China Camp Passes

Sad, sad news...my good friend Dennis Ming, who as "China Camp" became one of the best cowboy shooters in history and the sport's first great champion, today suffered a fatal heart attack.

I don't quite know what to say...he and I shot on the same squad last month in the Wild Bunch match, and in the times between shooting he outlined the fun trips he had planned with his family...so much love and joy there! I said next time I was in California, he and Prairie Weet and Sweetwater and I could all get together for dinner.

Next time...time...

Jeanie and Jessie, my thoughts and prayers are with you today.

Life is a dream waking
Death is a going home

A Brit Speaks the Truth

From Atlantic.com, a Britisher visits a gun show and finds, instead of bitterness, disappointment and social pathology, ...us!

I don't think the Democratic nominee would have felt at home with this crowd. I heard several references to Comrade Obama, and saw one button (which I coveted) that said, "I am a BITTER gun-owner." They seemed to me an affable, friendly and very courteous bunch (well, you would be, wouldn't you?). I don't think you could mix with the show's visitors for more than five minutes without thinking it was nonsense to attribute their interest in guns to bitterness or disappointment or some form of social pathology. But of course there is a political dimension. Aside from other motivations--sport, self-defence--the gun-show universe is about pride, self-reliance, and resentment at being bossed around. Distinctively American traits, wouldn't you say? Best in moderation, no doubt--but still, where would the country be without those attitudes? I may get thrown out of Georgetown for this, but I say, good for them.

And I say good on you, Mr. Clive Crook...when they drum you out of Georgetown, you can always move to Colorado!

Summertime BBQ Get's Serious!

This bad boy is from the DRTV Forums and I don't know where you can get one yet. I would make sure I only bought my accessories from Tactical Grilling...remember, their Beer Shingle is MOLLE-compatible!

Lock and load!

Build Me Up, Buttercup...

...another one of the many reasons why pre-dawn airports are toxic places...although, after a long night of driving and listening to 1950's vintage country weepers on the sat radio, it's a miracle I didn't hang myself in the shower of the Holiday Inn Select.

I have to say I had an amazing -- and humbling -- experience yesterday at the NRA Youth Hunting Education Challenge (YHEC, which, I might add, I couldn't have passed on a bet. Compasses? Orienteering? Yeah, right. Where's my GPS? Game identification? Is that a poodle?)...I showed up and got literally mobbed by bunches of high schoolers who said SHOOTING GALLERY was their favorite show. How cool is that?

Really cool, I'll tell you.

You probably know Dick Heller has filed yet another lawsuit against Washington D.C.:

In a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Dick Heller and two other plaintiffs allege that the city's new gun regulations still violate rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

The lawsuit cites the District of Columbia's unusual ban on firearms that carry more than 12 rounds of ammunition, which includes most semiautomatic handguns.

The suit also claims that the city's regulations make it all but impossible for residents to keep a gun ready for immediate self defense in the home.

Gosh, is there an echo in here?

I'm increasingly worried about the consequences of the high costs of ammo, something I head a lot about the YHEC championships. I'm going to dedicate some SHOOTING GALLERY and DRTV time to .22 caliber alternatives, which I think might be our only salvation until the current war demand lessens.

Whoops! Gotta go get on the toy airplane to Deeeeetroit...and, they're playing ABBA's greatest hits on the muzak!

SLLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWWW Connection!

But I wanted to strongly suggest you rush out to buy the reissued Neil Gaimen/Terry Pratchett cult classic GOOD OMENS — The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. Nothing is quite as funny as the Apocalypse and a missing AntiChrist...

Meanwhile, from the ChiTrib, gun advocates on the attack:

ATLANTA—Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a ban on handguns, gun opponents are fighting to preserve or expand gun-free zones, igniting battles over whether civilians should be allowed to carry loaded weapons to places such as airports, public parks and even the Magic Kingdom.

The same day a new law went into effect in Georgia allowing people who have obtained a legal license to carry loaded weapons into restaurants that sell liquor, state parks and public transit systems, Atlanta officials declared Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport off-limits, citing security concerns. Gun proponents immediately filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the decision.

Reacting to Florida's new law allowing workers to keep concealed firearms in their vehicles in employee parking lots, Walt Disney World amusement park declared its parking lot exempt. Disney security guard Edwin Sotomayor protested the rule and said he planned to challenge it in court. Disney later fired him, saying he violated employee policies.

Gun-rights advocates are challenging the U.S. Interior Department to reverse a long-held regulation banning loaded firearms in most national parks. The department is reviewing its policy, which officials said deters illegal hunting and makes the parks more attractive to families.

Good to see! Got dinner tomorrow night with Wayne LaPierre from the NRA...should be interesting dinner conversation!

Wading Into a S&*%storm

Gosh, there's been a for-real poo-flinging contest going on in the gun-blogging community recently, and strangely enough it centers on this letter to the editor from Mike Vanderboegh in the Madison, WI paper:

Dear Editor:

Joe Bialek from Cleveland proposes the licensing and registration of all weapons currently in civilian hands. My question is, how exactly do you propose to do that, Joe?

There are some of us "cold dead hands" types, perhaps 3 percent of gun owners, who would kill anyone who tried to further restrict our God-given liberty. Don't extrapolate from your own cowardice and assume that just because you would do anything the government told you to do that we would.

Are you proposing to come yourself, or do you want someone else's son or daughter in federal service to take the risk? Are you truly prepared to stack up the bodies necessary to accomplish your plan? Seems a strange way to make a "safer society."

More to the point, are you willing to risk your sorry hide to do it? No? I thought not.
Then quit proposing the next American civil war. We're done being pushed back from our natural rights without a fight. Be careful what you wish for.

Mike Vanderboegh

A staggering amount of bandwidth has been spent either flaying Vanderboegh as a "lunatic" or, at the very least, a Bad Example for Gunowners, or defending Vanderboegh against the deluge of venom.

Time for a deep breath here...Vanderboegh did nothing more than ask an age-old question...who will bell the cat? I refer you to no lesser authority than Aesop:

Quickly a committee formed
And came up with an answer!
A bell around the kitty's neck
Would neutralize the cancer!

The crowd rejoiced: OUR PROBLEM'S SOLVED!

But Grandma Mouse looked leery,
She sighed a tired sigh and said:
I've just one simple query.
Who'll be the one to volunteer
To go and bell the kitty?

And all kept perfect silence then,
Especially the committee.

After Columbine, that great actor Sylvester Stallone, speaking from his polo pony in England, said it was now time to go door to door confiscating weapons. My response to that statement was simple, "Who's coming, Rambo? You? Best bring a grenade or two."

As logn as I'm wading in, let me focus on a couple of communitcation issues.

The first is that there is a huge disconnect between us and them, us being the gun culture; them being the more amorphous "majority" of our society. When we were locked in the battle over shooting on public lands, an elected official made an amazing statement to me. "What is the problem?" she practically cried. "All were asking you to do is stop shooting. It's not like we're asking you to close a library and give up reading!" Quick translation...why are you fighting so hard over an inconsequential thing like shooting, like guns?

Thanks to decades of antigun propaganda, the larger majority doesn't see Second Amendment rights as a rights issue, certainly not like the important enumerated rights like free speech, freedom of assembly, right of religion. And to a large extent, the government supports the majority's views. Look at what has happened after Heller...Washington D.C. has decided to defy the Supreme Court...the last time a subordinate governmental entity defied the Supreme Court, it ended up with federal marshals, backed by the entire force and authority of the United States government, escorting a little girl to school.

See any federal marshals around D.C.?

The corollary to the above is that the majority sees no consequences to depriving us of our rights. And for the most part, their view has been reflected in governmental actions. For example, for the last few years Boston, New York City and Chicago have refused to honor federal safe-transit laws for guns passing through those city's airports. Instead, prosecutors in those jurisdictions have persecuted gun owners passing through those airports for failing to meet local laws, even though federal law clearly defines safe transit. Imagine if local prosecutors decided to detain every, oh, I don't know, say every woman wearing a burhka and hold her in jail overnight until they could determine she was not a terrorist? Imagine the federal response...then you'd see some federal marshals for sure!

But we apparently don't count. We count for so little that a man — David Olofson — can be serving time in the federal slam because his firearm malfunctioned and filed multiple rounds before it jammed. We count for so little that a federal agency can raid a legitimate company — Cavalry Arms — confiscate all their guns, computers and equipment, declare those goods contraband and sell them for the agency's profit and to date never file any charges against anyone in the company or even explain the reason behind the raid. We count for so little that a light-weight like Adrian Fenty, the mayor of D.C., can spit on the Supreme Court with impunity and a machine pol thug like Mayor Daley of Chicago can announce his expressed intention of violating federal law until someone forces him to stop.

Maybe it's time to explain that there are real consequences for stripping a segment of society of their rights.

More importantly, we gain nothing by convincing, or atttempting to convince, the majority that we're really, really nice harmless people, because it simply doesn't matter. The majority shifts with the wind, and right now the wind isbloeing in our favor..but not because we're really really nice people. Rather, the world is perceived as a more dangerous place. Heard an amazing stat from a competing television network,,,the number one dream job choice for young men ages 14-35? Not an ACLU lawyer, but "sniper."

Nor can we change the minds of our enemies...they hate us not because we own guns, but what those guns represent. I recently published a comment from Colonel Jeff Cooper...a lot of people read it, but I suspect we need to not only read it, but internalize it as well:

"Individually, we do not bear arms because we are afraid. We bear arms as a declaration of capacity. An armed man can cope. either in the city or in the wilderness, and because he is armed he is not afraid.

This is the root of hoplophobia [the pathelogical fear of firearms]. The hoplophobe fears and, yes, hates us because we are not afraid. We are overwhelmingly 'other' than he, and in a way that emphasizes his affliction. There is not much room for compromise here..."

They hate us because we are not afraid, not victims, not in need of the government's tender mercies. We are other to them. That is not subject to change.

I've Seen the Future, Brother...

...and it's murder:

Yes indeedy...a belt-fed Nerf ball launcher, coming in a couple of weeks. Here's the specs:

Complete your N-STRIKE arsenal and prepare for the ultimate in battery-powered blasting. Be ready for any battle with the N-STRIKE VULCAN EBF-25 blaster - awesome, fully automatic dart cannon. Load the blaster with fresh batteries and fire at a rate of up to three darts per second. Watch as the belt feeds automatically through the blaster, letting the barrage of firepower continue as you battle your opponent. The piston-powered internal launching system makes it an unstoppable force. Switch to single-shot mode for precision blasting. The removable tripod folds for easy transport – or a quick escape from enemy fire. Even your toughest opponent won’t know what hit him when you unleash the power of the N-STRIKE VULCAN EBF-25 blaster. Blaster comes with ammo box, folding tripod, 25-dart belt and 25 SONIC MICRO DARTS ammo and instructions. Value pack also includes extra 25 SONIC MICRO DARTS ammo, 25-dart belt and a shoulder strap.

Admit it...you want it bad! Perfect for the annual office party, or for getting the kids up to speed for the post-b-HO Universe of Peace and Love! I say, let the sunshine in, and run dog run!

Geek Dad over at Wired is worried about Geek Mommy's antigun stance on the new Nerf blaster. Me, I'm just wondering if this thing will launch those little Dutch grenades...ideal for home defense!

Busy Errand Day...

...but I juggled my schedule for next week to have a couple of days at the range for filming, including a side-by-side comparison of the "old" Ruger SR9 and the "new" Ruger SR9. I'll probably also do a DRTV video on the Magnaport Charter Bulldog .44, too.

When I can find the still camera (gosh, what are those things?), I've got some new Ted Blocker concealment leather, including a nice little "driving holster," for my Para Carry 9 to show you!

Guns in National Parks

We're getting down to the end of the comment period on a revision of fed statutes to allow concealed carry in national parks. Here's the big wrap-up article from MSNBC:

The NRA’s long campaign to ease the ban appeared to be close to succeeding a month ago, but lost momentum when the Interior Department extended the period for public comments on the plan until Aug. 8.

You all know where I come down on this, but I thought you might like to see the gist of my comment:

As the only person to every write a book on staying safe in the back country, TRAIL SAFE, published by Wilderness Press and endorsed by the Appalachian Trail Committee, I acknowledge that the Park Service's statement of low crime in national parks is true...parks are pretty safe places.

However, we carry guns because "pretty safe" is not the same thing as "absolutely safe." As I've stated numerous times in print and on television, most of our lives are "pretty safe." If we stay away from illegal drugs, street hookers and the proverbial bad part of town, our chance of being involved in a violent encounter are on part with our being struck by lightning...that is, we arrange our lives to enhance our safety.

The reason I believe guns are absolutely necessary for back country travel is that the very attractiveness of the outback to us — it's away from civilization — makes it an idea hunting ground for human predators. Being away from civilization also means that those human predators are free of the few fears and constraints that civilization places on them...there's no 911, cruising police cars or potential witnesses, which is why some of the most horrific crimes have been perpetuated in the back country.

In the back country, crimes of opportunity can quickly escalate...assaults or a simple robbery can suddenly morph into rape, and rape into murder, because the human predator is missing the usual social restraints on his crimes.

Secondly, all back country, and by extension national parks, are not created equal. Where I live in the Front Range of Colorado, all the back country areas, including the spectacular Rocky Mountain National Park, are easily accessible from the major urban area of Denver, Colorado Springs and Ft. Collins. The closer and more accessible national parks are to major urban areas, the more the problems of those urban areas will "leak" into the back country. Because of the location of the University of Colorado in Boulder, the back country areas around Boulder are extremely dangerous areas for rape...prey attracts predators. Some of legendary Appalachian Trail pass close to large — and dangerous — urban areas.

Thirdly, the use of back country by criminals for criminal pursuits is a proven, documented fact. Meth labs, marijuana fields, staging areas for smuggling drugs or illegal immigrants, etc. all routinely happen as far away from prying eyes as possible, and that includes national forests and parks. I have personally been informally "warned away" from hiking areas on public lands by local law enforcement because of the danger of running across marijuana growers moving to and from their hidden fields. Much of the public land, including parks, on the border with Mexico is insanely dangerous because of the trafficing of illegal aliens. Criminal poachers add an additional element of danger...I have crossed paths with poachers in several national parks...they were armed (and breaking numerous laws), I wasn't.

Finally, although not as serious, the threat of dangerous animals is quite real and actually increasing as major animal predadors become more accustomed to humans in their range. Both bears and lions represent a real threat in the Front Range, as documented in numerous articles and even books (e.g., THE BEAST IN THE GARDEN on lions in the Boulder Front Range area). I have been stalked by a large lion in Rocky Mountain National Park during the first fall snows...the tracks clearly told the story. Apparently, because I was with several people, the lion didn't think dinner was worth the trouble, but had I been alone the ending might have been quite different.

By the Park Service's own admission, it lacks the manpower to adequately staff even the major national parks, much less the far flung (and more attractive) smaller parks.

Concealed carry has proven a safe method of reducing violent crime in all but a handful of states. Civilian CCW permit holders — including me — carry their weapons in some of the largest and most populated cities in America without consequence. It is past time for the National Park Service to allow park visitors their Constitutional right!

Sincerely,

Michael Bane
Outdoor Channel

You can add your own comment until August 8 here.

Running at Turbo Speed!

The podcast should be up momentarily!

Again, my apologies, but it's going to happen while we're in this crazy filming season. Here's a good piece in Reason Online on the rule of law, or the absence of it, in Washington D.C.:

Excuse Me While I Get My Gun
Washington, D.C., defies the Supreme Court's Second Amendment ruling.

D.C.'s political leaders know they are inviting another Second Amendment lawsuit, but they are determined to defy the Supreme Court and the Constitution for as long as possible.

The new law "clarifies that no carry license is required inside the home" to move a gun from one room to another. It also "clarifies" the District's firearm storage requirements, saying a gun may be unlocked and loaded "while it is being used to protect against a reasonably perceived threat of immediate harm to a person" in the home.

Much hinges on what counts as a "reasonably perceived threat." If you're awakened in the middle of the night by a crash, may you carry a loaded gun with you as you investigate? Evidently not. The Washington Post reports that D.C.'s acting attorney general, Peter Nickles, "said residents could neither keep their guns loaded in anticipation of a problem nor search for an intruder on their property." According to Nickles, if you see an armed criminal charging your home, or in the event of "an actual threat by somebody you believe is out to hurt you," you're allowed to get your gun, unlock it, and load it.

How long will that take? The new law lets people use a gun safe instead of a trigger lock, which, depending on the type of safe, could allow faster retrieval. But even a gun in a safe has to be kept unloaded, which will tend to slow down the owner's response to a "reasonably perceived threat," assuming he can figure out what that means.

The delay will be even longer because of the District's ridiculously broad ban on "machine guns." The Metropolitan Police Department says the ban covers all handguns except revolvers, which are more cumbersome to load than semiautomatics with detachable magazines.

You know, if I spat n the face of the Supreme Court...hell, if I spat in the face of a J-P in Traffic Court, I'd be in the slam so fast one's head would spin like Linda Blair on crack...of course, D.C. is betting that once b-HO, or as we might want to refer to him, Robert Mugabe Lite, is elected all laws are up for grabs.

On the happier side of the scale, this from the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine on Stephen Scherer, the 19 year old who'll be representing the U.S. on 10-meter air rifle in Beijing...the punch line is he came from a very antigun home:

Not bad for a teenager from Billerica who professes a love of all things Army and his admiration for Jimi Hendrix in the same breath. And whose mother didn't even want him to have a squirt gun as a boy.

"I was very anti-gun when my kids were little," says Scherer's mother, Sue, who works a number of different jobs, including cleaning and painting houses, running a day care, and organizing Jeopardy!-style entertainment for nursing homes. "I always thought, `Guns are bad. Guns kill people.' So, I didn't want my kids to have anything to do with guns."

Wednesday Podcast Late...

...as I've spent all day Monday on the range and all day Tuesday traveling (am still in D.C. and it's creeping on toward 8PM)...will whip it up first thing tomorrow...

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Slow Blogging...

...because I've been touring Blackwater all day figuring out locations for THE BEST DEFENSE. Now I'm in the Black Bear Hotel, one of the Blackwater bunkhouses, about ready to collapse.

After our tour, we hauled down to Avon on Hatteras Island to sit on the beach, eat some gen-u-wine North Carolina seafood and stare at the beach girls...scratch that...I would never do anything that sexist, as it might jeaprodize my chances in running against the incumbent b-HO in five years...how about, gazed longingly while musing on our lost youth?

Cool thing...I'm out on the fishing pier at Avon, which is pretty much about 5 miles from East Jesus, Nowhere, when a guy came up to me and said, "You know, this is the last place on earth I expected to run into you." I wonder what the first place was? Heck, a fishing pier on Hatteras is as good a place as any, one supposes. Anyway, I got to sign an autograph, which makes me feel truly blessed.

In the meantime, check out Dave Kopel's piece on the U.N. war again guns, which is always simmering on a burner at the U.N. Official Cesspool in New York City:

Despite protestations to the contrary, the U.N. remains quite interested in constricting lawful gun ownership. Consider, for example, the United Nations Disarmament Programme's publication, How to Guide: The Small Arms and Light Weapons Legislation. The publication touts the importance of international "harmonisation" of gun laws. According to the United Nations:

Citizens should only be allowed to own guns if they are given a government permit, and the permit should only be issued if there is a "good reason" for posssession or or "genuine need."

In particular, permits to own guns for self defense should not be issued unless the applicant proves that he is in immediate danger.

The law requires "safe storage", which means that firearms should be disassembled and the ammunition ammo stored separately.

There should be frequent renewal procedures to assure the owner's continued eligibility. A good example is provided by Australia, which for most gun owners (except farmers) requires membership in a sports club, and participation in a minimum number of shooting events annually.

A firearms license should be contingent on the consent of the person's spouse or former partner.

All firearms should be registered on a centralized computer system.

The home and vehicles of a gun owner should be subject to official inspection "at will."

It's important to know the U.N. flag, because one day you'll probably be either saluting it or fighting against it...

Stephen Hunter — Ask Dr. Guns!

Steve did a super piece in the WaPo..."It's a Different Era in D.C. If You've Got Questions About the Armed Life, Dr. Guns Has All the Answers," including this exceptionally eloquent explanation of the 4 Rules of Gun Safety:

1. All guns are always loaded. Put it another way: All guns are always loaded. That is, develop an extremely short-term memory. It doesn't matter if you checked it one second ago, maybe it magically loaded itself or a cartridge fell off an airplane and not only was it the right cartridge, but it landed just perfectly to fit into the cylinder. (You scoff, but most gun accidents involve extraordinarily unpredictable catastrophe chains.) Check it again. Get in the habit of checking it.

2. Never let the muzzle point at anything you aren't willing to destroy. I see this one violated more than any other, as people, once they know the gun is unloaded, let their muzzle discipline go away. No, no, uh-uh. You can't have different behaviors with guns, one for loaded, one for unloaded. Tragedy lurks therein. Remember, all guns are always loaded. Always. That makes you responsible for it and the direction of its muzzle all the time.

I will admit to three accidental discharges in my 30 years shooting, and all were jokes rather than tragedies because, though I violated Rules 1, 3 and 4, I had trained myself to be very uncomfortable if the muzzle wandered toward something human.

3. Don't put your finger on the trigger until you're ready to shoot. This is probably the hardest to obey, because the ergonomics of the gun make the trigger lure the finger onward, toward destruction, and it's so easy to forget. And the bullet once fired can never be recalled.

4. Know what's behind the target. In case you're a complete idiot, allow Dr. Guns to point out what you should already know: A firearm releases a hard, pointed object into the world at speeds over (usually) a thousand feet per second and up to 4,000 feet per second. People think they know so much about guns from TV and movies, but the media almost never communicate the power of the bullet and its ability to penetrate, bounce, do insane things that no Caltech grad student could predict, much less replicate in a lab. Thus you must be responsible in understanding the ultimate destination.

Since most shooting in this urban area takes place under controlled range circumstances, that's not a problem. But no gun should ever be discharged outdoors, upward, into darkness, at fields or trees or even traffic signs. (I put a coupla .25s through a "SLOW" sign on Waukegan Road in Glenview, Ill., in 1967, so I know the temptation to irresponsible young men.)

BTW, I loaned my reader's copy of Night of Thunder to my pal Paul Erhardt...his one word book review?

"BRILLIANT!"

Great OpinionJournal Interview with Alan Gura

This interview with the lead attorney on Heller is definitely worth reading:

One key unresolved question in D.C. v. Heller is whether it limits the states as well as the federal government. The Bill of Rights originally restrained only Congress, but under the "incorporation" doctrine, the Supreme Court has held that the 14th Amendment protects most constitutional rights against state encroachment. Because the capital is a federal district, its local government is a creation of the U.S. Congress. Heller gave no reason to think incorporation doesn't apply, but further litigation will be necessary to settle the question.

Nor does Heller settle which restrictions are constitutional and which are not. Justice Scalia wrote that "nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt" on laws against possession of firearms by felons or the mentally ill or in "sensitive places" like schools or government buildings, or laws regulating commerce in firearms. That's fine with Mr. Gura, but many laws currently on the books fall somewhere between these uncontroversial provisions and D.C.'s onerous restrictions.

These questions will be sorted out in litigation to come. Mr. Gura's first stop: Chicago, which has a handgun ban identical to Washington's and burdensome registration requirements for long guns.

The Chicago lawsuit was "ready to go" when the Supreme Court decided Heller on June 26. "I looked at the opinion," Mr. Gura says, "and I called my counsel in Chicago and said, 'Yeah, looks good.'" The next day another lawsuit was filed, challenging the ban on handguns in San Francisco's public housing projects. Among the plaintiffs: the National Rifle Association. Thanks to Mr. Gura's efforts, the NRA is no longer gun-shy about going to court.

Fitna

A film on the Quran by Dutch politician Geert Wilders. It's hard to watch, and I suspect it will probably become the most banned movie in the world. Watch it now while you can...

Tour de Dope

Once again, I'm stepping forward with a solution to a modern, vexing problem...this time, the continued drug-soaked melodrama that is the Tour de France. I have to say that as a veteran bicyclist, I used to be positively obsessed with the Tour, followed it practically minute by minute. I still consider it a highlight of my triathlon career that I raced in a championship event in which Lance Armstrong also raced, although he finished in a different Geologic Era than I did. He shook my hand when I crossed the finish line, and I still believe in my heart that Lance is the Last Clean Racer.

Of course, all that was before we all discovered that the rest of big time bicycle racing was nothing more than a sad-sack collection of anorexic junkies with big thighs, sprinting from chemical to chemical with all the elan of an LA street junkie trying for the last score of the day.

I'm a big proponent of living in the world as it really is as opposed to how we might wish it to be, and I think it's time we applied that thought to the Tour de France. Here's my proposal:

First, scrap this "France" crap. Let's go global with this event! Each stage of the new Tour de Dope will be set in a different area of the globe famous for its drug trade. Stage 1 will be in Medellin, Columbia, pitting racers against the narrow,cracking asphalt back streets of the drug capial of South America and a cadre of AK-47 toting gunsels.

From there the Tour moves on to Paraguay for the grueling mountain stages underneath droning black helicopters provided by the DEA, spraying god-knows-what strange slippery defoliants onto the stage ahead of the riders, then onto the thin-air dope-rich environs of Mexico City, where the Tour will weave through hundreds of sourvenir stands, mango street vendors and mobs of stoned American college students on spring break looking for a connection who won't leave their shattered carbon fiber miracle bikes wrapped around the unlucky rider's emaciated body in some land fill.

My favorite stages will be the three in Afghanistan, featuring roadside bombs, sniper fire, cazed Taliban suicide killers, burning vehicles, all while the peloton sweeps past scenic destroyed villages and miles of beautiful, shimmery poppy fields.

For pure scenic appeal, however, the Amsterdam Dope Dash leg, which feeds through the city's famous Red Light District of scantily dressed hookers-behind-glass, is a guaranteed ratings winner for Fox, who I believe will be all over the Tour de Dope as the ne plus ultra of their reality television coverage.

The Tour de Dope will wrap up, of course, in South Central LA, where exhausted — and probably strung out — riders will have to hit 4 checkpoints...meth, Mexican brown heroin, crack cocaine, and, in what is certain to be a real nail-biter, ecstasy...in a 120-mile route that even LAPD gang strike forces won't travel without an armored personnel carrier and a Ma Deuce or two.

The proud winner of the Tour de Dope will be presented the drug-test-piss-yellow jersey emblazoned with the black hypodermic needle, which he, or she, will wear all the way through the stint in rehab, by no less than Lindsay Lohan!

There will as in the present Tour be special jerseys for excellence in timed mini-events, such as the brown hundred-dollar-bill jersey for the fastest score in Mexico City and the Edvard Munch "Scream" jersey for the rider going the longest time without a fix.

In addition, in what I think will be a, ahem, tour de force in crowd appeal, I say we open the Tour de Dope up to all junkies, so in addition to the whipcord thin, bloodshot eyed racers of the present Tour, we'd have stoned out New York City smacksters on stolen bike messenger steeds, blitzed suburban housewives on their kids' mountain bikes, Eurotrash kids puffing hashish on green "loaner bikes" from Denmark, aging hippies with "Ride Strong" Lance Armstrong wristbands and Crosby, Stills and Nash blasting through ther iPods, toking their way through the race on three-wheel recumbants fitted with supersized Pampers...WOW!

That's friggin' entertainment!

Too Tired to Blog

Note that it is 2:30AM and I have to catch an early morning flight...just got off the range filming the new Crimson Trace promotional/training video...me, Ken Hackathorn, Todd Jarrett, Julie Goloski and Wes Doss at the SPECTACULAR Swanson Tactical facility in Ogden, Utah...you guys are gonna love this video...it's being done by top-notch guys with rock and roll credentials...too tired to go on...nite nite...

A Thought from the Colonel

On a previous post of mine, a commenter asked:

"...what percentage of time during the day should a regular walking around middle class person think about shooting people, dogs and things?"

You know, given what we do, I think that's a fair question. At least in my case, the answer is, "Never." That's because I carry a gun day in and day out and have done so for decades, which means I've already answered that question. Read TRAIL SAFE, or at least read the new version when I finally finish it...even I wouldn't pay the current scalpers' prices for the book! Since you can't buy it, here's a quick excerpt:

A gun isn’t a magic wand that repels bad guys. Think of it, instead, as a fire extinguisher. If you’re looking to prevent fires in your home, a fire extinguisher isn’t your first purchase. Instead, you analyze your home with an eye toward minimizing fire risks. Is the wiring old and sparking every time you turn on a switch? The solution is new wiring; the fire extinguisher is strictly for secondary protection. BEFORE you make the decision to purchase a gun, you need to study your lifestyle, your home, your family, with an eye on minimizing risks.

It’s worth noting that those of us have owned and used guns for years have quite literally changed our lifestyles to accommodate that decision. My house is secure. My locks are good. I live in a safe neighborhood in a safe small city. I own an excellent gunsafe. I don't broadcast the fact that I own and carry guns.

A gun is part of a self-defense system that includes the gun, it’s ammunition, a way to reload the gun, a way to carry the gun, a place to store the gun and, most important of all, TRAINING on how to use the gun and an understanding of your LEGAL obligations.
[...]
We're now down to the hard part. A few chapters back, we talked about The Question—how far are you willing to go to protect your own life, or the lives of others in your care?

If you choose to carry a gun for self defense, you must be absolutely sure of your answer to the question.

Absolutely.

Why? Because if you're bluffing, if you haven't truly answered The Question, in a real situation your assailant will take the gun away from you and kill you with it. It is that simple. I once counseled a woman who had been mugged and wanted to buy a gun to protect herself. I taught her to shoot with my own guns, but the wore we talked, the more I realized that she hadn't thought the whole thing through. Why not, she kept asking, can't I bluff or "only shoot them in the leg?"

The answer to the first part is what I stated (flatly) above—predators always recognize prey. Violent criminals are no strangers to violence (another "duh!"), and they've usually seen a gun pointed at them before. Violent crimes does indeed remind me a lot of interviewing (which says a lot about journalists), at least at the beginning.

Everything I've tried to get across in this book is also taking place in your assailant's head. He or she is trying to read you, to get a sense of what's going on in your head. If you are holding a gun, and your assailant senses that you are not serious about using it, you are going to lose that gun, and in all likelihood, it's going to be turned against you. This is sort of the ultimate escalation—you lose your weapon and you arm your enemy.

Remember we said earlier that a gun was like a fire extinguisher? Let's continue on with that analogy. When there is a small fire in your kitchen and you grab your fire extinguisher, what do you hope to accomplish?

To put the fire out, right?

And you have a limited resource to accomplish this; fire extinguishers won't keep spraying forever. So to maximize the chances that you're going to be able to extinguish the fire, you direct your limited firefighting resources directly at the center of the fire. You don't spray around the outside edges of the fire to keep it from spreading—it's burning a hole through your kitchen floor, after all. You don't give the right side of the fire a squirt in the hopes that it will quit on its own. You don't mess around with even a small fire because you understand completely that, unless you act decisively, the fire will destroy your house and maybe even kill you.

This is the mindset we must have when we are in fear for our lives and must act!

When we pick up our fire extinguisher, it must be with the intent of stopping the fire. If I am forced to go to my weapon, it is with the intent of stopping a lethal threat against me or someone under my responsibility.

I will never "shoot to kill;" nor will I ever "shoot to wound." I will ONLY "shoot to stop."

A few chapters back, when we first talked about The Question, it was with the idea of discovering how far each of us is willing to go to protect ourselves. This is where the rubber meets the road. If I am in fear of my life, or (to use the general legal description of when I am legally able to respond with deadly force) if I as a reasonable person believe that I am in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm that can only be averted by the use of deadly force against the assailant, my sole, singular and only goal is the MAKE THE ASSAILANT STOP IMMEDIATELY!

I am at this horrific point not concerned with the welfare of the assailant; what the motives are behind the attack; the race, creed, sex or sexual orientation of my attacker; whether my attacker is mentally unstable or mentally ill; what has driven my attacker to do these deeds. I am not concerned in the slightest whether my attacker survives this encounter.

My only concern is ENDING THE LETHAL THREAT AGAINST ME IMMEDIATELY.

Period.

And think about it—isn't that what we've been talking about on every single page of this book? Every point in our strategic tree has been aimed at ending the threat against us immediately. We plan; we avoid; we retreat; we placate; we talk; we try non-lethal means...we do everything we can to end the threat against us immediately.

Col. Jeff Cooper actually answered the commenter's question much more succinctly years and years ago:

"Individually, we do not bear arms because we are afraid. We bear arms as a declaration of capacity. An armed man can cope. either in the city or in the wilderness, and because he is armed he is not afraid.

This is the root of hoplophobia [the pathelogical fear of firearms]. The hoplophobe fears and, yes, hates us because we are not afraid. We are overwhelmingly 'other' than he, and in a way that emphasizes his affliction. There is not much room for compromise here..."

Thoughts on Competition...

I got asked for some thoughts on why I thought competition is important for people concerned with protection in the Real World, and after I answered the question I thought you all might like to see that answer:

Couple of quick thoughts on competition...regardless of the style of competition, I think competition has a major effect in three specific areas:

1) Gun-handling skills
2) The ability to "game" a situation
3) Stress inoculation

As it happens, all three of those areas are critical in terms of Real Life shooting skills. First and foremost are gun-handling skills. Let me watch a shooter for 5 minutes and I can tell you if he or she shoots competition simply by watching the gun-handling skills. An example I've used before...I was at an Advanced Concealed Carry class at a major shooting academy a few years back, The class consisted of 6 people, all with years of experience as shooters. Three were competition shooters; 3 non-competitors who shot together in "informal" competition at least once a week.

The informal guys shot on par or better than the competition shooters (2 IDPA; 1 USPSA), but they fell apart on jam clearance (big time!), shooting from awkward (what I call "broken") positions and somewhat on shooting on the move. The informal guys also lacked that fluidity of motion that comes from a steady diet of competition shooting...they still had to think about what they were doing on, say, the draw, whereas pistol competition shooters practice the draw so much that it is truly an ingrained reflex. I once outdrew someone who meant me harm, simply because I have draw a gun so many times it is something that happens without conscious thought (I also scared the crap out of my Sweetie last week while we were walking Alf the Wonder Beagle...two huge black dogs raced out of the nearby woods, barking and running straight for us...I cleared the J-frame from the pocket holster and was indexing the red dot laser on Poochie #1's head when the owner came running out screaming, "Harmless! Harmless!" In truth, I don't recall drawing and indexing the gun at all...and why should I? All my available RAM had to be focused solely on shoot/no shoot decision).

Second, the ability to "game" a situation...I know IDPA rants about how this is a bad thing, but that's bullshit. The difference between living and dying is measured by an individual's ability to perceive a situation, process the information and proceed to the correct action. That is the definition of "gaming." I strongly refer you to Malcolm Gladwell's book BLINK on how quickly we can truly process information. You might also consider Amanda Ripley's THE UNTHINKABLE: WHO SURVIVES WHEN DISASTER STRIKES — AND WHY or Larry Gonzales' DEEP SURVIVAL: WHO LIVES, WHO DIES AND WHY. I';d also recommend my book TRAIL SAFE, but you gotta pay too much for it on eBay these days...I will have an updated version in a couple of months. The ability to game is a fundamental survival skill, and all the shooting sports teach it. As we become more experienced on the range, our ability to game is drastically enhanced...I figure a good USPSA or IDPA competitor has a stage gamed out in less than half-a-second after seeing it...he or she doesn't need to walk around pointing a finger pistol at the target to understand what needs to be done.

Thirdly, and most important of all, stress inoculation...the more you are stressed, both mentally and physically, the better you are able to handle said stress. Think about dry-firing...dry-firing works because your mind doesn't draw a distinction between live fire and dry fire. You ca become a master shooter (in the sense of sight picture and trigger squeeze) without firing a live round or leaving your living room. Similarly, your mind doesn't draw a distinction between "real" stress — I am about to be eaten by a saber-toothed tiger — or "fake" stress — a timer. Stress is stress, and each time you apply that stress to your body and mind, you "inoculate" yourself against "real" stress the same way a mild case of cowpox protects you from the much deadlier smallpox. I have proven this in my own experiences in the extreme sports, and it is an article of faith among police and military trainers. Stress puts a huge chemical load on your body, and the only way to understand how to handle that load is through experience. If we go back to my first gun-handling example, I would wager that the men who spent their time in informal practice, even though they were skilled shooters, did not get the stress inoculation benefits of formal competition because when we practice alone or with friends, even though we may push ourselves, we lack the external stress components, e.g., my performance s being measured by an outside observer and, yes, people are watching and will see if I screw up.

Hope this helps!

Michael B

b-HO Objects to First MSM Accurate Portrayal!

Just joking...but this New Yorker cover has b-HO and First Comrade Michelle, up in arms. Read about it at the Politico. I especially like the American flag burning in the fireplace...hey, you wanna be The Last Socialist Couple, you gotta expect some heat, comrades!