Snowflakes in Hell

Ahab has a pretty good bit on how the City of New York is claiming that the High-Point C9 is the weapon of choice for the street urchins.  This doesn’t really surprise me.  I actually own one Hi-Point product; their 9mm carbine.  It’s actually not a bad shooter.  Quality on the parts isn’t too hot, but the design is simple, and surprisingly reliable.

Apparently they go on the street for about $250 bucks, which is a bit higher than the price on the legal market.   There’s going to be some risk premium charged by traffickers to make the possibility of multiple felony counts worth their while.

Clayton Cramer has this to say about the claim:

I find this claim implausible. Like nearly all human behavior changes caused by financial incentives, it operates at the margins. Where I live, the only regular destination that I can reach by foot rather than by car is my mailbox, which is a bit more than half a mile away. When I lived in West Boise, my job was 1 1/2 miles away. While I very occasionally walked or bicycled, cost was not a factor in the decision–simply because driving 1 1/2 miles was very, very cheap (about 3 1/2 gallons a month), and unless gasoline rose by $10 per gallon, the reduced driving cost was more than made up for with the inconvenience of not being to zip home to have lunch with my wife, and the cost of eating in the company cafeteria.

I agree.  One of the great ironies for me, when I was actively biking last year, was that I was spending more gas to bike than I would have if I just stayed home.   I enjoy both cycling and hiking, and both of them, for me, involve taking my bike, or my feet and backpack somewhere that I can do it.  I can cycle around my neighborhood, but that gets old.  To leave the neighborhood on the roads around here is taking your life into your hands.

So for me, higher gas prices mean less hiking and cycling, and thus I get fatter, not thinner.

I went to Pistol People today to pick up the Citori I bought from Red’s Trading Post, as a screw you to Jesse Jackson, The Rainbow PUSH Coalition and The Brady Campaign because of their very pathetic August 28th events.

I can’t wait to get it out to the range and break some clays. Sadly, that won’t be for a little bit, since I have other things to deal with in the short term. Our club has Monday night trap shoots, which I’m going to start participating in, once I brush up on my shooting a bit.

I’ve completed my crown lengthening.  I think the procedure is a little bit worse than root canal, in terms of having your mouth pried open, and what they have to do to you.  The tools that were going into my mouth were a bit frightening, to say the least.

The good news is that, so far, I’m not in awful pain, and the novocaine has pretty much worn off by now.  The real pain didn’t come until I had to pay the bill.

Sorry for the light, or rather, relatively brainless posting this week so far.   I’m off for the rest of the week from work.   Tomorrow I get my crown lengthening done, which leaves me in great angst, since I fear any unknown major dental procedure.  But the periodontist told me that I should plan to take the rest of the day off work, and who am I to complain?

In the evening, I have a club meeting to attend where I have to try to convince our board that, at an NRA affiliated club, the NRA ought to be allowed to come and answer questions and address member concerns before our club votes to end the 100% member requirement.  I’m not very good at this type of public speaking, so it make me rather nervous.  Throw the fact that I don’t know how well I’ll even be able to speak after the dentist, and it gets even worse.

After that, it’s off to Virginia.   I plan to attend at least one session of the NRA board of directors meeting (it’s open to all members, actually, if you ever have time to attend, it might be worth your while).   But of course, that’s not the only reason to go; it’s also a good place to meet up with fellow bloggers.

Friday we’re coming back up here.  Bitchy Mom and Bitter’s grandmother are coming up to do the Philly thing.   All in all a very busy week, I’m afraid.   Which translates into more “linky no thinky”.