Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Supreme Court Takes 2nd Incorporation Case

This morning, SCOTUS agreed to hear the Second Amendment case on the Chicago gun ban that may or may not lead to the incorporation of the Second into state laws. This from AmmoLand:
The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether strict local and state gun control laws violate the Second Amendment, ensuring another high-profile battle over the rights of gun owners.

The court said Wednesday it will review a lower court ruling that upheld a handgun ban in Chicago.

The Supreme Court last year struck down Washington D.C.’s gun ban, but the question remains whether states and local governments fall under the same requirements.
You can start your background reading at Volokh Conspiracy.

Our side of the case will be argued by Alan Gura, who did such a superb job before the Supremes

New Book for Uncertain Times!

My friend Jim Rawles of The Survival Blog has his newest book available on Amazon: HOW TO SURVIVE THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT: TACTICS TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGY FOR UNCERTAIN TIMES.

Aside from the world's longest title, expect a thoughtful, intelligent look at a controversial subject. Today is Book Bomb Day — Jim would like to raise his book's position on Amazon...so buy two books today...one for you, another for a friend!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Janich Cuts Up




-- Post From The Road

Cane 2




-- Post From The Road

Cane Basics

Big part of TBD Season 2



-- Post From The Road

Muggings-R-Us




-- Post From The Road

New Stephen Hunter Novel Coming!

For November release...I just got an advance copy yesterday. We'll be making a big deal of the release on DRTV!


-- Post From The Road

Monday, September 28, 2009

Sharp Things

You probably figured this out from these blog posts, but by popular request we're doing more knife stuff this season...



-- Post From The Road

Janich looks for Nirvana...




-- Post From The Road

Another Role Player bites the Dust




-- Post From The Road

Fun With Cameras

Janich frightens the camera, a la Chuck Norris...



-- Post From The Road

Raisin' Cane!





Director Tim Cremin does his favorite scene from "Young Frankenstein."


-- Post From The Road

Meanwhile Back in the Dojo




-- Post From The Road

Sunday, September 27, 2009

One Final Sunday Funny...


From XKCD, "Tornado Hunter"

N-Frame Exorcisms

I spent the morning doing exorcisms on a couple of my N-Frames, including the hapless 329PD with the Amazing Self-Engaging Lock. While I would never recommend that you do this yourself...in fact, I would GET DOWN ON MY HANDS AND KNEES and BEG YOU not to ...there's a great YouTube video that shows you how to go about it. Keep in mind that should you remove the locking mechanism, you must not sell the gun until it is replaced, so save the little LOCKED flag or add the gun to your permanent collection. And remember, a "lock" is not a "safety device." All locks can be compromised...how do I know this? Meet Mr. Sledgehammer. That's why I keep my guns in a great big heavy steel box anchored in concrete.

The problem, as I've stated before, is the tiny spring that supposedly tensions the "LOADED" flag and keeps it from riding up is insufficient in handling the recoil of a heavy bullet hot load in a lightweight frame. The flag bounces under recoil, and in the worst case the bouncing flag catches the hammer as it falls, jamming the revolver. This creates a VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION — the hammer is under spring tension and there's a live round underneath it. I've cleared this jam a couple of times, and I'd prefer not to do it again. I suggest backing off the strain screw and release the mainspring tension WHILE KEEPING THE GUN POINTED DOWNRANGE and your hands out from in front of the barrel before addressing the jam.

Speaking of things that occasionally don't work, Brigid at Home on the Range has had some problems with her Blackhawk Sherpa holster:
I've worn this holster for over a couple of years, not daily certainly, but on regular weekends out in the city, drawing from it enough for practice until I found it easy to use. The SERPA button is very lightly sprung, I'm guessing by known weights of single action trigger pulls it's probably just a little over a pound. Point being, it's light, and doesn't require must of a conscious effort to operate it, no tugging or strength of hand, so I never noticed any impediment to a natural, instinctive draw stroke.

The holster has not been exposed to any heat or conditions that would warp it. It's not dirty. I wasn't doing a one-handed reload where I might have inadvertently inserted the gun in the holster facing backwards (when you do that I understand the tension device in the holster can lock behind the front sight, locking the gun in the holster.) I don't pull up on the weapon at all before or while pressing the button. I drew exactly as I've drawn it hundreds of times, having bought a couple of these over the years.

The SERPA button just stuck.
Because I'm not an LEO and don't have a specific need for a retention holster, I don't particularly like mechanical retention devices...it adds one more little thing that can break. For a regular carry holster I like some kind of tensioning screw I can adjust. For a field holster, I'm not adverse to a retention strap...I have one on the FA crossdraw I use for my packing Super Blackhawk .44.

Getting Ready for Halloween!

I cribbed these from Pole Dancing in the Dark:


1.When it appears that you have killed the monster, never check to see if it's really dead. It isn't.

2.Never read a book of demon summoning aloud, even as a joke.

3.Do not search the basement or attic, even if the power is out.

4.If your children speak to you in Latin or any other language that they should not know, shoot them immediately. Shooting them will save you much grief in the long run; however, it will take several rounds to kill them, so be prepared. This tip also applies to anyone who speaks with someone else's voice.

5.When you have the benefit of numbers, never pair off and go alone.

6.As a general rule, don't solve puzzles that open portals to Hell.

7.Never stand in, on, or above a grave, tomb, or crypt. This rule also applies to any other house of the dead.

8.If you are searching for something that caused a loud noise and find out that it was just the cat, get the hell out. Expeditiously.

9.If appliances start operating by themselves, do not check for short circuits. Again, get the hell out.

10.Do not take anything from the dead. No matter how much you like it, it's bound to disagree with you sooner or later.

11.If you find a town that looks deserted, there's probably a good reason for it. Don't stop and look around.

12.Don't fool with recombinant DNA technology unless you're sure you know what you're doing.

13.If you're running from the monster, expect to trip or fall down at least twice--more if you are of the female persuasion. Also note that despite the fact that you are running and the monster is merely shambling along, it's still moving fast enough to catch up with you.

14.If your companions suddenly begin to exhibit uncharacteristic behavior such as hissing, fascination with blood, glowing eyes, increasing hairiness, and so on, kill them immediately.

15.Stay away from certain geographical locations, some of which are listed here: Amityville, Elm Street, Haddonfield, Transylvania, Nilbog (you're in trouble if you recognize this one), anywhere in Texas where chainsaws are sold, the Bermuda Triangle, and any small town in Maine, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

16.If your car runs out of gas at night on a lonely road, do not go to the nearby deserted-looking house to use the telephone. If you think that it is strange you ran out of gas because you thought you had most of a tank, shoot yourself in the head. You are going to die anyway and most likely be eaten.

17.Beware of strangers bearing strange tools like chainsaws, staple guns, hedge trimmers, electric carving knives, combines, lawn mowers, butane torches, soldering irons, and ice picks.

18.If you discover that your house is built upon a cemetery, now is the time to move in with the in-laws. This rule also applies to previous inhabitants who went mad or committed suicide or died in some horrible fashion.

19. If there are supernatural elements going on around you, don't have sex. Especially if you are a blond.

20. If you are a blond, dye your hair! You have a much better chance of survival if you are a brunette, or redhead. (I guess we don't taste as good or something...)

21. Stay out of cornfields, woods and bodies of water. These are locations where no one will hear you if you scream, or if the do hear you, they will never find you in time.

22. Stay out of big old scary looking mansions, nothing good ever comes from your visit, no matter how considerate a houseguest you are.

23. Never back slowly down stairs, around corners, or through doorways. You have just been where you are coming from and you should know that the threat is not there.

24. If the phone goes dead just when you are about to call for help, don't waist time jiggling the receiver cradle and shouting "Hello" into the receiver. Giving away your position while masking the sounds of the opponents approach is NOT a good tactic.

25. For Heaven's sake, listen to us Moors residents when we tell you to "Keep to the roads, lads!"

26. Stay away from dusty old tomes with questionable fabric covers.

27. Never try to read aloud from books when they are written in some obscure dead language, even if you are a linguistics expert. There are reasons why certain languages are dead.

28. Never say, “It could be worse,” because it will get much worse.

29. Never turn your back on stuffed animals, dolls or clowns. They may seem innocent enough, but they are really demons laying in wait.

30. Do not try destroying same dolls, animals or clowns with fire, water, or exorcism, as this only pisses them off. Just resign yourself to the fact that your life is over.

31. Never invite a ghost or spirit to show itself. It may think that you want it to stay and will make itself at home…

32. Never go camping in the woods on Halloween.

33. Ignore the others who say it will be fun and never go to one of those creepy looking traveling funhouses on Halloween, either. Boo!

34. If the phone rings, don't bother answering it. Go curl up in a corner and resign yourself to the end. It's the killer and he is already in the house, or is outside watching you.

35. If you forget/drop/lose something while a monster is on the loose, it probably isn't the wisest idea to go looking for it later. This principle especially applies to cats.

36. Beware of people in masks. It might not actually be a mask...

37. Never investigate old broken down mansions, especially in Texas. In fact, it’s best to stay out of Texas, New Orleans or any sort of swamp like area all-together.

38. Don’t ever watch unfamiliar and bizarre videotapes.

39. Never let the little bitch out of the well.

40. Never trust computers with little girl avatars

41. Never stroll from room to room, searching for your boyfriend/girlfriend whilst simultaneously calling their name.

Example:

"Tommy? Are your in there? Tommy? Is that you?"

And...if this is happening immediately after sex, resign yourself to your fate immediately and dispatch yourself before the monster gets the chance.

42. Never be the only person at a supernatural outing (whether intentional or unintentional) wearing a red shirt.

43. Never have sex with the overtly horny camp counselor. She will inevitably die first, but you can count on being next in line

44. Donald Pleasance shows up, just recognize you're in a whole lot of great big trouble.

45. Never help a clown out of a drain hole - all clowns are evil!

46. Don't make fun of or play with dead things.

47. If you see a town that looks deserted except for children, do not try to 'help' them - they will eat you.

48. If you walk into the local abandoned-looking church to seek help or shelter, and you notice that the crucifix is mounted upside down, turn around and go back outside as quietly as possible.

49. Never have sex in the bunk beds of recently renovated summer camps.

50. Whenever you land on a distant planet and find some objects that look like eggs, leave them alone.

51. Do not allow crewmates back aboard the craft if and after you have found a hideous parasite attached to his/her body.

52. Be forewarned that a gun is only good for ALMOST killing the monster, never for COMPLETELY killing it. Be sure to have an extra weapon, preferably one with "flair" (a knife, a harpoon, a heavy box, razor confetti, pop tarts...)

53. Don't open the closed door, especially if you hear scratching, heavy breathing, or the voice of a dear relative whom you THOUGHT was dead.

54. Never bathe, especially when in the house alone.

55. If you are a female, never expose yourself. Easy women die fast.

56. Never camp or build homes on Indian burial grounds.

57. If the Toshiba suddenly says out of context, “I understand quantum theory, but what is this thing called love?”, get the hammer immediately. - wahsatchmo

58. Stuntman, if you beam down wearing a red shirt also wear a false beard. That way you can be paid to die again wearing a false mustache in the following episode.

59. No need to open a strange bag or parcel because you think it may contain a bomb. It will.

60. When the hero says it is too quiet the monster has found you. (A.M.Swallow)

Frank James on Concealed Carry

From his blog...as always, Frank cuts to the chase like a laser beam:
Handguns, by definition, are a compromise....and in many instances they are a poor compromise.

The question is in what areas do you personally compromise?

In my view and for self-defense, the most important element in the equation is instant accessibility in a lethal force situation. Anything less and the gun is virtually worthless. You can't go "Kings X" and take a time-out while you retrieve your self-defense blaster from its child-proof storage container in the closet of your bedroom. You HAVE TO HAVE IT IMMEDIATELY when you are 'blind-sided' by the aggressor whether you are on the street, or coming out of the bathroom of your home.
Read the whole thing...

Critical Issues of Zombies...

From the now all-red Land Down Under:
If schlock horror cinema has taught me nothing, and it hasn’t, it’s that the slow and the dull-witted, the unimaginative and the zombie fodder extras are all going down in the first 15 minutes of the opening reel. So while the rest of you are trapped in your barricaded offices and boarded-up homes reading this on your flickering fading Internet connections I shall be long gone, laughing my rich piratical pirate laugh as I drive out of the dust-choked city in my commandeered six wheel paramilitary vehicle, plowing through hordes of the dusty Undead, sparing nary a backward glance as the Religious Maniac tumbles from her precarious perch at the back of the vehicle into the clutches of the Zombie Horde (possibly pushed out by the Evil Hot Chick as a rationing measure after stronger than anticipated overnight demand for Hamburger In A Can – a little extreme admittedly but, you know, her Evil is only matched by her Hotness
). Bring on the Zoms!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Udall Endorses Shooting Ranges in Colorado

I'm going to come down on the "good on you" side of this one:
WASHINGTON — Taking advantage of National Hunting and Fishing Day, Sen. Mark Udall will announce proposed legislation today that would funnel more federal dollars to help states build public shooting ranges.

Public target ranges are in short supply across the West, and informal ranges that pop up in their stead can create safety hazards.
Udall has taken some substantial heat for being insufficiently committed to gun issues; I personally ripped him hard when he was a Congressperson for being too tied to the coattails of the reprehensible Diana DeGette.

However, since he was elected Senator Udall has stood with us on a number of issues, including national park carry and the Thune Amendment on reciprocity (and yes, I know the charge that Colorado's Senators made sure the Amendment didn't have the votes before they cast theirs). He has been a steady voice for more opportunities for shooting and against USFS restrictions on shooting on public lands.

I've said before that we need to reach out to Democrats because, in the pinch, far too many Republicans took us for granted and ultimately failed us. I wish that all our "friends" believed in the Second Amendment the way that we do, but I'm also pragmatic enough to accept friends wherever I find them.

So thank you, Senator Udall!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Carry Gun Redux

Some thoughts related to the previous post...the key to a carry gun is having a gun you're willing to carry. Sounds pretty simply, doesn't it? The reason that it's harder in the Real World than in the previous sentence is that the decision to carry a gun is often made on a purely intellectual level with very little thought given to the Real World issues — the carry system to be used (which is a whole other discussion on the person's physical make-up, level of fitness, etc.), the way the person is required to dress on a daily basis, the person's level of expertise with guns in general, the specific gun to be carried and the carry system, daily transit time in in automobiles and/or mass transit, time available for training, shooting and tactical practice, perceived and actual threat level for the people involved, home and family situations that impact the potential CCW carrier, local, regional, state and federal laws that apply in the person's area, and on and on.

I once wrote an article for SHOTGUN NEWS that was titled "I Carry a Gun; Maybe You Shouldn't," the gist of which was that if you failed to look at all the issues surrounding concealed carry in advance, you're likely to end up one of those thousands of people who leave their carry gun in a drawer at home, because it's a pain in the butt to strap the thing on.

I think it's fair to list several of the myths about concealed carry, weapons choice, carry systems, etc., and see if we can poke some holes in them:

MYTH: I need to carry a larger caliber gun because of the higher potential for a one-shot stop.
REALITY: One-shot stops are the province of rifles, not handguns. Given that fact, the question becomes how quickly can you place multiple shots in the "kill" zone? Forget a .45 ACP — I know people who can run an S&W .500 Magnum loaded with mid-range loads like a staple gun, but the real question is, can you? Assuming multiple shots are going to be necessary in a self-defense situation. how quickly can you deliver those shots with your caliber of choice? Faster is better.

MYTH: I'm going to change the way I dress to accommodate my gun/carry system of choice.
REALITY: No, you're not, because for most people the way they dress on a daily basis is a function of their external lives rather than personal choice. In other words, we dress the way we need to dress for our workplaces and our perceived need to be accepted within our social strata, and it is EXTREMELY hard to change within those contexts. Secondly, we have the whole issue of an "installed base" — we already own lots of clothes, and replacing them is often a lot of money. What often happens is the new CCW carrier ends up with 2 Hawaiian shirts and a pair of 5.11 "tactical" cargo pants that eventually join the gun in staying at home.

MYTH: Everyone knows an IWB is the best carry system for most people.
REALITY: I would add, "for most people who look like Clint Smith or Ed Stock." Not most people who look like me, or my Sweetie (who has a waist and breasts) or 80% of the rest of the country.

MYTH: Anything else "everybody knows..."
VARIOUS REALITIES:
• On a bet I once walked through the middle of a police convention wearing a front-mounted fanny pack sagging from a big gun in it...nobody even gave it a second glance.
• A photographer's vest doesn't scream "gun," it screams "tasteless," which is just fine with me.
• Mouseguns bad? Better a mousegun than no gun...I have Real World experience on this point.

There's lots of others, but I gotta go to work!