Snowflakes in Hell

I finally got them compiled and posted.  Be sure to let me know if I forgot to include anyone’s entry.  It’s quite possible I did, considering I did this in pieces.  Also check for mistakes.  Congratulations to the match winners:

• Centerfire (Iron Sights): AughtSix
• Centerfire (Scoped): BillH
• Smallbore (Iron Sights): AughtSix
• Smallbore (Scoped): BillH

And thanks for participating to Armed Citizen, Leadchucker, Danno, Sailorcurt, and Mike Gallo.  Sorry it took so long to get the results posted, but time was in short supply this fall.  The combined Fall/Winter match will be posted shortly, and will be a Kalashnikov/SKS match.  In addition, I’m going to bring the smallbore match in to 25 yards so that people may shoot it indoors.  I am considering eliminating the scope class for this match since everyone seems to be shooting iron sights.

UPDATE: Forgot AughtSix’s smallbore results, which made him the match winner.

Pretty clearly the new Obama Adminstration will have to ban the menace that is the evil chainsaw lug.

Finally got the safe delivered on Wednesday.  Bought it at The Sportsmen’s Center over in New Jersey, which is the closest Liberty Safe Dealer to my house.  It’s a Franklin 35, with brass hardware.  Picked it up for $1799, and they delivered it for $225.

I also got the progressive press a reader sent me all set up and running, which I have nicknamed “The Contraption” because of its mechanical complexity.  It took a good bit of work, and a few botched reloads to get everything set up correctly.  It’s a Lee Pro 1000.  It took a bit of tinkering and finagling to get it to work.  Mainly the primer system didn’t want to feed reliably.  That problem was solved by applying car wax to the feed ramp to slippery it up a bit.  That seems to have done the trick.  You still have to watch the tray like a hawk though, because if it’s not full, it won’t feed. Did a small run of about 50 .44 Special cases through, went to the range and shot them all, and will reload again.  It seems to work fine once you get it set up, clean the feed ramp, and know what to watch out for.

To Kim du Toit.  Today is the day he retires from blogging.

Waxman as Bat Boy?  I can believe it.

Dave Hardy contributes to the discussion about whether the Mumbai shootings would have been lessed if people had been able to be armed:

I’d agree there was a good chance casualties would have been reduced. Rush into a crowded room shooting, and there’s a big difference if the attacker has to worry about getting shot in the back. Not to mention about being perforated while he is changing magazines.

I agree, but it’s really a statistics game.  Given any number of armed people, a certain number of them, under fire, will turn out to not have what it takes.  One of the advantages to having a society where people can choose to be armed is that it increases the chances that someone with the right mix of traits will rise to the occasion, with the tools at hand to accomplish what needs to be done.

A mistake much of the left makes is assuming those we pay to be professional protectors are any better than the rest of us when real bullets start flying.  They are subject to the same psychology as the rest of us, and the same statistical gamble applies — they will just have somewhat better odds, having either thought about life and death situations to begin with, or having a military background, as many in law enforcement do.  But there’s plenty of people out there who have the mental and psychological capacity to come out on top in a firefight, even without extensive training. A smart society doesn’t restrict their ability to have vital tools at hand.  The more armed people that are about, the greater the likelihood that one of them will have the psychological makeup to prevail.  A smart society will want to make the greatest number of sheepdogs, with as few wolves and sheep as possible.  There will always be wolves, and there will always be sheep, but as long as there are many sheepdogs, polite society can flourish in safety.  Perhaps too much safety.

UPDATE: More here.

… and I’m a brassaholic.

Went to the range today to fire off some .44 Special.  Notice a guy there doing some instructing, firing fresh boxes of .45ACP.  Waited around until they finished up.  The haul is 50 count of Federal .45ACP and 115 count of Remington .45ACP.   Plus 114 count of NATO stamped 9mm.  I don’t usually dig through the brass bucket for goodies, but when I know that the brass in question is only once fired, I couldn’t resist.

At least I’m not scrounging scrap lead to smelt and cast into bullets yet.

Remember this from yesterday?  Well, it turns out he’s an open carry activist in Delaware.

Bush has been pardoning a lot of non-violent felons who want their gun rights back.  Back when a felony meant you did something really serious, it was one thing.  But now:

So, after George W. Bush, a strong defender of the Second Amendment, took office, Mr. Collier wrote to the president seeking a pardon, saying he wanted to go hunting with his kids. He explained that he accidentally killed the eagles while trying to poison coyotes that were attacking wild turkeys and deer on property he farms.

Sounds like he set out poison for coyotes, and ended up poisoning a bald eagle, and was charged under the Endangered Species Act.  Yeah, that guy is a time bomb waiting to go off, let me tell you.  I would support a fair law that barred violent offenders from possessing guns, but the law we have now is not fair, nor does it only target violent offenders.

This is what the City of Philadelphia does to criminals who shoot at police officers.  No amount of new laws are going to help if the City keeps insisting on catch and release as a policy.

Xlrq highlights some more.  These people must be enjoying some bile, with some invectives on the side for Thanksgiving.

I don’t know what’s worse, people who want to ban assault rifles out of ignorance, or the people who know fully well what they are, and are willing to throw us under the bus anyway:

These pseudo-assault rifles have a Rambo look that appeals to a certain segment of gun owners, and while they may fulfill some fantasies, the shooter still has to pull the trigger each time he wants to fire, just as with semiauto hunting and target rifles and shotguns.

I don’t use one because few pseudo-assault rifles are anywhere near as accurate as my bolt-action rifles or, for that matter, a 125-year-old, single-shot, black powder buffalo gun that I got chance to shoot last summer and could make 6-inch groups at 1,000 yards.

You see, he’s just plain better than us sickos who shoot competitively with black guns.  Mr. Sharp, I want to introduce you to somebody.  This is Wayne Pacelle, he’s the head of the Humane Society of the United States, a group that proposes to end hunting in North America, one species at a time.  Mr. Pacelle has no less than a goal to be to “rival the National Rifle Association.”

When these people come for your sport, if they already have my AR-15, I’m out of the fight.  I do not hunt — I’m a competitive target shooter, and I carry a pistol for self-defense.  My interest in preserving hunting is in preserving an important part of the shooting sports.  If you, and those who think like you, cause me losing my sport, what interest do I have to fight for yours?  When you understand that you are under just as much threat as we are, you’ll give up your arrogance and understand we’re on this boat together, so you better pick up a bucket and start bailing, or we’re going to sink.

Usually this kind of hysteria is limited to the Philadelphia media market:

And the weapon of choice is invariably a handgun, conveniently available, cheap, on any city street, courtesy of the NRA. After all, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Oh, you’ve heard that line beforeft I guess you haven’t had a relative or friend murdered with one of those guns that don’t kill people. Personally, I am in favor of doing away with all private handgun ownership except for those who can demonstrate a real need (not just self-protection).

Self-protection isn’t a real need?  But if you keep going, the person in question actually comes out against “Lost and Stolen” for largely the same reason I oppose it as well.  At least some gun control advocates understand there are principled reasons to oppose this bill.  Then you have this article:

I know there are some legitimate hunters who think they are allowed to have semi-automatic guns too. It is ridiculous to call yourself a sportsman if you need to use a semi-automatic gun. Each shot should be carefully calculated, not just haphazardly shot repeatedly in seconds in the approximate direction of an animal.

These guns, the ones that should never hit the streets, are getting into the hands of criminals and innocent people are dying. Why? Because guns get stolen.

In my opinion, there is no legitamate use for civilians to use a semi-automatic weapon.

Yeah, except for this whole matter of it being a constitutional right at both the state and federal level, and, of course, there actually being legitimate uses for semi-automatic firearms.  Except for the fact that you’re 100% wrong on this, you’re totally right!  I love how these people who don’t understand guns, or how they are used, presume to lecture those of us that do on what we do and don’t need.  What incredible arrogance and cultural condescension is this.  The worst part is that it’s spreading out from Philly.  I am becoming concerned that Pennsylvania will be as anti-gun as the rest of the northeast within a generation.

A pretty good article in Townhall on Chicago’s continuing battle against the Second Amendment.

Even in Delaware, it can happen.  We’ll see whether the guy in question had a license to carry.  Delaware is may issue, but if you jump through all the hoops, you can usually get your license.  It’s not like New Jersey.

Bryan Miller was thankful yesterday for the federal restrictions on machine guns.  As one commenter pointed out:

Bryan Miller is right — the 1934 law strictly regulating machine guns has been effective, resulting in almost nonexistent cases of misuse by their legal owners. So gun control groups are satisfied about that, right?

WRONG — most gun control groups favor banning ownership of machine guns from those who now own them legally and without misuse.

And that is why we we’re obstinate in opposing them.  The federal machine gun regulations are actually very instructive.  For 50 years you had, by any gun control advocate’s standards, a successful program of licensing (in the form of a tax stamp) and registration, that resulted in very few crimes from legally possessed machine guns — and yet in 1986, they banned them anyway.

The H-S Precision Photoshop Contest is hopping along.  I will collect entries through to Sunday.  We’ll start the vote on Sunday.  On Monday, I will announce the results of the voting, and will declare a winner.  Since so many people have invested their time in this, I will send a 25 dollar MidwayUSA Gift Certificate to the winner.  Get your entries in!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.  What I’m thankful for:

• Thankful that Bitter still has her b***h a** in the kitchen making me pie, even though she came down with a cold last night.
• Liberty Safes, for making a prompt and easy delivery of all 850 lbs of my safe.
• I’m thankful that Michelle Obama can spend her first Thanksgiving being thankful for her country.
• My new RCBS media separator.  No more digging through tumbler media to find the cases, then having to dump the media out of them.  Just dump them into the separator, turn a few times, and bingo — clean media.
• I am thankful for a reader for sending me “The Contraption.”  Pictures will be forthcoming, once it’s set up properly.

Enjoy your holiday.

Seventy eight are dead in a terrorist shooting rampage.  We must remain vigilant here.

Anyone good with photoshop?  I think it’s time for a HS Precision photoshop contest.  I will post any entries that I think are pretty good.   Let Tam be your inspiration:

What’s next from HS Precision? A John Lee Malvo Signature Edition AR-15 stock?

I would let your imagination run from there.  Feel free to e-mail me the submission, or provide a link in the comments.

Ilya Somin might have given us a hint at what Obama’s Administration might be centrally planning:

Interest group pressure has already played a key role in the congressional vote on the finance industry bailout, and it is likely to be equally important in structuring the massive future bailouts to come. Once Obama takes office, we are likely to see some $500 billion to 1 trillion in additional bailout spending – and that may be just for starters. Interest groups will play a major role in allocating this money, and they are already ramping up their lobbying efforts.

On the surface this sounds pretty bad, and it is.  It’s well established that central planning of an economy is folly, and these fools are arrogant enough to think they can do it.  But I am actually somewhat relieved if this is the kind of crap that Obama will be driving through Congress.  It won’t engender a large amount of public support, and will be relatively easy for successive Administrations and Congresses to undo.  The real fear (well, other than new gun control, for our purposes) is that Obama will pass a massive new entitlement program, such as national health care.  Entitlements are nearly impossible to get rid of once they are in place, so if Obama and Emanuel wants to waste taxpayer money by sending tax dollars to inefficient industries, rather than passing new entitlement, all the power to him.  It will make rallying public opposition that much easier.

Linoge looks a pretty whaky example of an Obama supporter and concludes that the administration is certainly heading down the path for re-education of all us gun clinging cousin humpers.  I can’t say that I really find it persuasive in terms of indicating where The Administration is headed, when you have folks on our side threatening journalists and anti-gun supporters with consequence on the day of reckoning that is certainly fast approaching.

There are extremes on all sides.  Part of the reason our system works is that it tends to dull extremes.  The ship of state does not turn on a dime.  The captain can throw the rudder hard to port as much as he wants, but unless successive administrations do it, it’s hard to execute a sharp turn in either direction.  Because our system is slow to change, it takes a serious consensus among the people in order to keep it moving in any one direction.

Given that there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of actual change going on, I think it’s safe to say that the re-education camps, at best, will be a second term project.  I’m not saying we’re not going to get some really bad policies and legislation out of this Congress and this Administration, but we’ve seen all this before.  My problem with hyperbole, and I do think it’s hyperbole, is that while it might be emotionally satisfying, it’s not entirely useful for actually rebuilding the coalitions we’re going to need to defeat this.  Fear is a powerful motivator, but I think what this administration has actually been proposing is plenty scary enough to get people motivated.

Tam is overqualified for public office based on her results from this Civic Literacy Test, which apparently our elected officials did not so well on.  I scored 33 out of 33, so I’m clearly not destained for public office either.  I’ll have to try hard to reduce my competence if I want to have a future in politics.

It’s NSSF.  Welcome to the party.  You can visit the blog here.  My only suggestion would be to register the domain aimingfortruth.com and running the blog off that.

The City of Easton, Pennsylvania, home to Crayola Crayons, has declined to pass a “Lost and Stolen” ordinance.