BTW, Happy Walpurgis Night!

Yes, it's that time of year again, the Eve of Mayday, and it's time for witches and warlocks around the world to par-tee par-tee par-tee like it's 1699!!!! Or as Goethe so rollickingly  wrote in Faust:

The witches t'ward the Brocken strain
When the stubble yellow, green the grain.
The rabble rushes - as 'tis meet -
To Sir Urian's lordly seat.
O'er stick and stone we come, by jinks!
The witches f..., the he-goat s...
...
The broomstick carries, so does the stock;
The pitchfork carries, so does the buck;
Who cannot rise on them tonight,
Remains for aye a luckless wight.

Weeeeee-doggies! F'n and S'n! I'm down with that, but you can probably keep the goats and stuff. Just to be sure stay locked and loaded tonight, don't invite anyone wearing a cape to step over your door's threshold, every if he/she is really, really screaming crazy hot, hang a little clove of garlic on your doors and hang on until dawn. Or maybe visit DarkAsia, where I cribbed the Walpurgis card.

On a lighter note, tomorrow those in the Old Religion and of a Celtish bent celebrated Beltane, the union of the God and Goddess to bless the crops in the promise of new life. Light a fire!

Oh yeah, a sidenote...A. "Pencil Thin Mustache" Hitler checked into his suite in Hell on this night in 1945...sleep tight...

Rob Haught on Shotguns...

...at least you can still get ammo! This from Wilson Combat via AmmoLand: 

Berryville, AR - Have you been to your local sporting goods or gunshop lately? Have you tried to find 5.56 or 9mm ammunition? Likely it was a frustrating experience.

My local WalMart who normally has a fairly well stocked sporting goods section now has bare shelf space where once was a wide variety of ammunition. Management confirms that the warehouses are empty and that what little does come in is allocated to several stores in the region so everyone gets a little.

If WalMart, the nations largest ammo retailer is in this fix what does that say for the small Mom and Pop gunshops? The frenzy that is driving this shortage is not likely to get better in the near future either.

The one thing that is available however, at least at present is shotshells. The shotgun is one of the most neglected weapons in our arsenal of defensive firearms.

We think of the Carbine and Pistol as being more fun or sexy to shoot and tend to leave the scattergun at home when range time comes around. With the price of rifle ammo skyrocketing many shooters are forced to cut way back on their consumption. I was used to shooting a couple hundred rounds of 5.56 a week and now only shoot around fifty in carefully selected drills designed to get the most out of my training.

Many trainers are seeing attendance drop and classes not filling due to the rising costs and availability of ammo.


Rob Haught of Wilson Tactical
Back to the shotgun….., at least for now we should take the opportunity to stock up on training ammo and dust off the shotguns and get back up to speed on this very versatile tool.

Notes on Training with .22s...

...or even Airsoft guns. One of the commenters on the previous post questioned the effect of subcaliber training when you changed back to your "real" gun either in a personal defense or competition context. I think that definitely deserves a bit of expansion (don't you?).

When we talk about "training," we're really talking about training 3 separate components:

• Fundamentals

• Techniques

• Tactics

By fundamentals we mean the mechanics of shooting — grip, stance, manipulating the trigger, using the sights and follow-through. There is now a substantial amount of research, anecdotal and otherwise, that the fundamentals can be learned and practiced through visualization and dry-fire. In fact, there is a compelling argument to be made that the fundamentals are best learned through regular visualization and dry-fire:

• The brain doesn't differentiate between visualization, dry-fire or live-fire

• Visualization and then dry-firing allow the shooter to perfectly execute the fundamentals repeatedly

• The explosion and recoil of live-firing are a detriment to perfect practice (which is the only sort of practice that makes perfect), especially with new shooters

When we move to techniques, we mean both the general techniques of firearms' manipulation — checking, loading, unloading, safety/safeties manipulation, etc. — and the techniques specific to the task for which we intend to use the firearms. Those tasks might include the draw from a holster, reholstering, reloading techniques specific to tactical and/or competition, movement, target sequencing, etc. We learn and practice techniques through dry-fire, then vet ourselves in those techniques on the square range.

If you want to truly learn how to reload a pistol for have an efficient drawstroke, you need a hundred (of a thousand) repetitions in dry practice to every live shot fired. Live practice on the square range confirms that our dry practice has been correct and verifies that the fundamentals are still in place.

Tactical practice, as expressed in force-on-force training, is best learned and practiced with dummy guns specifically designed for such training — sim guns, Airsofts, even dummy guns. 

IMHO, based on years of training and working with trainers at every level, subcaliber practice brings you 99% or more of the benefits of full caliber training. The remaining little bitty slice is handling recoil, which if you have the fundamentals down is less of an issue than you might think...there's not a different set of fundamentals for heavier recoiling guns! Tatsui Sakai did, after all, win the Steel Challenge — arguably the hardest, most competitive pistol match in the world — after training in Japan, which does not allow its citizens to possess real firearms, for a year with Airsoft guns. He told me it took him "less than a day" to transition between his Airsoft gun with zero recoil, zero noise and zero muzzle flash, and a live firearm. 

The fundamentals teach us to how to control a firearm...as we add more recoil, nothing should change. In a personal defense situation, or even when the buzzer goes off in a match, you will likely not notice the recoil, the noise or the blast, and if your fundamentals are sound the bullet will go where you intended it to go.

My experience has been that a shooter who goes back to his/her duty or competition gun after a session training with .22s discovers the more powerful gun has less recoil than before (especially if that shooter has practiced extensively with full power ammo in the primary gun). Of course, the recoil didn't miraculously go away...rather, subcaliber practice (after appropriate visualization and dry-fire) has allowed the shooter's attention to be focused on controlling the gun through the application of the fundamentals rather than becoming fixated on the recoil, noise and flash. 

I have proven to my own satisfaction that what we think of subjectively as "recoil" is not only the firearm's measurable reactions to the firing of the cartridge — Newton's Third Law of equal and opposite reaction — but rather an amalgam of our responses to multiple factors, including the amplitude, or height, of the recoil wave, the frequency, or speed, of the recoil wave, [that's the "equal and opposite" stuff] the loudness of the explosion, the size and proximity of the muzzle flash and — this is important — our expectations of the event. Weird, huh? You can "control" recoil by mitigating any one or more of those factors, but I would say the most important factor in recoil control is the last one, expectations. Subcaliber practice allows the shooter to "train" his or her expectations, which actually does "reduce recoil."

REMEMBER: Your mileage may vary....objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear...

MUST READ: Gun Control Without Gun Laws

From Slate today, well-known whoremonger Eliot Spitzer believes Obama can gut the Second Amendment without passing any new laws...definitely a must-read!

Modern government is not only a lawmaker. Indeed, the most effective executive powers may not derive from statutes at all. The government that President Obama oversees is also a gigantic, well-funded procurement agent. And it can—and should—use that power to change American gun policies. Specifically, the government buys lots of guns, for sheriffs, patrol officers, and detectives; for FBI agents, DEA agents, IRS agents, Postal Inspectors, immigration agents, and park rangers; and for soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and spies. The government buys guns by the crate.

What is striking is that the government buys guns from manufacturers who also sell them to criminals—either knowingly or by willfully overlooking the behavior of the retail outlets that the gun companies use as their distribution system. Those of us who were in law enforcement in New York City in the late '80s and early '90s remember how drug dealers pioneered the use of 9-mm guns. We heard over and over from our friends in the police department that they were outgunned, that their service revolvers were no match for semi-automatics in a shootout. So what did the police do? The New York City Police Department finally bought 9-mms, too. It was a classic arms race, with the gun manufacturers in the economically enviable position of selling bigger and better guns to both sides.

This prompts a simple question: Why do we buy guns from companies that permit their products to be sold to bad guys?

In this era of government ownership of financial institutions, we are getting more used to the notion that government as an economic actor can exercise its power in differing ways. After all, firms that received TARP money are subject to a bevy of pay restrictions—wisely constructed or not—and were forced to cancel showy parties and retreats.

If we can use a capital infusion to a bank as an opportunity to control executive compensation and to limit use of private planes, why can't the government use its weight as the largest purchaser of guns from major manufacturers to reward companies that work to keep their products out of criminals' hands? Put another way, if it is too difficult to outlaw bad conduct through statutes, why not pay for good conduct? Why not require vendors to change their behavior if they want our tax dollars?

Where'd All the Ammo Go?

Ammoland is reporting that an analysis of various stats reveals that ammo sales in December 2008 came in at (get read for this):

1,529,635,000

Yeppers, a billion and a half rounds that could be tracked...I'd bet there's at least half that number (and I'm being very conservative). By the way, that doesn't count reloading components.

At the RangeMaster Tactical conference, one of the biggest dinner conversation topics was how instructors were cutting down ammo requirements for training because the students either couldn't afford the training with the higher ammo component or simply couldn't get the ammo. Several of the instructors reported students coming through classes with .22 LRs, something they probably wouldn't have allowed in years past but now is completely acceptable.

I TOTALLY agree on this point — training is critically important, and I think training with a .22 is still good quality training. We've talked about this on SHOOTING GALLERY last season and repeatedly on DOWN RANGE Radio. At this point, I'm doing most of my own practice with .22s, and I'm pretty worried about the big chunks of ammo we use each season in the television shows. I've already started drawing on my own "strategic reserves" for the shows...I'm buying on a weekly basis, but there's just not that much out there.

So I strongly urge you to augment your basic personal defense battery with a "mirror" .22s for practice. Best cases are conversion units because you get 100% "look and feel" of your carry guns. You guys know I work with Tactical Solutions...the reason I do is they make the best .22 conversion units in the business, not to mention their superb Pac-Lite top ends for Rugers and Browning Buckmarks. For 1911s, I can also recommend Kimber .22 conversion units. 

If you carry a snub revolver (and who of us doesn't at some point), take a look at this Charter Arms Pathfinder, 2-inch .22 LR snub with an MSRP of $379! I'm using my old Walther TPH .22 for BUG practice these days.

On rifle practice, conversion units are the best, but it's most important to match optics. Again, . I have a Tac-Sol unit fitted on a Stag lower and it is my main AR these days. The Black Dog mags are 100%. On your .22, as much it may simply be too expensive to go out and duplicate the optics. My "working" AR, an S&W M&P, is fitted with an Aimpoint M4 and 3X magnifier, which costs a tidy sum. The Tac-Sol .22 is fitted with an inexpensive BSA red dot, but it does the job and gives me the same red dot. Again, in full disclosure, BSA is a sponsor, but they've long been known for their great rimfire scopes. BTW, they have a reasonably priced fixed 4X coming out specifically designed for ARs...I've handled an advanced copy and like it. You don't need the top-of-the-line stuff on a  .22, but you do need rimfire optics that match what you use on the working gun.

If money is tight (and it is), look at a 10/22. I didn't have to tell you that, right?

Why Kids Can't Say "Guns" in School

From the Miami Herald:

My own hunch is that the sheer number of Americans who own guns (the low estimate is something over 40 million) will keep their Second Amendment rights off the endangered-species list for the foreseeable future. Their First Amendment rights, however, may be another matter. Those are taking a beating these days, right in the place that's supposed to be America's rowdiest free-speech zone: college campuses.

A student who speaks up about the right to own or carry a gun stands a good chance of getting suspended or even arrested...

Read the whole thing...

Yeechy-Poo Drive Home

So I get to the airport in Tulsa feeling pretty ragged out after three days of filming...I'm feeling worse and worse...body aches...fever rising...I'm thinking "flu-like" symptom, which really sucks with Captain Trips loose in Mexico and me walking unmasked through airports. The drive from DIA to the Secret Hidden Bunker was agony...my fever was up enough that I saw many fascinating hallucinations...mostly small grotesque animals jumping toward me off the side of the road...

I'm much better this AM...fever broke and the virus never went to my lungs, so I think I've dodged that bullet. I'm gonna spend the day resting and visit Mr. Doctor tomorrow.

Rastus, that flash/bang (actually a shotgun) in room 3 was cool! Several years back we did a similar thing for some SWAT excercises...the first guy through dropped his gun when it popped. Room 3

All Tacticaled Up

Am on the way home from Tom Givens' RangeMaster Tactical Conference, this year in Tulsa at the U.S.Shooting Academy.

As usual, had a wonderful time, catching up with Tom, John Farman, Mas Ayoob, Paul Gomez, Karl Rein, and as whole bunch of other people, including my old high school buddy Bill Baker, who now instructs at RangeMaster.

You'll see a ton of this stuff on DRTV, along with a whole slew of gun tests.

As usual, Tom and the RM guys set up some cool and challenging shooting stages - a house exercise with lots of terrorist and lots of innocent bystanders, the classic Dozier Drill (which I'd shot with an S.A.revolver at GUNSITE a couple of weeks ago), a standards, a stage were you carted around a darn heavy "baby," and a back-up gun stage. I shot the main stages with a Para LTC 9mm I had in Tulsa with me and borrowed a Kahr .380 for the BUG stage. The highlight of the BUG stage was 2 shots standing at 15 yards on a target about 3/4 covered by a hostage, then dropping to prone to engage a clay pigeon at 15 yard through a hole in a steel plate. The plate messes with your head! I shot 2 "A's" on the paper, then drilled the clay pigeon on the second shot...as Walt Rauch told me a month or so ago, the little Kahr is a SHOOTER!

More on Wednesday's podcast...


-- Post From The Road

Two Saturday Quickies...

...before heading to the range. The first is from MSNBC, part of their First 100 Day Coverage of Maximum Barry Reign, bemoaning the fact that the shiny new AWB appears to be dead in it's cradle: 

One-hundred days into his presidency, President Obama says it [a new AWB] remains a goal. But it is one the White House has been forced to abandon.

Voices of agreement
President Obama and Vice-President Biden, “support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent,” the White House website declares. Shortly after taking office, members of the Obama cabinet added their voices of agreement.

At his first news conference as attorney general, Eric Holder said, “there are just a few gun-related changes what we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the idea during her trip to Mexico in late March. “These assault weapons, these military-style weapons, don’t belong on anyone’s street,” she said.

But the fire has gone out of President Obama’s goal of restricting the availability of firearms. “I don’t know of any plans,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, to seek an assault weapons ban from Congress.

Attorney General Holder admitted as much when asked, during a recent session with reporters, whether he expected any push for a ban this year to curb the flow of guns from the United States to Mexico.

His answer could have come straight from the National Rifle Association: “I think what we’re going to do is to try to, obviously, enforce the laws on the books.”

The second is a couple of media posts from Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell: 

What does it means when you have an editorial in the US News and World Report that says gun control is unconstitutional, period, and the Baltimore Sun runs an article about the ineffectiveness of the gun control movement?

It’s part of American legend that when Corwallis’ men surrendered to Washington and LaFayette after the Battle of Yorktown, effectively ending the American Revolution, the band played “The World Turned Upside Down.” Someone send Paul Helmke a fife. If the media abandoned them, all is lost. That’s not to say gun control is dead, but the current incarnation might be. Will there be a rebirth? Will Brady change their name again? Who knows. But pretty clearly what they are doing now isn’t working.

Let's stay vigilant and make sure it keeps on not working! I'm also trying to get ramped up to speed on the kerflunkle over Rush Limbaugh recording some audio spots for the Humane Society...El Rushbo apparently didn't get the memo that the Humane Society has morphed from a protector of abandoned pets to just another animal rights/antihunting organization.

The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance is on this big time: 

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance has joined the nation’s leading conservation organizations in sending a letter to Rush Limbaugh urging the talk radio personality to cease his support of America’s number one opponent of sportsman traditions, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

The groups who sent the letter are: the Archery Trade Association, Boone and Crockett Club, Catch a Dream Foundation, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Conservation Force, Dallas Safari Club, Delta Waterfowl, Ducks Unlimited, Houston Safari Club, Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America, Mule Deer Foundation, National Shooting Sports Foundation, National Trappers Association, National Wild Turkey Federation, North American Bear Foundation, North American Grouse Partnership, Pheasants Forever, Pope and Young Club, Quail Forever, Quality Deer Management Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Texas Wildlife Association, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, Whitetails Unlimited, Wildlife Forever, Wildlife Management Institute, and the Wild Sheep Foundation.

The letter clearly states the essential role played by hunters, fishermen, and trappers in conserving America’s wildlife. It reads:

“Every year, billions of dollars are pumped into conservation and local economies by American hunters, anglers, and trappers through the purchases of their licenses, equipment and clothing, and through their expenditures on hotels, travel, and dining.”

The letter also explains to Mr. Limbaugh the impact his endorsement will have on advancing the HSUS agenda:

“With America’s most prominent conservative spokesman on board, they have the opportunity to make in-roads in to a new cross section of our country.

You are helping them to mainstream their image in the minds of reasonable people. Your collaboration furthers the anti-hunting and anti-fishing agenda of HSUS, which will undermine the great success of conservation and threatens the economies of small towns and rural states across our nation.”

Is It Time to be Scared Yet?

The deadly Mexico flu outbreak, which has no doubt been caused by inequities in the American medical system, happens to be part of one of the 7 deadly scenarios in 7 DEADLY SCENARIOS: A MILITARY FUTURIST EXPLORES WAR IN THE 21ST CENTURY by Andrew Krepinevich. I thought that would cheer you up! Here's the details of the Mexican outbreak: 

Because there is clearly human-to-human spread of the new virus, raising fears of a major outbreak, Mexico's government canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding areas.

"Our concern has grown as of yesterday," U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing.

It first looked mostly like a swine virus but closer analysis showed it is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the CDC.

"We do not have enough information to fully assess the health threat posed by this new swine flu virus," Besser said.

In 7 Deadly Scenarios, a world-wide avian flu pandemic pushed the American health care system the brink, but the major danger came when Mexico's teetering government collapses and a human wave of sick desperate humanity surges toward the U.S. border. This from the U.S. News & World Report interview with Krepinevich: 

Is there a scenario that particularly surprised you as you looked into it?

The pandemic scenario. You read what people in the medical community are saying, and their point is that a pandemic influenza is not an if event; it's a when event. Nearly a century ago, we had the famed Spanish influenza that killed more people than all the people killed in World War I. It was almost a "bring out your dead in the morning," overwhelming the ability of the healthcare infrastructure to handle the problem. And so the situation is that you have an avian influenza virus that makes this last leap to where it can be easily transmitted between humans. It takes time to isolate the strains and produce a vaccine. So you've got a period of six to nine months where you need to accumulate large stores of the vaccine. In the meantime, you have to rely on antiviral drugs, and you don't have enough of those. You see breakdowns in areas where U.S. forces are located; they're besieged. You get massive numbers of people moving towards the U.S. border, and the government realizes that we cannot accommodate them because we're hanging on by a thread. The armed forces is given the challenge: How do you stop these people in a humanitarian way? Again, you sit down and you start to think about what does the Pentagon have to worry about. The circumstance is a huge humanitarian catastrophe, one that is quite plausible and that would require the military to be very inventive.

Sleep well tonight...dream of nanomasks and Tamiflu.

This is the REAL Best Defense!

That's Tim Cremin, producer of THE BEST DEFENSE, with my Spike's Tactical 9mm AR pistol...you'll see the video on DRTV a little later this month, of course. We ran out of ammo before we ran out of people who were loving this little blaster.

-- Post From The Road

Where Are The Aliens???

-- Post From The Road

Firearms Availability...Pipeline Filling Up?

I can't speak to ammo, which is still darned hard to find, but I note a flier from CDNN (that's their accessory website; you gotta call about the guns — 800-588-9500) that advertises ARs in stock, including Colt, Bushmaster, S&W, Charles Daly and Les Baer, assorted varieties of Mini-14s, a bunch of exotics and — amazingly — .308 FNARs in the heavy and light barrel configs for the MSRP of $1295. I say "amazingly" because the first FNARs coming into the pipeline were selling for crazy prices on auction sites like GunBroker.com...although there's now a zillion of them at roughly $1500. I got an email from FNH yesterday saying it would be a while, if ever, that the guns would be available to writers for purchase, although we could get a loaner for 3 weeks.

I did buy 2500 rounds of .22LR Aguila Target — I've used before and it's is pretty good ammo, although a little light for some conversion units —  from Cheaper Than Dirt for a reasonable price...a little over $300 for 5k rounds. I plan to use it in the cowboy practice guns and save my hotter CCI for the conversion units and other semis. They've also got Wolf steel case .223, but they're selling it dear...almost $600 a thousand! Ammo Engine's average 5.56 price today is between $400-500. 9mm is still crazy off the charts...

One of My All-Time Favorite Headlines

From MSNBC today:

Giant mystery blob found near dawn of time

Man, I've suspected that for years! There is indeed a giant mystery blob near the dawn of time! Along with a huge statue of a man with four toes, all the unmatched socks since the very first washing machine, the missing 18 1/2 minutes of the Richard Nixon tapes, Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Crater, the keys to my 1969 MGB that I was never able to find, an unreleased master tape of previous unrecorded Grateful Dead songs, that little "De Plane! De Plane!" guy from Fantasy Island, Lindsey Lohan's lost virtue and that couple of hours I lost when I whacked my head river surfing in New Zealand a few years back.

I feel better now, doctor...really...

...until I read this:

DETROIT — The metal underwire in a Detroit woman's bra was credited with deflecting a bullet fired at her during a break-in at a neighbor's home. Detroit police Officer Leon Rahmaan said the 57-year-old woman apparently looked out her window Tuesday when one of three men fired the shot.

He said the slug smashed through her window pane before hitting the bra's underwire. It did not penetrate her skin.

I'm now deeply conflicted.

Neat Commentary from U.S. News & World Report

Featuring 4 distinct views — including Brother Ted — on guns and gun control: 

Ten years after the Columbine High School massacre, shooting sprees in New York and Pennsylvania bring renewed howls for tighter gun laws. But is gun control the answer? In U.S. News's monthly series The Chat Room, four advocates on both sides of the debate get their say, first in separate op-eds, then for several days as guests on the Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

Read 'em all...even Helmke, who always reads from the same pathetic script...

A Must-Read Post from the Violence Policy Center

So we went from instant blizzard to instant spring..it's sunny, warm and beautiful up here, and, yes, it's taking the 4 feet of snow a bit of time to melt off. I'm looking forward to some time at the range this weekend T&E'ing guns...including one of those FNH bullpups that everyone hates. I always thought a bullpup would make an excellent car gun. I'm also going to put some rounds through the coooooooooooooool Spike's Tactical 9mm AR-based pistol. Naw, it's not "tactical," but then neither am I.

Here's some reading for the day. Eugene Volokh over at the Volokh Conspiracy rounded up the Violence Policy Center statement on the Clinton AWB made in 1998. Every gun owner needs to read this statement (and make sure it gets plenty of circulation!) because it shows the duplicitous center of the antigun movement. Here's a sample from the VPC report: 

[A]ssault weapons are quickly becoming the leading topic of America's gun control debate and will most likely remain the leading gun control issue for the near future. Such a shift will not only damage America's gun lobby, but strengthen the handgun restriction lobby for the following reasons:

* It will be a new topic in what has become to the press and public an "old" debate.

Although handguns claim more than 20,000 lives a year, the issue of handgun restriction consistently remains a non-issue with the vast majority of legislators, the press, and public. The reasons for this vary: the power of the gun lobby; the tendency of both sides of the issue to resort to sloganeering and pre-packaged arguments when discussing the issue; the fact that until an individual is affected by handgun violence he or she is unlikely to work for handgun restrictions; the view that handgun violence is an "unsolvable" problem; the inability of the handgun restriction movement to organize itself into an effective electoral threat; and the fact that until someone famous is shot, or something truly horrible happens, handgun restriction is simply not viewed as a priority. Assault weapons -- just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms -- are a new topic. The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons -- anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun -- can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons....

So in the end a new AWB of any kind is only a step toward banning handguns...indeed, all guns. At the time of the Clinton Ban, the Washington Post made the comment than the AWB in all probability would have no effect on crime — and of course it didn't! — ""Assault weapons play a part in only a small percentage of crime. The provision is mainly symbolic; its virtue will be if it turns out to be, as hoped, a stepping stone to broader gun control."

Oh no, I forgot! Maximum Barry has "too much on his plate" to pay attention to us! That's why we're fending off one antigun "probe" after the other.

The Definition of Stubborn

I sometimes look to my three parrots — Ripley, Cleo and Bishop — for handy behavioral advice...in TRAIL SAFE (due back from the printer early next month) I talked about how they invariably respond to aggression with aggression, which got me thinking about how we as humans might deescalate dangerous situation.

This morning Bishop, our green-winged macaw, checked her calendar and decided once and for all it's spring, and by god she was going to her outside aviary. Period. So now she's sitting outside, puffed up like a bluejay in January, in a flite half full of snow. She can come in any time she wants, but she's so far holding the line. 

This is the opposite of her usual response to the first snow every fall, where she insists on going outside and sticking her big red head in the snow to prove to herself that we're not torturing her by keeping her inside. 

Ninth Circuit Incorporates 2nd Amendment

This is a biggie...the a 3-judge panel of Ninth Circuit Federal Court has unanimously found for the first time that the Second Amendment is indeed incorporated into the Constitution through the 14th Amendment. This from RightsPundits:

Just as a little background for those of you who are not legal scholars, originally the Bill of Rights were a set of limited rights that only applied to the federal government (for example many states had official state religions). It wasn’t until after the Civil War and the passage of the 14th Amendment that some of the Bill of Rights were eventually “incorporated” into the 14th amendment and applied to states as well as the federal government. Through a hodgepodge of cases, the Supreme Court has recognized most of the rights in the Bill of Rights as “fundamental” rights, and thus states could not limit them. Curiously the 2nd amendment has never been included as one of these fundamental rights, and thus never incorporated (although non-existent rights like the Right to Privacy made the list somehow).

The opinion basically follows the Heller opinion from last year. The Heller opinion invalidated a Washington D.C. ordinance which banned all gun possession in the District. The SCOTUS ruled that this was unconstitutional because gun ownership “necessary to an Anglo-American regime of ordered liberty.” Following this framework, the 9th Circuit has basically said that since this is a fundamental right the 2nd Amendment must be incorporated into the 14th Amendment. Interestingly, the 9th Circuit did not use the Priviliges and Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment, but by the Due Process Clause.

 The fact that this is coming from the Ninth, the most liberal of federal courts, is nothing short of amazing. This from the decision: 

We therefore conclude that the right to keep and bear arms is “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” Colonial revolutionaries, the Founders, and a host of commentators and lawmakers living during the first one hundred years of the Republic all insisted on the fundamental nature of the right. It has long been regarded as the “true palladium of liberty.” Colonists relied on it to assert and to win their independence, and the victorious Union sought to prevent a recalcitrant South from abridging it less than a century later. The crucial role this deeply rooted right has played in our birth and history compels us to recognize that it is indeed fundamental, that it is necessary to the Anglo-American conception of ordered liberty that we have inherited.

More from Snowflakes in Hell, Of Arms & the Law, Volokh Conspiracy.

Monday Ammo Commentary...

...in Texas: 

Retailers and consumers say there may be several reasons gun stores are running out of ammunition — and the cost of what is available is rising.

There’s a widespread expectation that Obama’s administration will follow through on a campaign promise to reimpose an assault weapons ban. Some people fear that taxes on ammunition, guns and other firearms-related materials might drastically increase, as they have on cigarettes.

Administration officials and Democratic leaders in Congress began saying this month that while they hope to eventually change gun control policies, they will not push the assault weapons ban for now because they know how divisive that debate would be and they don’t want to distract from other goals.

The slumping economy — and the angst it brings — is also prompting many first-time buyers to purchase guns and stockpile ammunition. But the economy could also make it hard for manufacturers to get credit to buy supplies to make all that ammo.

Whatever the reason, gun stores nationwide face back-ordered ammunition requests and in some cases a wait of six to eight months for delivery.

As the demand grows, the cost of ammunition is rising — as is the cost of guns and supplies such as cleaning kits and eye and ear protection.

I especially like this comment to the article, which I think does a superb job of summing up what's going on:

jimposter wrote on 4/20/2009 9:06:57 AM:
The salient point that should not be missed is the ultimate goal of the current political ruling elite to discourage and ban gun ownership by citizens. They may differ on the timetable but the goal remains the same. Whether motivated by a misguided paternalism that posits in government an excess authority, or motivated by a belief that guns cause crime, the solution they unwaveringly advance is to disarm law-abiding people.

Demand for guns and ammunition is a referendum on the average citizen's trust and confidence in the government-a trust in benevolence over malevolance, and a confidence in handling the economy and law enforcement. So far trust is losing big-time, and the more the administration and Congress make noises about stripping citizens of their right to self-defense the greater the imbalance becomes. The people are not idiots, and as Dylan once said in another context "you don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

All's Right with the World...

...after 5 hours of shoveling, plus an extra 2 hours extricating my Sweetie's Mini from a slippery spot. Once the Mini got its chains on, it chugged right through the whole mess! I have to admit to a bit of stiffness this AM, but hey, I planned to do a good workout on Saturday anyway. Supposed to warm up big time, so all this white stuff won't be staying around that long.

RE: Local political structure, you guys are right...my bad. As someone who does not have kids and travels a lot (and has for years) I have a limited connection to wherever I live. Usually, my political involvement is at a state level or above, working for RKBA. I do get involved locally on gun issues, but seldom for other things. Living in Boulder County — 50 square miles surrounded by reality, as the poster says — has its pluses and minuses. It is a spectacular place to live with outdoor recreation second to none; it is also a major fruit and nut enclave. The cell tower issue grated because it is a matter of life or death...the town is at the head of 17 miles of twisting mountain road through a canyon. Make a mistake driving, or have a heart attack at a bad time behind the wheel, and you have a choice of a rock wall or a drop into a fast-running mountain stream. If your accident happens in the middle of the canyon, especially at night, you have a 7 mile walk to be able to call for help. Happens every year. 

I once popped the accelerator linkage on an old Land Cruiser of mine at Mile 8 one the way home on a cold, cold night. Of course, I had extra clothing layers, hiking boots and a SureFire, so I mostly got a unplanned hike up the hill. I was almost hit twice at narrow points where there was no place to get off the road...gotta love target fixation!

Anyhow, speaking of EMP, Rastus, I jst finished reading ONE SECOND AFTER by William Forstchen, a TEOTWAWKI book postulating an EMP strike against the United States and based on substantial military research on the subject. As stated in the afterword, a terrifying report on U.S. vulnerability to an EMP strike had the bad luck to be released on September 11, 2001 and was effectively lost in the subsequent coverage of the terrorist events...or am I now required to say man-made catastrophes? Anyhow, an EMP strike is an efficient and devastatingly effective way to use limited nukes...you don't have to have precision targeting or super-deluxe missile delivery systems...just enough to lob the nukes high enough over the central U.S. to get a maximum pulse effect.

It's a very well written, scary and ultimately profoundly depressing book, focusing on one small town in North Carolina (sort of like the late, lamented television series, Jericho, in that way). If you're having trouble staying awake all night, ONE SECOND LATER will solve that problem...