and now the gold.

Kim is the stuff of legends, and I'm so happy and proud for her and her wonderful family. Heck, every American should stand up and cheer!

Jerry Ahern R.I.P.

I belatedly note the passing of Jerry Ahern, novelist, gunwriter, proponent of the fine Detonics pistol and my friend, from cancer. Read the full obit from No Lawyers.

Jerry and I were friends for a long time, all the way back to the days when he was writing The Survivalist action series ( which I always believed was the best of that genre). For a while we even shared an agent in Hollywood.

When Jerry resurrected Detonics a few years back, I took SHOOTING GALLERY to Georgia to document the process in our 100th episode and spend some time with Jerry and his wife Sharon. My 3rd Gen Detonics Combat Master remains the very best small .45 1911 I've ever shot, and the only one that actually runs. And yes, I do occasionally carry it in an Alessi shoulder holster, a la John Thomas Rourke, the original survivalist.

Jerry wrote a regular column for the THE BLUE PRESS and an occasional column for DRTV. He once told me that in his most prolific year he produced an astounding 40-some-odd novels! In my most prolific years as a writer I was lucky to grind out 40 magazine articles. He obviously had the gift, and the was nothing more fun than talking guns with Jerry. Those conversations will be missed, a lot.

Go with God, brother.

Sometimes Even I'm Amazed

I note that Charles Schumer -- and yes, even writing his name makes me feel queasy -- has introduced an amendment to the cyber security bill to bane normal capacity magazines. The funny thing, if anything can be said to be funny about  little insane clown posse, is his overly righteous statement that maybe we can all "come together" on guns if "both sides give a little."

For example, the Democrats might be willing to agree that the Second Amendment might possibly exist sorta somewhat as long as that doesn't mean actual people having actual, you know, guns that might shoot, then our side would agree to magazine capacity limits -- soon to bet set at "0" -- banning the most popular rifle in America and any gun that looked scary, and later, if we peckerheads can't all be rehabilitated, agree to quietly line up for our places in the boxcars headed to, oh, I don't know, probably Chicago.

This is what a liberal calls compromise. Why don't we all guess what I call it?

BHO Going After "Assault Weapons?"

Looks like it...from Politico tonight: But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers and not in the hands of crooks. They belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities,” he added. Obama bemoaned the lack of political will to tackle gun issues, noting how congressional leaders have so far shown little interest in advancing new legislation following the Colorado shooting. I'd be amazed if he continued walking into this particular fan.

The Narrative

I'm watching the liberal and MSM (but I'm redundant) narrative writhe and shift as it becomes obvious that the "national debate" on gun control is a non-starter. Doesn't mean we don't have a potential feces hurricane, but we've been through this before. What I've been seeing over the last day or so is a shift in the attack from the guns to " large amounts" of ammunition purchased over the Internet.

I think the spinners for Brady and VPC realize if they go hard at "assault weapons" sooner or later the MSM is going to have to point out that the AR platform is the most popular and best-selling rifle in America. And unlike 1993, when ARs and other black rifles, were relatively rare, they're now as common as 10/22s. It's one thing to demonize guns that most people have only seen in war movies, a different thing when you're talking about a gun in widespread circulation. Sales of the AR platform guns has been staggering in the last few years. The big AR makers are still hugely back ordered already...in short, the AR has become more than any other gun in the last 50, heck, maybe 100 years "America's gun." In 1993, the antigun politicians were able to essentially divide and conquer...essentially, the mainstream of gun owners weren't willing to go to the mattresses for something they weren't familiar with. That is exactly opposite of the situation today. We are on the same page, all of us.

Interestingly enough, I've seem some wire reports saying that B-HO himself may be planning a speech on guns. Cool. It's an election year, and the Republican line is going to hold. At least until November. 

Dave Arnold, R.I.P

I note the passing of one of my best, and dearest, friends, Captain Dave Arnold, from injuries sustained in a car crash in Virginia this weekend.

I don't even know where to begin...Dave, along with Walt Rauch, founded the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) after Dave's initial work with the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). Dave and his running buddy Lloyd Harper felt very strongly that the United States, as the largest participant in the fledgling sport of practical shooting, needed its own organization.

The "bones" of USPSA were put in place after the first Florida Invitational Pistol Tournament in, I believe, 1980. The sport of practical pistol, and IPSC itself, had been created at the 1976 Columbia Conference, called by Col. Jeff Cooper et all. "Combat shooting," as it was called back then, had grown like a weed in all directions, and some of those directions were pretty strange. I shot one combat match back then that, as soon as someone yelled "Go!," you dropped your gun on floor and kicked it down range, then ran to retrieve it to start the stage.

Following the FIPT, Dave, Walt, Jake Jatras (editor of the only publication about the fledgling sport, The Combat Shooters Report), Dave Churilla (who would go on to be the first head of the National Range Officer Institute (NROI), Tom Campbell (then with S&W and one of the sport's first top shooters) and me took a yellow legal pad to a strip joint called Thee Doll House in Orlando and created the outlines of USPSA.

Dave was adamant that the new sport become more formalized, especially on the safety rules. Remember, combat shooting was a major change from traditional position bullseye shooting...run and gun was something totally new. At the end of the meeting, Dave and Walt became the formal founders, Churilla and I would work on range officer training.

After working on national rules and range officer training, Dave went on to found the International Range Officer Association for IPSC and was Match Director of major national and world competitions. As a law enforcement trainer he worked in training for line officers and elite operators as well. He took on the tough job of running the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail, a job to which he bought not only toughness, but compassion. It takes a man's man to not only arrest a first-time drug offender, but help arrange for his education when he got out. Dave understood evil, but he believed in redemption as well.

He worked as my Chief Rangemaster in the NSSF Media Education Program, which was as much Dave's as mine and NSSF's. He was, as usual, flawless on the range, an example of what each of us strived to be. He was an early adopter of IDPA and helped me create the curriculum for the first IDPA Safety Officer class I ran, which I believe was the first one before the creation of the formal Safety Officer program.

In the late 1980s, after Florida adopted shall-issue, Dave and I began working together on concealed carry issues, and much of my current thinking on concealed carry was hammered together in those days. Heck, Dave even convinced me to try cowboy action shooting!

As one of Dave's rangemasters, I learned more than you can imagine. More than that, Dave became first my friend, then my brother. We stood beside each other during dark times in our lives and shared the joy of the good times. We shot side by side more times than I can remember. He never stopped competing, usually at law enforcement matches where he liked to "whip up" on the young officers. He once took a couple of years off shooting to restore a 1957 Chevy, but then sold soon after because, "It turned out just to be a car." He married his high school sweetheart and found joy.

He was a hero in Vietnam, but that was a story he chose not to tell in public, nor will I.

I guess the bottom line, if such a spectacular and wonderfully lived life can be summed up in a sentence, is that if you have ever stepped up to the line in a match, regardless of whichever branch of the practical shooting tree you've chosen; if you've ever taken any training and marveled about the standards of safety; if you've ever seen one of my shows, my friend Dave Arnold touched your life.

I always imagined that somewhere in our dotage Dave and I would be sipping good brandy and exchanging lies about the good old days. I will miss him more than simple words can express.

Go with God, brother.

"The world is a sadder place...but legends endure."

Nick Alexakos

International Practical Shooting Confederation

Stay Strong!

This egregious headline greeted me this AM when I turned on the computer:

This Is The Gun Used In The Colorado Shooting That Everyone Can't Believe Is Actually Legal

That would be the best-selling rifle in America.

Stay strong...we will weather this storm.

Mourn the dead; comfort the living and train!

Colorado Mourns...

I don't have much to say here on the mass shooting in my home state. The crazy wants to be famous, and like Pavlov's drooling dogs we do exactly as he wants. I will, however, say this — the movie theater chain has prided itself as a "gun-free zone," with signs preventing anyone but police (and apparently lunatics) from carrying guns inside the theaters. How'd that work out? The same way it always works out.

I'm going to send you to two links. The first is from WaPo, bemoaning the fact that this madman will not end up having Americans baying for more gun control...here's the nut graf:

"That the numbers on gun control remain steady even in the aftermath of such high profile events like Columbine, Virginia Tech and the Giffords shooting suggests that people simply don’t equate these incidents of violence with the broader debate over the right role for guns in our society. They view them as entirely separate conversations — and that’s why the tragedy in Aurora isn’t likely to change the political conversation over guns either."

Proving that Americans in general are smarter than the media and their progressive overlords by a pretty substantial margin. The second link is also an MSM one, from CNN, which inadvertently tells us one fact we already know, coupled with another statement we know to be wrong. Under the title of, "Gun control or carry permits won't stop mass murder," criminologist/antigun apologist (look him up) James Alan Fox notes:

"Mass killers are determined, deliberate and dead-set on murder. They plan methodically to execute their victims, finding the means no matter what laws or other impediments the state attempts to place in their way. To them, the will to kill cannot be denied."

"Cannot be denied..." I've said before, there are too many rats in the box, and some of those rats are badly broken. Fox goes on to restate a regular theme of his work, one you're going to be hearing a lot of in the next few days:

While logical in theory, in the chaos of the moment, few gun owners would be prepared to mount an effective counterattack. And in a crowded setting, such as the movie theater clouded with tear gas and smoke, it would be virtually impossible to distinguish the bad guy with a gun from the good guys with their guns.

Bullshit. We are not all cattle, ready to spill out what's left of our lives with our heads hung down. Remember that as the nasty storm spins up over the next week.

And, finally, remember one more thing: "Why" simply doesn't matter. Whether the crazy was abused as a child, ate too many Twinkies, lost his temper because he didn't get a ticket to opening night, or snorted too many bath salts, it doesn't matter! Evil exists, and it is our duty to resist it wherever it appears and whatever its guise.

Mourn the dead; comfort the living, and train.

CT Midnight 3-Gun!

Good Lord, I'm tired!

Got back to the hotel in Bend at 5 AM; It's now 11 and I'm wide awake. This can't be good! Match Day 1 was pretty spectacular, a frakin' incredible opportunity to shoot weapons systems you normally never get the chance to handle, much less running crazily through the night whacking targets with them. How about a whole stage with a PWS SBR and night vision goggles? 200 yard shots with a new Colt 901 .308 and night vision?  Pretty amazing vision of a match from Iain Harrison and his crew of ne'er-do-wells!

My shooting, you ask reasonably? Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll...not so much. Aside from being so slow I'm being timed with an hour glass, I'm making lotsa mistakes...mostly blowing past targets I should have engaged. In my defense, I will say I've never been at my best at 3 AM! LOL! 

Gear is working well, and the high-lumen Streamlight protos are definitely helping. I'm going to WD-40 stuff tonight and change batteries on the flame-throwers.

We're filming with night vision, various IR toys and weird lights for SHOOTING GALLERY. Should be mega-cool episode.

Did I mention I'm on the super squad, with Daniel Horner, Kalani Laker, Jesse Tischhauser, etc.? Sigh...

I think I'm going to give up even pretending to rest and go get some food. It'll take me a couple of hours to sort gear...me and pal Alam Samuel's chick magnet minivan looks like and explosion in a gun store.

Oh yeah, my AP Tactical custom holster rig for the Ruger SR9 in fetching zombie florescent green is a big hit...hey, if you can't win, go for style points!

Sporting Clays Day...

...with the execs from Streamlight at the uber-cool Pennsylvania's  Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays course! What a crazy cool course! It's built around an old, long deserted concrete factory and quarry...think the only post-Apoc sporting clays course. Ended up with 69 out of 90, using Streamlight CEO Ray Sharrah's slick Benelli. More tomorrow...

Was cool...clays flying out of windows across an old courtyard (see above). All it needed was a couple of zombies wandering around.

Don't Worry...It's Not That Late!

So I'm in the gun room drilling the crap out of the darned Remington magazine tube crimps so I can put the BRILEY 10/shot tube on the Versa Max...so far, so good. Be Saturday before I find out if it works. If it doesn't, I'll be shooting the FNH with a light duct-taped to the tube next week in Portland.

At least I've got enuf ammo, I think. If I don't, I'll borrow it from Patrick Sweeney, who has never forgiven me for cribbing far too much of his match ammunition at the Single Stack Nationals a few years back. He makes great ammo, even if he works for InterMedia! Bring extra ammo, Patrick. And duct tape.

Anyhow, I'm as ready as I'm likely to get for the Crimson Trace Midnight 3-Gun, especially since I'm having dinner in Philadelphia tomorrow and Thursday. My ace in the hole is that I've drafted Alan Samuel, ace zombie killer and 3-gun shooter, to accompany me to the match. His role is to resuscitate me when I pass out...and convince Patrick to give me ammo.

BTW, got the readers' copy of the new Bob Lee Swagger novel, THE THIRD BULLET, today in the mail, just in time for my yo-yo'ing across the country! As always, I'll fill you guys in.

Meanwhile, Back in Mogadishu-On-Lake Michigan...

(CNSNews.com) - If Chicago's street thugs are going to attack each other, they should take their fight away from innocent children, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told the CBS Evening News on Monday.
"We've got two gangbangers, one standing next to a kid. Get away from that kid. Take your stuff away to the alley. Don't touch the children of the city of Chicago. Don't get near them," Emanuel -- President Obama's former chief of staff -- told anchor Scott Pelley...

Please, please, please Mr. Gangbanger, don't shoot up our neighborhoods! I mean, we're good union-loving progressive Democrats who will give you anything -- Anything! Money, drugs, non-profits, community organizers, our daughters and sons...name it! -- if you'll just leave us alone! Can't we work out a deal where we pay you a gratuity, let's call it "tribute," every month, maybe kick in a few virgins if we can round them up? We are so afraid...and we are so helpless...

Hey, I have an idea! Let's go to the America firearms industry and ask them to once again make a single shot FP-45.45 "Liberator" pistol in mass quantities (updated, polymer frame, light rail, loaded chamber indicator, available in colors). Then we ask the great Chris Muir to do a "Day By Day" graphic novel explaining how to use the new little gun. Finally, we ask our bravest pilots to risk 'banger flak, environmental lawsuits, and a flood of money from crooked politicians to fly sorties over the Chicago suburbs dropping packages containing the New Liberator, the graphic novel  and a copy of the U. S. Constitution!

Problem solved!

Please

The Big Sigh...

...is, of course, me bemoaning the end of our leisurely weekend in Monterey and facing the Long Run until November. With 3 series filming concurrently, it's YEE-HAW time, starting later this week. More when I get out of this SFO cesspool...

The Best Post-Apoc Advice...

...I've read in a while, from Manolo's Shoe Blog, no less (via InstaPundit):

In the post-apocalyptic future, the Manolo expects the survivors to be exceedingly well-shod for the first few years, after which, we will have to make do with old Birkenstocks and burlap bags. It will be like living in the Middle Ages again, only without the benefit of people who are handy with tools.

Light Blogging Alert!

My Sweetie and I are celebrating our 20th Anniversary in Monterey this weekend, eating vast quantities of squid and bicycling 17-Mile Driver. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the 20th "ammo?"

Busy, Busy Day!

First, I want to say that Season 2 GUN STORIES is looking like a runaway hit! Joe is just superb. We're all so proud of the show!

I finished 68 out of 283 shooters at Hell on Wheels, and I'm very very happy! My best finish ever in a big match. Over the next few months I'm going to "deconstruct" my shooting and see where I need to go for the next step up. I'm also taking a close look at my gear to see if there are seconds I can shave off.

Meetings tomorrow on SG Season 13. I've been blocking out topics for the various segments. We've got our first Celebrity Shoot scheduled as well.

Ordered a Colt Custom Shop 9mm Defender today. I talked it over with my friend Brent at the Custom Shop when I was up there last week. I like the platform (3-inch 1911 9mm). I told Brent I'd be running Corbin DPX +P in it.

Congratulations!

Although she HATES for me to do this, I feel obligated to congratulate my Sweetie, Indiana Jackson, for pulling off a "cowboy hat trick" — she won her category both at the Colorado state championships, the Rocky Mountain Raid, and at Hell on Wheels, the High Plains Regional. Hey, if I won a state and a regional championship within a month of each other, there'd be fireworks! She's much more modest...

Home from HELL...

...ON WHEELS, the cowboy regional in Cheyenne hosted by the Cheyenne Regulators. What a great match! Our posse (which is cowboy for squad) included Marshal Halloway, the ever-lovely Marshal'ette, Tame Bill (my old pal Stuart Barber, who ran the Kansas Indoor IPSC Championships back in the days when we were all young and thought we'd be the Next Big Thing), Indiana Jackson and a host of other miscreants. The match was extremely well-designed, the props excellent, even the weather held!

Every so often (and sometimes it seems like those "oftens" get farther and farther apart!) a match just comes together. I shot 12 stages with 2 very minor mistakes — a slightly juggled shotgun reload that cost me maybe a second and a minor "brain malfunction" on target order that cost me another second. Otherwise, I absolutely shot up to my skill level...regardless of where I finish in the rankings, that is simply as good as I could shoot for those 2 days!

I knew I was doing well because I didn't feel like I was going fast...I saw the sights (when I needed to see them) and squeezed the trigger...and yes, on some of those close-up cowboy targets I just point-shot them. The shotgun reloads all fell right into place and the transitions worked. Darn, that felt good!