Snowflakes in Hell

Apparently the United States has about 40% of the world’s small arms in private hands.   I have to tell you, with that many armed spooky foreigners, clearly America is under threat.  We all know from the media and gun control folks that gun owners are scared to death of foreigners and minorites, so clearly we will just keep buying until we reach 100%.

SayUncle’s link to to the Tequila gun made me remember something interesting.  A buddy of mine works for a firm that makes airline security scanners.  Their scanner was based on new technology that examined shapes present within luggage in order to find firearms.  They were testing it in a live airport when someone went through the machine with one of these and it flagged it as a firearm.  As far as I know these scanners aren’t in widespread use yet, but you might want to be careful about flying with one of these.

The meme is going around.  I have pretty good faith in our system, so I wouldn’t make very many changes, other than this:

1. Fire all existing supreme court justices, except for Justice Thomas.  He can stay.
2. Nominate Eugene Volokh to the Supreme Court
3. Nominate Randy Barnett to the Supreme Court
4. Nominate Glenn Reynolds to the Supreme Court
5. Nominate David Hardy to to the Supreme Court
6. Nominate Orin Kerr to the Supreme Court
7. Nominate Judge Alex Kozinski to the Supreme Court
8. Tell Congress they can stick it on the advice and consent, and order that we only need seven justices.
9. Consolidate all federal law enforcement under the US Marshals.
10. Put Radley Balko in charge of the USDOJ with a life time appointment.

I figure the rest will kind of sort itself out.

Greg Rotz had a meeting with his local sheriff.  Not the guy who revoked his license to carry, that sheriff retired.  This is the new sheriff.  I link to this because I think it’s a great way to do activism:

In the end he said I was glad I took the time to come see him. He asked if he could keep all of the documentation I presented to him. I told him that was why I brought them. He asked if I had a card. I told him I did not have a personal card, but gave him a PAFOA card, and he wrote my name/number/e-mail on the back. I told him we were not a PAC, and were not trying to offer money in exchange for policy changes, etc. We are not making demands. We just want everyone (citizen and LEO alike) to know what the laws are, so they can be followed. I also asked if he would be willing to attend a local social gathering, and he said he would do so. I promised to keep him updated as plans began to form.

I think you can get more mileage out of a soft sell than you can walking in and making demands.  While they are public servants, they are also people, and they will tend to listen better if you’re treating them well.

The Humane Society of the United States, unlke PETA, who are mostly a joke, is a very smart anti-hunting group.  Look at this bill proposed by Senator Lautenberg:

Today, U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced legislation that would prevent importing and confining exotic animals for the purpose of hunting.  This type of hunting, commonly known as “canned hunting,” is a brutal practice of placing an animal in an enclosure that severely limits its ability to escape.

Sounds like they are putting the animal in a cage so you can shoot it, right?  Well, no.  They are putting the animal on a preserve, and the preserve has a fence that delineates the property.  Doesn’t matter if you have 10,000 acres.  It’s a canned hunt, and it’s evil and cruel.  HSUS will mislead the public on this the same way the Brady Campaign misleads the public on the gun issue.  Hunters need to wake up.  Particularly hunters in New Jersey, which is getting perilously close to banning hunting altogether.

I also have to say that if the people of New Jersey choose to keep that fossil Lautenberg around, they are nuts.  Rob Andrews is no friend of ours, but saying he’d be a step up is a bit of an understatement.

The state has set up a web site to inform people about firearms transfer laws in Pennsylvania.  Dave Markowitz takes the state to task for providing misleading information about what the law actually is.  Handgun and NFA transfers have to be done through an FFL or the County Sheriff’s office.  Long gun transfers between private parties are allowed, provided neither individual is prohibited from possessing a firearm.  Seems the state is leading people to believe all transfers have to go through an FFL.  From Dave:

Guntransfer.org clearly reflects the Philly-centric antigun bias. By fooling people into thinking that private party transfers of any gun are illegal in PA, they are looking to create a paper trail. All gun transfers which go through a licensed dealer first require the transferee to pass a background check conducted in Harrisburg by the Pennsylvania State Police. As you may be aware, a few years ago they were sued for creating an illegal registry of gun owners. As it turned out, the State Police won their case when the court ruled that the records which they were compiling did not meet the statutory definition of an illegal database. Nevertheless, it is still a de facto database of gun owners in Pennsylvania.

Our supreme court ruled that because the database wasn’t all inclusive, that it wasn’t a “registery,” which is prohibited by the Uniform Firearms Act.  I doubt this is a nefarious conspiracy to create a paper trail, but it’s definitely not good that a state agency is spreading false information about state law.  This is something we ought to bring up with Attorney General Corbett.

Go have a read of this.  Mr. C is a pin shooter, which is a bit different than the prevalent discipline at my club, which is Metallic Silhouette.  I think there are similarities though.  I find myself in a bit of the beginners scramble to find a setup that works well for me.  But I am still struggling a bit with the basics.  I think Mr. C is very correct on this, which I think is true for all pistol disciplines:

I also learned that the faster you try to shoot, the better your trigger control needs to be. 95% of the mechanics of pistol shooting is trigger control, and trigger control isn’t something that comes easily. Most of the top shooters shoot in excess of 20,000 rounds a year, and to get really good trigger control you need to not only practice a lot, but practice regularly. If I don’t practice for a week or so, I really notice the drop in trigger control. Fortunately, it returns fairly quickly!

Silhouette is a bit different, in that I am continuously told I need to slow down, rather than rush.  Silhouette is timed, but it’s not a race.  You have two minutes and five shots to knock down five animals.  Tonight I scored 23 out of 40 in indoor with my Ruger Mk.III, where we use 3/8th scale animals at 25 yards, scaled down (about credit card sized for pigs and rams) to simulate distance for when we shoot outdoors.  The top shooters score anywhere from 36 on a bad night to 40 (perfect score) on a good one.  Anything over 20 is a good night for me!  Most of the times I miss, it’s due to me thumbing the gun left with a poor trigger squeeze, or it’s due to breaking the trigger at the wrong moment.  At this point I can tell why I miss shots, but I’m still working on avoiding the mistakes.  Some things I’ve been observing:

• You can’t give a poor shooter good equipment and make them better.
• Good equipment will make a good shooter better.
• The very best shooters can outshoot good shooters even with poor equipment.

While most of the top silhouette shooters are shooting either Anschutz bolt action pistols, or TC single shot breech loading pistols, I’m sticking with my Ruger for now.  I want to make sure I’m shooting as best I can with inexpensive equipment before investing in something better.  I’m definitely experimenting to see what works well and what doesn’t, but I think one mistake beginners tend to make is thinking good equipment will make up for bad fundaemtnals.  It won’t.  The only thing that will make you better is getting out there and doing it, over and over, and learning what works and what doesn’t.  I’m still getting started.