Hell Yes!

He made my day, anyway! Loved it that he so got under BHO's skin that the President of the United Staes felt obligated to make a sadly pathetic response to a jibe:

The "seat may be taken," but the chair is still empty...

UPDATE: From the Looking Spoon/FaceBook, a touch 'o the ole Photoshop:

From Justin Katz on the brilliance of the empty chair:

What Eastwood did, with his extemporaneous air and unfilled chair, was to call bull**** on the increasingly untenable narrative that the Left has been weaving through all of the public institutions that it has spent decades infiltrating. He elevated to TV Land the shocking breach of story line and etiquette that hit YouTube years ago when angry citizens shouted down their Senators at town hall meetings.

Also, don't miss Ed Morrissey's well-reasoned piece on Hot Air:

If I can riff like that on national TV at the age of 82, believe me, I’ll be happy.

Amen to that!

Crazy Busy this Week!

... Heading into the Ruger Rimfire state championships this weekend. I think the guns are dialed in, but who knows -- I'll certainly be the last to know! LOL! 

Should be able to post this afternoon.

Am very pleased with the Republican platform!

The Narrative The Narrative The Almighty Narrative!!!

This sophomoric display of anal drippings is from the morning HuPo, Sanjay Sanghoee (who is, BTW, a "thriller writer..." :

Now consider what would have happened in that situation if all New Yorkers were armed. With more guns in the mix and more citizens deciding to take matters into their own hands, many more shots would have been fired, and if the professionals themselves could miss their target and shoot innocent bystanders instead, you can imagine how ordinary citizens, most of them with only amateur shooting experience, would have done a hell of a lot more damage. In the madness that would have erupted, a simple take-down of a suspect by police would have turned into a modern day shootout at the OK Corral. Anyone who believes that a scenario like that would have resulted in fewer casualties is patently insane.

Speaking as one of the "patently insane," have you ever noticed how patently stupid people repeated bring up the OK Corral as an example of what might happen but never does? I wonder if Sanghoee's relentless lack of originality and insight are reflected in his novels?

Yeah yeah, now I'll get emails from MSM leftist apologists (a.k.a. "shills") asking why I so quickly resort to "ad homenim," personal attacks. Here's a quick answer -- there is no point to arguing with either the mentally challenged or outright liars. Why are we supposed to pretend our blood enemies have "reasoned arguments" when all they do is spew talking points that are repeatedly shown to be untrue? Sanghoee's entire argument can be boiled down to, "Gee, if the police are this crummy with their guns, imagine how hela-crummy civilians might be, which us why we have to take away their guns like immediately!" 

My cat can make a better argument than that, yet we're all supposed to pretend this drivel is thoughtful, reasoned discourse. Nope, it's exactly the same substance said cat leaves in his box.

The best comment I've seen on the NYC police shooting comes from a commenter on Tam's View From the Porch blog:

"Jim Cirillo weeps."

Read Tam's whole post, BTW..it is actually thoughtful discourse.

Mark Craighead, R.I.P.

Rob Pincus has informed me that Mark Craighead of Crossbreed Holsters, has passed. Here's Rob's moving tribute:

My good friend and industry Leader, Mark Craighead passed away today. Mark owned & operated Crossbreed Holsters with his family and friends. I received the news today from. the family and they asked me to pass on their thanks for the thoughts of the firearms community and their assurance that things would continue as expected at Crossbreed. We have  

lost a great asset today.

Mark quickly became a leader in the industry as his incredibly innovative Crossbreed Holster design and company quickly become respected for quality and function. He and I worked together on many projects over the last few years and have had the pleasure of hearing from many of his customers in my courses who greatly appreciate his efforts and his company's efforts to meet their needs. Mark would often ask me what people were saying about the products and how they held up in class and he was always very proud to hear the great reports. He was also very eager to find ways to better serve his customers, the firearms community and the industry as a whole.

Outside of work, which he very much enjoyed, Mark was both a dedicated family man and a bit of an adventurer. One of his biggest hobbies was motor sports. He had some very impressive vehicles that he enjoyed driving/riding when time allowed. He even ran his beloved Lingenfelter Cadillac CTS-V in the Cannonball Run last year and had planned to try the Vegas to Reno Desert Race in 2013.

One thing that truly stood out about Mark was his commitment to friends and family. As Crossbreed Holsters grew, he continued to bring more and more of both into the operations to share in his success and in fulfilling his commitment to excellence. I have yet to meet anyone in the industry who had a bad word to speak of him and doubt sincerely that I ever will. 

Rest In Peace, Brother

Amen.

Sigh #2

So with 3 solid weeks of filming in front of me, I broke off a chunk of front tooth last night...and the dentist can't get to it for...wait for it...wait for it...3 weeks. Of course. So I'm stuck wearing this cheesy " cosmetic" tooth for the next 3 weeks until the Lord of Dentistry deigns to get me in.

Again, a sigh...

BTW, cool article on sword-fighting, the rediscovery of, so to speak:

Only recently in the last decade or so has this extraordinary and all but forgotten material finally come to be properly examined and studied. Reconstruction of these remarkable teachings offers an unparalleled view into how fighting men prepared and trained themselves for duels, street-fights, and battlefield encounters. Their manner of fighting with swords is not the classical Western style we see today, which is largely a contrived 19th-century gentleman's version of a narrow, aristocratic Baroque style. What the surviving sources show us is wholly different from the familiar pop-culture version, as well as being dramatically distinct from what has gone on for years in assorted reenactments and contrived living-history efforts. Rather, Medieval and Renaissance sword fighting was a hell of a lot more violent, brutal, ferocious, and astonishingly effective. The way in which these swords were held, the way they can be maneuvered, and the postures and motions involved, differ substantially from common presumptions and modern-era fencing styles.

I'd like to note that one of my distant Scots ancestors, Old Donald Bane, wrote one of those texts...he survived into his late 60s, not bad for a sell-sword in the1700s. I only hope I can last that long! LOL!

Sigh...

The furnace here at the Secret Hidden Bunker kicked on this AM, and some of the high aspen are already showing golden at their tops. I'm not the Old farmer's Almanac or anything, but I suspect winter is coming.

Thus the sigh.

Was working on a new show proposal all day...those things take TWO FOREVERS to write and about 20 seconds to get shot down! LOL!

I'm once again shuffling carry guns in my project to get a feel for a bunch of different platforms. Next up is the Taurus "Slim" 9mm. I started carrying it today in an N8 Tactical IWB, but I have one of the Simply Rugged Cudas on the way. I'm also shopping for an appendix holster to try. I might also use the pocket DeSantis holster I've been using firthe Ruger LC9. I have some range time next week to get a good feel for the gun, which I have a couple of hundred rounds through from a few months back.

Cure for "Operator Fatigue"

Yeah, sometimes you just get tired of living in Digicam World...

How Much Brainpower...

...does it take to watch a South African horror movie about really yeechy giant ant creatures? Well, not so much that I can't blog at the same time. Where is James Arness when you need him? Although there's something to be said for Rachel Shelley even when she's wearing all her clothes...but "scare you out of your skull?" Probably not.

Majestic Mark III mods...

I did manage to get to the range yesterday with my Sweetie, who's still on Injured Reserve. I decided to just focus on .22s, since the Colorado State Ruger Rimfire championship is only a few weeks away. I'll be shooting the match and we'll be filming if for SHOOTING GALLERY, as well as a Ruger Rimfire class taught by Tim Norris. I was very very pleased with my iron-sighted Ruger Mark III Target as overhauled by Majestic Arms. It's not a balls-to-the-wall custom target pistol, but it shoots extremely well. I added a red fiber optic front sight, which is a help for the old eyes.

I'm not so sanguine on my rifle. As you may remember, last year I shot my old 10/22 Target fitted with AR-15 style sights in the iron sight division. I'd previously shot the same rifle with a Tasco Pro Point red dot in open class and been very pleased with he performance. The AR sights and I didn't get along well...my right eye's retina is permanently damaged from the shingles attack several years back. I can get a clean sight picture off my left eye (both lenses ahem been replaced), and an adequate sight picture with a fiber optic front sight off my right eye. So I replaced the heavy hammer-forged Ruger barrel with a Green Mountain fluted stainless barrel fitted with Williams Fire Sights. I was faster with this iteration of the rifle, but not as fast as I need to be. I'm hoping to get in another range session or two before the match, and I think I'll focus strictly on the rifle.

Maybe I should just suck it up and shoot open with a red dot on both the rifle and the pistol. My rational for shooting irons has been that my primary competition is cowboy, where everybody shoots iron sights!

RE: Detonics Combat Masters...what can I say? I have owned 2 over the years, still own one of the Atlanta guns and have shot maybe a dozen more. It is still my unequivocal favorite small 1911. Mine runs like a clock (although, to be fair, it has been tuned by Cylinder & Slide).

Spike's Tactical ST-22 Lothar Walther upper

I got my Spike's Tactical .22 upper for the Appleseed gun project (for SHOOTING GALLERY Season 13). Man, it is sweet! Alan Samuel and I are going to build the gun up on a special JP Rifles lower that just arrived at Alan's shop. I talked to John (the "JP" of "JP Rifles") about making sure his superb trigger system was set up for the notoriously finicky .22 LRs, and he did suggest some changes in springs. Haven't yet made any decision on the stock...I do like the Ace skeletal stocks...but, of course, it's a Magpul universe. As I mentioned before, I'm putting a Pride/Fowler 3-9X scope on it to work it out after we get it built (and filmed).

Finally, I'd just like to give a shootout to Rob at SIMPLY RUGGED Holsters for his superb Cuda Holster.

I bought one of these for my little Ruger SR-22 pistol, which has become one of my favorite little knock around guns. I put that gun on when I went to the range, covering it with a Carhardt t-shirt (because, paranoid soul that I am, I can't bear to be shooting on public land without at least one concealed weapon on my person, even if its only a .22). The Cuda holster carries and conceals amazingly well -- not to mention it's amazingly inexpensive. I ended up carrying that gun all day. No, I'm not planning on giving up the 9-mil as the daily carry gun, but up here bopping around the Secret Hidden Bunker, the SR-22 will probably suffice. Maybe as long as I'm being eclectic, I should add the Bond Arms .45/.410 as my second gun...

A Paul Harvey-esque Failure...

..sorry..l forgot to mention that Sig Sauer sent me the little .45 "Ultra"  specifically in response to my comments on short-barreled 1911 platform pistol. If you recall, I basically agreed with Rob Pincus that I'd never had much luck with shorter-than-Commander length .45 1911s, with the specific exception of dual recoil spring Detonics Combat Master. 

Probably the best thing I've read since that imbroglio was from my old friend Ken Hackathorn, as quoted by Rich Grassi in the Tactical and the Shooting Wire:

-- Currently there are negative perceptions that are being expressed on the 1911 style pistol. Your take?

"I have a hard time being objective about it," he said. "I grew up with it, invested a lot of effort in learning how to use it."

The basic service pistol, the 1911 pattern gun has gotten the job done for over a century. "I carried it daily." The question as to whether the gun will withstand a 2,000 round test or class without cleaning or lube is silly.

"My question is, "Will the gun go three magazines without choking?"" he said. "I only carry three magazines with the gun. As a practical matter, it's most important that the gun work through that load."

"If I'm in a place where I need more than that pistol and those magazines," he said, "I'm in the wrong place with the wrong gun at the wrong time. It's a bad day."

Thugs-R-Us

Mike Seeklander's Official Thugs-R-Us ID Photo

Five great scenarios done for THE BEST DEFENSE! It is going to be a great season. We spent the rest of the afternoon scouting locations for our next filming session, which will include a restaurant attack and an active shooter in a theater. It will be, quite literally, must-see teevee.

BTW, I have been dry-firing the Sig Sauer 1911 3-inch "Ultra" that came my way earlier this week. I can't wait to get this gun to the range ! Hopefully tomorrow. The trigger is somewhere between really really good and amazing. Except for the 3-dot sights (I know...I know), I would say the gun is just about perfect. And think of how pissy I am about 1911s!

As You Probably Figured...

...I've been busy with THE BEST DEFENSE scenarios over the last couple of days and will be through the week. I'd be posting those annoying pictures from the set, but the phone app I used to do that "up and died" like the dog Teddy in the old song "Mr. Bojangles." Last night we ran our CCW holder suspicious person confrontation — you might recognize that circumstance — and out was...interesting. Among the four of us...me, Seeklander, Janich and Marty Hayes, it still took an hour or so to actually figure out how the sim needed to run. Seeklander got to be the victims, and yes, we'll have to bleep him.

We're heading into high season for filming (SHOOTING GALLERY, THE BEST DEFENSE and ELITE TACTICAL UNIT are all in production between now and the end of the year), so the blogposts typically get shorted.

I also have several "project guns" for both SHOOTING GALLERY and DRTV that are in various stages of planning/completion/complete disarray, including a tack-driving .22LR AR-15, a lightweight break-down AR package, a suppressed Ruger charger and probably some other stuff I've completely forgotten. I think I've run out of available RAM for my head, to tell the truth.

One of the new Crimson Trace green lasers arrived here yesterday. When I get a chance I'll mount it up on a Glock 19 and let you all know how it works. The big advantage of green lasers, of course, is their much more visible in the daylight than their red counterparts. The trade-off has always been lessened battery life, but in general lasers don't run continuously so the battery issue doesn't usually come up.

Two scenarios to do today...

One Of Us

Mitt Romney's choice of Paul Ryan (above, with Bambi's dad) as his VP eliminates any hesitation we on the Second Amendment side of the GOP might have in unconditionally, and enthusiastically, supporting the ticket. As noted by John at No Lawyers Only Guns and Money, Ryan is the real deal...rated "A" by both the NRA and the stricter GOA standards, all the right votes, a lifelong enthusiastic hunter and fisherman and judging by some of his earlier statements, a man who holds a deep and abiding respect for the Second Amendment.

Should Romney succeed in November, it is obvious that Ryan will emerge as the most powerful Vice-President of our lifetime, as well as the philosophical head of the Republican Party.

It is time, as the NRA says, to go "All In!" That means its time to quit whining that Ron Paul, Thomas Jefferson or Charlton Heston are not on the ballot. If you can't figure out the difference between our current President, a committed Alinsky-ite without a shred of conscience or personal honor and his boob of a VP and the Romney/Ryan ticket, don't expect any of us to take you seriously anymore.

Hogs in the Crosshairs

Great piece on hog hunting from, of all places, Slate:

About seven years ago I made a decision to stop eating factory-farmed pork. I think my first look at a modern farrowing crate was the final straw. Pigs are as intelligent as domestic dogs and are capable of seeking out human affection. I don't know where the line is between refusing to eat a chimpanzee and being concerned that eating honey inconveniences bees, but pigs seemed like a pretty good place for me to draw one in the sand. I went about five years without touching pork. Considering that this period coincided with America's bacon renaissance, I missed out on a lot.

During this time I started deliberately pursuing invasive species to eat. I ate nutria from the swamps of Louisiana, speared lionfish in the Bahamas, and sniped black spiny-tailed iguanas in front of the Bush family’s Florida vacation house (no trouble from the Secret Service, oddly enough). All of it is detailed in my book Eating Aliens. After about 16 months on the road, I noticed that the most effective work against invasive species was often a result of a few locals taking personal responsibility for the problem. Wild pigs are some of the most destructive invasives in the United States. I decided to hunt wild pigs, and if you care about the environment, you should, too.

...

Invasive pigs are going to be removed only when people decide to take personal responsibility for the problem and go hunting. Even people like me—a former vegetarian who still wouldn't eat so much as a slice of commercial bacon with my toast and coffee.

Man, Is It the Weekend Yet?

I'm tired. I didn't make it to the range. Summer's almost over. I bought a Winchester Model 12 for our SG "Wild Bunch" episode. I may shoot it in match tomorrow, not for score, of course. Be a hoot. Maybe not. Marshal & I have put together the plan for a really great DRTV Internet series we hope to roll out Q1 2013. When in doubt, smash a couple of paradigms and run with it. If we can pull it off, it's a screaming home run. Yeah, I know, I should retire...just can't, you know...besides, then I'd have to go work at a Chick-Fil-A.

Looking forward to my Sweetie's and my first 3-Gun match (for me, the first in e daylight! LOL!), probably at Colorado Rifle Club in October. Need to get her shotgun, an FNH SLP, up to speed.

Especially looking forward to the Ruger Rimfire Colorado Championships end of August. Am still planning on shooting Limited, iron sights, but Tactical Solutions just notified me that at top-of-the-lineTac-Sol rifle on their X-Ring 10/22 clone receiver is on the way to my FFL. With a C-More RTS, it'd rock. Whether I would rock remains to be seen. I just got the Williams Fire Sight front sight for my Majestic/Ruger Mark III I plan to shoot, which I'll probably put on this weekend, then change out the red fiber optic tube for the green one.

Am sipping the last of a bottle of Rodney Strong Chardonney, which I will grant you is girly wine, but it's good girly wine. More than this you can't ask.

Not So Dog Days

August is the time of year around the Secret Hidden Bunker that when Lowlanders come visiting, they immediately buy a house and declare their inner Jeremiah Johnson. The weather is generally perfect, cooler, as most of our blistering hot days come earlier in the summer. The fires are out, the hummingbirds eating like crazy, getting ready for the trip south in a few weeks, catfish jumping', etc.

I'm spending the week on SHOOTING GALLERY planning and getting ready for next week's first filming session for THE BEST DEFENSE. Next week will be a pretty aggressive week of filming, including our modeling of the Zimmerman shooting in Florida.

Got a note this AM from my friends at Action Targets introducing their new Sport Plate Rack for .22s. This is a really nice set-up! Six knock-down plates, easy disassembly and a great price...$185! I train a lot on steel targets. A plate rack is to me one of the finest training tools out there. Plates are reactive,, which is a two-edged sword — there's a carney feel to being able to knock things down, but if you take your eyes off the front sight to watch the target fall, you get to miss the next one! A plate rack allows you to practice target transition, speed and accuracy. Unlike a Texas star, one of my other favorite targets, you can reset the plate rack with the pull of a rope.

At $185 I think the Action .22 rack would be a perfect addition for a club running Rimfire Challenge matches, as the plate rack can be easily built into the stages, and since it's portable you can just as easily vary the challenge by adding distance. Secondly, the plate rack would be perfect for rimfire training days.

I realize I failed to mention that in July the Marines chose the Colt Rail Gun, SHOOTING GALLERY's Most Significant Handgun of 2011, for their special operations and reconnaissance groups. Steve over at The Firearms Blog has some interesting commentary this AM on the choice. Worth reading the comments as well.

I've always said that on the day the Big Army began issuing phasers, the Marines would be holding out for 1911s.

As to frames cracking, I'd like to see a breakdown of the tests. Here's a link to the Soldier Systems story. Certainly 1911s don't have a history of cracking frames (with the exception of the early general lightweight aluminum frames). I don't have that many rounds through my own Colt Rail Gun, but I do have well over 100,000 rounds through my Series 80 Wilson Combat competition 1911 without problems. I both my Rail Gun after it impressed the hell out of me at GUNSITE.

An Interesting Statistic

I haven't shot anything in about a week and a half...I think that's a record, at least in recent times. I'm going to try and get out with .22s in the next day or so. I haven't shot the 10/22 I built up a few months back for this year's Ruger Rimfire Challenge, and I have about 10 rounds through my Mark III. I note that I'm running out of time...we're going to be filming the Colorado State Championships 1 September for SHOOTING GALLERY after filming a "Rimfire Challenge 101" class with Tim Norris before the match.

The antigun nonsense continues apace, but I don't see any real heat in it. I have a personal metric I use to measure the national conversation...that's the size of the MSM outlet spouting antigun nonsense. After the Aurora shootings you saw big players like Pravda...excuse me, the New York Times and the Washington Post, the big cable outlets, the networks in full throat, paying like a pack of hounds for "doing something." That tailed off within a week, because it simply didn't resonate with the population at large. Even after Wisconsin, what we're seeing is calls for gun control coming from the East Nowhere Weekly Potato-Basher.  Yeah, the Usual Suspects are still baying, but I just don't see the heat.

We're heading into THE BEST DEFENSE filming season, and we will definitely be "modeling" both the Zimmerman shooting in Florida and the Aurora theater active shooter. Yes, they will be controversial, but if TBD has any greater purpose than ratings, it's to try and find ways to make sure our audience gets home every single night. I don't want TBD to ever focus on what we think of as "nit-wit" scenarios — "You are targeted by an international assassin who is hiding in the back seat of your car with a garrote and a cruise missile...how do you escape and save America?!?!"

 I note that Popular Science has a piece on "printing" firearms using 3-D printers. Essentially, this piece summarizes the year-long threads on AR15.com from "HaveBlue" on creating AR-15 platform guns using a printer. This caused Mark Gibbs at Forbes to begin a whole new round of hand-wringing:

I’m in favor of tighter gun control and a ban on weapons that are unnecessarily powerful but I’m afraid that technology will soon make any legislation that limits the availability of any kinds of guns ineffective.

LOL! I'm laughing because antigunners have never really understood how simple gun technology actually is (largely because they listen to the MSM and their own empty "talking heads" like Josh Sugarman). While I was in Bend for the CT Midnight 3-Gun Shoot, I spent some time with some good friends, both well-known in the climbing community. One had actually been able to visit with the legendary Pakistani gunsmiths and fired some of their wares while he was there. I've also handled a "1911" that was built by Viet Cong gunsmiths with a flat file and a few spare parts. I wouldn't want to shoot an IPSC match with it, but I wouldn't want it pointed at my chest, either!

The first drawings of "hand cannonnes" are from 12th Century China and surfaced in Europe in the late 1300s. Guns have been around for a long time, and there's nothing magic about their construction. In fact, as we move to polymer for all the non-stressed part of the firearm, they are in essence becoming less, rather than more, complicated — fewer parts, no hand-fitting, etc. As Forbes fretfully notes, inexpensive 3-D printers working in ceramic and metal will be headed to the DIY maker marker within a couple of years, meaning a whole gun can be "printed."

I have reached out to "HaveBlue" and would like to feature the printing process on next season's SHOOTING GALLERY. If you're working on "printing" a gun, let me know!

Congrats to the MSM!

A big palm-slap belly-bump to the members of the Mainstream Media who have once again succeeded in chumming up another psychopath by basically giving Psychopath #1 exactly what he wanted...fame! National prominence! The Most Holy Grail of Celebrityhood! His picture everywhere! His whole life deconstructed, search for "clues as to why, oh why, such a thing should happen?"

Here is Michael's question for the day...when psychotics perform unspeakable acts and we respond by giving them the very thing they desire most of all, to you think that discourages, or encourages, other festering lunatics who desire the same thing?

I know...I know...a trick question!

Let's ask another one, since it's Monday.

Does knowing why a psychotic acted one way or the other make any difference whatsoever for society? Oh man, another trick question! I mean, once we have that information — abuse as a child, an absent mother/father/puppy, Twinkies, chemical imbalance in the brain, etc. — what does that information do for us? What does that information allow us to do that we would not be doing otherwise? Well darn, Michael! Isn't this the sort of information that the Department of Future Crimes needs to know to allow them to create a profile and ultimately stop the crime before it happens? The problem is that once we arrive at a motive, the why of it, we will inevitably discover that hundreds, thousands and maybe even millions of people worldwide have had exactly the same childhood, diet, chemical imbalance, what-have-you and not gone on a crazed killing spree. "Meeting the profile" is not the same thing as "killer in waiting." We all meet some profile or other in these profiling-intensive days.

Our very best experts have been studying mass and spree killers for a long time, and it seems to me the best they can say is, "They're not like us." Can you give me a quick definition of the difference between a "mass murderer," a "serial killer" and a "spree killer?" Don't feel bad if you can't; there are differences of opinion as to what action falls into which class among criminologists as well.

I do know this...although its influence is ebbing, the MSM remains one of the most powerful entities in American society. And as a commentator noted after Aurora, any kind of mass killing is the MSM's "bread and butter," by definition something they can spin to dominate the news cycle day after day and in some cases week after week. Each new report, investigative find, interview with the friends, parents, neighbors, pets of the psychopath opens with a big, full screen picture of who appears to be the most important, most mysterious, biggest person in the whole world world. Which, of course, ultimately plays into the whole psychotic fantasy...in a world of inconsequential proles, I am The Joker, I am the predator, I am the top of the food chain. As Harry Chapin once wrote in his disturbing song Sniper:

Am I? 

There is no way that you can hide me. 

Am I? 

Though you have put your fire inside me. 

Am I? 

You've given me my answer can't you see? 

I was! 

I am! 

...and now I will be, 

I will be, 

I will be, 

I will be, 

I will be, 

I WILL BE!

And so here we are again...another psychopath, another location, more grief and death. The Wisconsin police have the right of it when they said the psychopath was "put down."

That's what we need to do with rabid animals.

Some Thoughts on Winning...

I received a lovely email this morning, one that I would class as a thinly veiled threat to me and mine. It was, of course, obscene and unsigned (and neither the first I've received, nor, I imagine, the last), but I can share a bit of the joy with you:

F$%@ off, asshole! You are the s&%# that ruins America!

Yet for all that venom, it is nothing compared to the deluge of sludge, including multiple death threats, that has fallen on Olympic trapshooter (and bronze medalist in 2008) Corey Cogdell, a fine athlete, an outstanding person...and a hunter. I'm not even going to repeat those slurs and death threats here (and her Twitter pages have been taken down), but let me refer you to Bitter's blogpost on SHALL NOT BE QUESTIONED, who's been covering this disgusting and profoundly unAmerica interlude. You can read her reports here and here.

This is what a hero looks like!

Safari Club International has stepped up to support Corey, and I imagine the other firearms organizations will be issuing their own statement now that Corey is finished with her Olympic games, having failed to advance beyond the qualifiers today. It's impossible to speculate what kind of effect the anti-hunting/anti-shooting venom had on her performance...I'm sure Corey would graciously say none at all. But as a competitor myself, knowing that apparently crazy people had threatened both me and my family would weigh heavily on my mind when I stepped to the line.

Corey and my good friend Kim Rhode were mentioned by name on anti-gunting/anti-gun "progressive" sites like Change.Org and circulated on sites like Examiner.com, which ran this piece of crap on Friday. The MSM is typically silent, except for this "iReport" on CNN, which carries a specific disclaimer that this iReport, while assigned by the failing network, "Not vetted for CNN." The report parrots the anti-hunting sites and makes no mention of the multiple, repeated death threats. This is one of the milder disses, and I suggest you read the comments. These are, as I say, the mild ones.

I had agonized over blogging about this for fear of shaking more whackos out of the trees. In fact, this morning I had a long talk with my friend Paul Erhardt, whose opinion I respect, about this subject and who urged me to write something. Then I arrived home to find my own threat waiting for me.

So I think there are some things that need to be said.

I have noted the increasing calls to violence among not just anti-hunting zealots, but anti-shooting (more correctly, anti-rights) zealots as well. I believe these increasing calls to violence are because we not only are winning, but have in fact won. Americans don't want more gun control, and Americans think hunting is a perfectly fine sport. The antis have thrown everything they had against us for the last 30 years, and the American people have responded by tuning them out.

Obviously, the vast majority of this venom is pure loud-mouthed bluster, egged on by Internet anonymity. But as we saw in Aurora — and as those of us who take our personal defense very seriously already know — there are among the shouters, the blusterers, the provocateurs, the inciters and inflamers and the sad little people with a computer in their parents' basement the rare few whose minds are...broken...festering swamps of paranoia, of violent fantasies, of unrequited violence. And I believe that the posters of all these fantasy threats hope and and pray in their heart of hearts that somewhere out there is a lunatic who will do their bidding, who will bring the gasoline and fertilizer to the party and make real the posters' dark and often explicitly stated fantasies.

If this is the price of our victory, so be it. But our enemies need to understand that we are united, hunters and shooters stand together. An attack on one is an attack on all.

A Few Random Thoughts About the 9mm Charter Revolver

I note that Charter Arms has finally brought their 9mm snubbie revolver, the Pitbull, to market. I've been sort of half-way pondering where this revolver sits in the Cosmic Scheme of Self-Defense Thingies since Charter announced the little gun. It's obviously not the first — both S&W 940 and the Ruger SP-101 fell into the 9mm snub; neither are in current production, which should tell you a bit about the demand. Taurus still catalogs their tiny 905 9mm revolver, essentially the size of an old S&W "I" frame, the small frame revolvers that, I believe, predated the "J" frame. If I recall, my friends found the little Taurus crazy accurate.

Still, strangely enough, I think the Charter 9mm may have a viable place in the self-defense hierarchy, especially post-Aurora. Essentially, it can fill the "second gun" role for CCW holders who carry a 9mm as their primary weapon. I recently saw on one of the gun forums a list of "well known gun people" (for lack of better, or at least funnier, words) who had moved to the 9mm. It's a pretty interesting list.

As you know, in my Panteao Productions CONCEALED CARRY video, I wholesale recommend the 9mm as the choice for newbie CCWs. So far, no one has thrown any tomatoes, brickbats or cast iron skillets at me for that recommendation. You all know I'm a fan of the pocket pistol, most notably the Ruger LCP .380, everybody's universal pocket pistol. I do like the LC9 and some of the other mini-blasters, but they're a bit of a stretch for the pocket.

That's the role I think the Pitbull fits in...primary 9mm on the hip; secondary 9mm in the pocket. Snubs are great pocket pistols. As Walt Rauch has said many times, their weaknesses are their strengths. In a good pocket holster, they don't "print" as bad like a small semiauto because of their round lines. I like the Rimless Cartridge Extractor System because loaded full moon clips in the pocket suck...sooner or later you'll bend them enough so they won't work. QuickStrips from Tuff Products come in a 9mm version, although sadly not in pink, and they are wonderful products.

One of the primary functions (at least in my mind) of a civilian carrying the second pistol is the ability to arm someone else if the situation becomes necessary. I think that the Aurora active shooter points this out even more strongly. In that situation, if I have "gone to ground," that is, if I've stuffed myself and a spousal unit (or innocent bystander) into a hidey-hole, I want to be able to arm said spouse or even bystander with my second gun. Should the aggressor return, I want that aggressor to be met with a hail of bullets. A two-gun hailstorm is better than a one-gun hailstorm.

Okay, says you, that scenario works whether the second gun is a semiauto or revolver or even some bizarre derringer. Yes, it does. But if I am carrying that second gun with an eye toward possibly arming an accomplice, I have GOT to go lowest common denominator on the manual of arms and with the HIGHEST reliability factor. You are welcome to argue with me all you want, but I have been an instructor and in competition for a long time. The most common firearm jam in the world is limp-wristing a semi...period...exclamation point...so there! My experience has been the little semis are even more susceptible than their big brothers (sisters?) to that very problem. Might a less experienced, or even non-experienced, person be more prone to making that mistake, especially under the hellish stress of an active shooter encounter? Duh...

A revolver, OTOH, will fire if you're holding it with your teeth. You are not part of the fire control system of a revolver in the same way you are with a semi.

Early this summer I spent a while just carrying a Ruger LCR snub .38+P, and it worked just as well as it has always worked. Obviously, you can carry a second snubby revolver in any caliber and accomplish what I'm suggesting here. However, I do like ammo interchangeability with the primary gun...then we all have ammo, should we need to share. Unlikely? You betcha! But things tend to be the way they are until they're not...unlikely things don't happen until they do. Mr. Murphy is always lurking in the wings.

Secondly, the reason I chose the 9mm for concealed carry is I like the self-defense choices in that caliber, especially the Corbon DPX...it's jello performance borders on amazing. If you forced me to carry any of the premium self-defense rounds (a big shout-out here to Hornady Critical Defense), I wouldn't feel under-gunned.

Okay, stalled as long as I can...time to go to real work!

Apology for Light Blogging

I'm still a little on the down side of karma. Basically, I'm chained to my computer writing scripts for ELITE TACTICAL UNIT. If I remember correctly, I used to be a writer who spent days in front of the computer on a regular basis. But I do have to have my head in a certain place to write all day, and it makes me relatively obsessive. More than usual

Plus my Sweetie has been having some health problems...hopefully minor, but painful. Heck, even my friend Alan ended up in the hospital today with something yeechy. He's back out, luckily, but it sort of fits with the tone for this part of the summer. Here's something more upbeat...Alf the Wonder Beagle starring in "Death in the Tall Grass," with apologies to Peter Capstick:

Free Range Beagle Strikes Terror into the Hearts of Rodents!

I am getting in a little dry-firing on the breaks from writing, and on my "lunch break" today I assembled  a "tactical" Remington 870 20-gauge, mostly so I'd just stop tripping over the parts on the floor of my office. It's a cute little gun, if a tactical shotgun could be said to be "cute." My Sweetie plans to use it in an upcoming Rob Haught shotgun class next month, if she hasn't appropriated my FNH SLP by then.

Tomorrow at lunch I plan to go pick up my long-awaited Taylor Winchester High Wall in 45/70...there's an itsey-bitsy chance I may get to put a few rounds through it this weekend...I've got some 405-grain stuff around here.

BTW, I just discovered these festive AR-15 magazines from Keep Shooting:

These could definitely cheer up anyone's Zombie Apocalypse! I mean, Flat Dark Earth just isn't appropriate in every situation. Collect the whole set! I was tempted to say something about invading Disney World, but I took a couple of deep breaths and got over it. Still, I would feel a little better if the followers were in matching colors.

I like the blue one.

Front Range Shooting Ban Update

I spoke with Glenn Casamassa of the U. S. Forest Service yesterday on the continued closure of the Colorado Front Range forests to sport shooting. Originally, those bans were put in place at the beginning of our hellishly dry summer — you know the awful fires we've experience. It has, however, been a rainy July, and fire bans statewide and locally have all been lifted.

I was assured that USFS would begin "making adjustments" in their restrictions within the next couple of days.

Sadly, we have to stay on top of this because of USFS' history of closing shooting areas for the slightest, and often imaginary, reasons. Casamassa has always been straight with me, however, and I am hopeful.

I did say that I supported the NSSF standards for fire prevention — no tracers of any kind, no steel-cased or steel-core ammo (it will spark on rocks) and for heaven's sake no exploding targets!