Snowflakes in Hell

This month’s Practical Rifle match at Langhorne Rod and Gun Club was a three gun match.  We had about 40 shooters. Match was cut up into 5 stages.  First stage was at 50 yards.   Three magazines loaded with 10 round each.  Fire one standing, transition to kneeling and fire one, transition to prone and fire one, back to kneeling, and back to standing, repeating until you exhaust all your magazines.  Doesn’t sound too bad, but it gets your pulse rate up.  Lost 9 on the IDPA target — needed to aim higher and I would have only pulled one or two, but I was shooting lower than I would have figured.  Next stage was 25 yards, to 15 yards, to 7.  All done standing.  Ten shots each with rifle, then transition to pistol at 7 yards and engage head of target.  Got too punchy and pulled three of my shots low.  Didn’t do too bad overall.  Next stage was the car:

This stage stressed rapid target acquisition, and had one IDPA swinger, which was tough to hit.  Started out with pistol, then transitioned to rifle.

Then onto the shotgun. I had to run home to get the shotgun and more 9mm over break, because they didn’t publish the match requirements on the web site like they say they do. Stage one was four shots on steel, but with one catch. Running the shotgun prone, you could only use one hand, and had to single load each round. I had a pump, so I completed the stage with some difficulty. Stage five was also a shotgun stage, which was essentially 7 propped up clays which had to be shot on the run at 21 feet.

I was happy that I got a whole nice bag of brass from scavenging the range after everyone was done shooting, but I’m also happy for this:

Third place! Shoot off was the same as the first stage at a pie plate at 50 yards. First one finished calls a cease fire. I didn’t shoot as well as I could have, so I figured I didn’t place, but we had to break the tie for second because we both had 10 hits, but he had more on the center portion than I did, so he got second, and I got third. Came two hits away from first. Maybe next time!

For my readers in Bucks County and Southeastern Pennsylvania, or even those of you outside the area who would be interested in helping out a law enforcement family who lost their husband/father in the line of duty:

Christopher Jones Trust Fund
Police and Fire Credit Union
852 E. Street Road
Warminster, PA 18974 

I will be sending some funds along, since they are in the neighborhood here.

That’s Middletown Township Fire Chief Frank Farry, who is also my new state representative.  This is a tough time for Middletown.

This is a rather odd report about ATF inspecting type ‘03 FFLs.  Odd because the ATF is not supposed to just show up at a Type 03 licenses premises unannounced, they are supposed to make an appointment if they want to inspect your bound book.  They are entitled to look at your A&D book, and inspect the guns you have in your inventory.  This can be done at your premises, or at an ATF office.  Type 03 premises are typically residences, and are not required by federal regulations to have normal business hours.

Inspections are conducted by ATF compliance regulators.  They are not conducted by ATF agents.  If you’re a C&R licensee, and an ATF agent shows up at your door, you should treat that agent as you would any law enforcement officer who takes an interest in you.  Be polite, find out what his business is with you, but don’t say anything without talking to a lawyer.  If he does not have a warrant, do not allow him into your home.  If he does have a warrant, your next call needs to be to an attorney.

I hope this report doesn’t indicate that ATF is starting to harass C&Rs.  Mine expires next year, and if that’s the case it won’t be getting renewed.

Anyone who lived in the DC television market probably remembers the Michael Steele ads from his Senate bid in 2006.

I have to say, I like that he’s different.  He’s an out-of-the-box thinker, or at least willing to give those who have ideas for these non-traditional messages a go.  No, I don’t agree with him on every policy point.  In fact, I probably disagree with him more than I agree with him.  But the role of RNC Chair isn’t about setting policy or casting votes on the House or Senate floors.  He’s there to raise money, promote the brand, and run a great election shop. It will be interesting to see how Steele performs.

And Michael Steele wins the race for the Chair of the RNC.

A group calling themselves Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (YANO) has their collective panties in a bunch over the JROTC program in San Diego schools.  Apparently they are offended about lessons in safe and responsible gun handling.  You can see the image that offends them so much to the right.

Even better than their inability to distinguish street violence from military training in a safe and controlled environment is the fact that their “Related Information” section features a link to the Onion.  Unfortunately, the Education Not Arms organizers do not appear to be satirists.

Wow, it’s almost hard to believe how absurdly biased Fox 11 is about reporting on gun owners in California.  Sensibly Progressive has a full takedown of this outlandish report.

When did John Boehner grow a spine?

The day before the crucial vote in the House, Minority Leader John Boehner told his troops that the Republican Party is no longer a bureaucracy. “He took us by the throat and told us, ‘You’re no longer the majority, stop acting like it,’” a senior Republican told me about the run up to the vote. “‘If you’ve got an idea, get it on MSNBC. This is an entrepreneurial insurgency.’ He was kicking the ball around. He wants everyone involved. If there’s an amendment, he told us to offer it. If you have 48 seconds for YouTube, get it up there. Get busy and resist in every instance.”

More please.  Of course, this also leads to the depressing conclusion that I like Republicans out of power more than I like them in power.

Hat Tip Instapundit

I’ve recently noticed that the Virginia Shooting Sports Association blog has been a great place to get fast and relevant news on Virginia political happenings.  Since the General Assembly is only in session until the end of February, the speedy coverage of important issues is important.

A few days ago I outlined how people could step up and throw some visible and measurable support behind New York’s junior senator.  I warned against gun owners who go with the “wait and see” approach that would encourage all of our guys to sit on the sidelines and show no support until she proves herself again.  What were some of the early responses?  “I will just sit back to wait and see.”

First, reward her for recent past behavior.  The fact is that gun issues don’t come up that often in the Senate.  She signed on to the Heller brief, joining only six other members of Congress from New York.  She’s got a high rating based on her past actions which are the best prediction of her future actions.  Even the wait-and-see advocate SayUncle admitted in his above-linked post that she’s said nothing that indicates she’ll be flipping on the issue.

Second, give her an incentive to stay with us.  Show her that her position reaps rewards.  So what if she frames the debate publicly as about hunting?  That’s her family heritage and a background that many gun owners in her district share.  In the latest survey, there were about half a million resident hunters in New York that spend about $788 million annually and support approximately 11,500 jobs in the state.  That’s a pretty sizeable constituency.  And if it makes her pro-gun record more tolerable for the NYC residents, so be it.  Remember, Heller had nothing to do with hunting, and she supported it.

New numbers show that this is simply not a time to sit back to wait and see.

The survey of New York registered voters said 21 percent are prepared to support her in 2010 while 29 percent prefer someone else. A big part of that work she has to do is with her own party where that figure is 20 percent for her in 2010 and 28 percent against, (by contrast, 24 percent of Republicans say they would support her while 28 percent are opposed). Among Democrats, 63 percent would like to see someone challenge her in a primary while only 11 percent want to see her run unopposed.

Gillibrand’s biggest hurdle will likely be a primary challenge.  There is a possibility that Rudy stepping into the general election could be a huge hurdle since they are statistically tied in a hypothetical match-up.  And in that case, who would gun owners trust more: a Democrat who comes from the part of the state that still votes pro-gun and who has a record of supporting gun rights or a Republican who ran on gun control and ran the part of the state that has some of the most oppressive gun laws in the country?

After my last post, she has more than 150 new supporters on Facebook.  There were some who confirmed via comments or emails that they donated.  It’s time for others to get on board.  She’s proven herself in the past, let’s reward her and show her that it’s a good thing to stick with us.

Jim Geraghty posts this observation from the RNC meeting where they are voting on a new chairman today:

Dear RNC: When all of your candidates for chairman are saying, “We have to get better at getting our message out,”  having no functioning wireless signal is a heavy-handed metaphor for failure.

The good news for gun bloggers is that NRA does a much better job about internet access and blogger relations at their annual meeting than either the RNC or DNC.

Uncle is doing a great job of keeping after Knoxville’s mayor who intends to run for Governor of Tennessee as a current member of Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-gun.  Bill Haslam has somewhat backed off from his support of the iniatives publicly after the pressure placed upon him, but he still refuses to officially withdraw his support of their agenda by way of membership out of the fear that it will make him look like he gives a damn about what gun owners think.

Considering that Uncle’s site is in the top search results for even a generic search on Bill Haslam’s name, it shows just what kind of pressure a good campaign and local coverage via blogs can create.  I discussed this last year in my presentation at the NRA meeting, and hopefully we’ll see some more results in Tennessee.

The more I look around a the tech leaders of today, the more disappointed I am. When I joined the tech field back in the mid 90s, you could not find a more cantankerous, individualist, and anti-authoritarian gathering of minds this side of a militia group.

But today tech leaders are  hosting flashy, celebrity studded, inaugural parties for Obama.  They are being hired by the campaigns of prominent progressive Democrats.  Over the past decade we’ve gone from Geeks with Guns, to Americans for Gun Safety.  Where we once hoisted the Jolly Roger to do battle with the man, now it seems that the man is increasingly us.  The tech field seems to have most decidedly joined the establishment, rather than standing apart from it. This is not the tech I knew.

My own personal anecdotal evidence bears this out as well.  Tech workers, particularly younger ones, are becoming increasingly progressive and pro-establishment, and less libertarian and individualistic.  Is this a natural progression of the industry?  Is it a generational difference?  I think a bit of both.  Perhaps paradigm shifting technological breakthroughs will always be the realm of out-of-the-box thinking non-conformists, which begs the question of which new breakthrough will attract the next generation of individualist malcontents.

This editorial in the WaPo is uses rather appropriate language:

For more than two centuries, it has been a wannabe among the great world capitals. But now, Washington is finally ready for its close-up.

No longer a jumped-up Canberra or, worse, Sacramento, it seems about to emerge as Pyongyang on the Potomac, the undisputed center of national power and influence. As a new president takes over the White House, the United States’ capacity for centralization has arguably never been greater. But it’s neither Barack Obama’s charm nor his intentions that are driving the centrifugal process that’s concentrating authority in the capital city. It’s the unprecedented collapse of rival centers of power.

This is most obvious in economic affairs, an area in which the nation’s great regions have previously enjoyed significant autonomy. But already the dukes of Wall Street and Detroit have submitted their papers to Washington for vassalage. Soon many other industries, from high-tech to agriculture and energy, will become subject to a Kremlin full of special czars. Even the most haughty boyar may have to genuflect to official orthodoxy on everything from social equity to sanctioned science.

It’s not good news for the country.  The fact that we had a backwater Capital is something that’s made this country great.  The day Washington DC becomes the center of life, commerce and culture in this Republic is the day we ought to think about hanging it up.

I’m going to guess the Google car hit its bag limit for this season.

The main road headed to the club is shut down, and traffic in the area is gridlocked.  This is why.  Officer Jones lives down my street and around the corner.  I drove past his patrol car parked out front on the way to work many mornings.  I did not know him, but he has a wife, and three young kids that often play along that corner.  My heart goes out to his wife and his family.  Law enforcement families know it’s a dangerous job, but I don’t think that can possibly prepare you for the call that tells you that your husband and father of your children won’t be coming home safe and sound.  Keep the Jones family, and the Middletown Township Police Department, in your thoughts and prayers.

David at Random Nuclear Strikes received a response – if you could call it that – from Dan Cooper recently.

Shooters at Cedar Creek Sporting Clays shot up a bunch of fruitcakes recently.  Before any anti-gunners assume that means that gays in NJ were forced to duck for cover, I should clarify.

Fruitcakes in particular were in the cross hairs Saturday as some 40 shotgun-toting marksmen gathered in Cumberland County for an unconventional target practice at the first-ever John DeBella Fruitcake Trap Shoot.

“Every year people make jokes about fruitcakes, how no one really eats them,” DeBella said. “Personally, I think that they don’t even make new ones each year — they just use the old ones.”

For years, the DJ at Classic Rock 102.9 FM (WMGK) said, he wanted to host an event that involves gunning down the dreaded confection.

They report that about 40 people showed up, including several from Pennsylvania.

Cedar Creek also built a catapult to launch the sweets from an elevated scissor lift. But the fast-flying fruitcakes proved particularly difficult to eliminate, so many were later set up on boards as stationary targets for shooters to blast away.

Somehow New Jersey ranges always end up hosting really great events. Even though we have far more gun owners on this side of the Delaware, we don’t really have much in the way of these kinds of fun events. (h/t Outdoor Pressroom)

As an IT manager, one thing that’s always driven me nuts is the fact that the password policy generally regarded by folks in the industry as “best practices” is actually pretty far from it.

Via Instapundit, this article about Sarbanes-Oxley compliant password policies being pushed by auditors is a breath of fresh air.  My preferred policy would be infrequent password changes, combined with regular password cracking to root weak passwords out of the network.  You do have to impose some degree of complexity in the password, otherwise people will pick ridiculously stupid passwords.  But some IT people go to ridiculous lengths, and frequent password changes only compound the problem.  The writing down or saving of passwords on the network is a far greater risk than the risk that someone will crack or guess your passwords.  All this “security theater” about complexity and duration of passwords might make auditors feel good, but it does you no good if everyone is tacking their passwords under their keyboards.  If I feel pretty good that a user has picked a good password he or she remembers, I don’t have a problem letting them keep it for a while.  If you’re an IT manager responsible for network security, you should be trying to crack your users passwords on a regular basis.

Much like BDS, there exists NRADS – NRA Derangement Syndrome.  Anti-gun advocates seem to believe that everything bad in the world is the fault of the NRA.  It’s nice to see a paper willing to publish a pro-NRA response in Montana.

This past week The Gazette published a letter by Carol Mick criticizing the National Rifle Association for not policing its members. One of the examples she mentioned was the “hunter” from New York who shot a feral llama and attached his/her nonresident elk tag to it. Unfortunately, ignorance is not a criminal offense, no matter how much we might hope it would be. Perhaps Mick has information unavailable to me indicating that this knothead was an NRA member.

Her other example was of a friend purportedly shot by two hunters while the friend was in an orange tent “at twilight or darker.” The NRA then “got the two hunters off.” More information on this incident would be informative. The only way I was aware someone could “get off” from a possible criminal charge would be if they were not charged because no crime was committed, or they were found not guilty at trial.

The NRA has done more in the interest of firearms and hunter safety than any other group or organization in the country. NRA training is considered the gold standard for firearms and hunter safety. I understand that they are unpopular among those who don’t like guns or hunting, but attacking them for something over which they have no control seems to be a little over the top.

Larry Elliott
Billings

See Alan Gura’s update here.  Looks like all the Chicago-area cases are being consolidated on appeal.  Let’s hope we win on this.

If you’re going to use a rifle for home defense, you’ll always have the problem of over-penetration, and in a suburban neighborhood, that can be a problem.  The last thing you want is for your shot to go through the bad guy, and leave the premises, or to ricochet off something, and head off in an unsafe direction.  This summer, we did a lot of close range steel shooting with frangible ammunition from International Cartridge Corporation. It occurred to me that if I wanted to use a carbine like an AR-15 for home defense, I would need appropriate ammo.  So I ordered up some of ICC’s .223:

I didn’t shoot any of the .223 Frangible, but if it’s a good as their .45 ACP, it should be pretty good. As you can see, the shape and color are much different than FMJ, but it’ll turn to dust if it hits any surface harder than itself.  You can always use a shotgun for home defense, but I like the AR platform, and its operation is more drilled into my head.

The Republicans have taken the first in a long series of steps that will need to be taken to distance themselves from the Bush legacy.  The stimulus package passed without a single Republican vote.  Eleven Democrats bucked Pelosi and Obama to vote against this, and they deserve our appreciation too.  Those Democrats were, Allen Boyd (FL-2), Bobby Bright (AL-2), Jim Cooper (TN-5), Brad Ellsworth (IN-9), Parker Griffith (AL-5), Paul Kanjorski (PA-11), Frank Kratovil (MD-1), Walt Minnick (ID-1), Collin Peterson (MN-7), Heath Shuler (NC-11), and Gene Taylor (MS-4).  I’m happy that I had the opportunity of helping Paul Kanjorski at a few guns shows near his district in my role as NRA-EVC.  Glad to see he’s with me on other issues too.

There’s several freshman Democrats in here, and it’s pretty bold to stand up to your party’s Speaker and its President.  But given that there are a few freshmen in here, I think it’s likely once Pelosi had the votes she needed for passage, she might have told freshman in conservative districts they could vote ‘no’ on this if they felt they had to.  One lone freshman I could believe was principle.  Three is probably a back room nod from Pelosi to vote no.

Tam seems to do what I do, but with a lot more calibers.  I have guns in several calibers, but I will put them in order of what I shoot the most, and thus what I stock the most of:

1. .22LR – Rarely do I have less than 1000 rounds on hand.  Usually several thousand.  I go through a brick every few weeks.
2. 9×19mm – It’s what I carry, so I go through a lot of it.  I try to buy it 500 or 1000 rounds at a time.
3. 5.56×45mm – I load all this myself now, so I keep a few hundred at a time for matches, then reload when I need to.
4. .380 ACP – Carry this one too.  But I usually won’t keep more than 250 rounds in stock, since I don’t shoot this as often.
5. .44 Spc/Magnum – Don’t keep more than a hundred or so rounds loaded at any one time.  I use this for shooting field pistol in IHMSA matches.
6. .45ACP – Just got a 1911 this summer, and have been collecting many rounds of brass to reload.
7. 7.62×39mm – I typically keep about 500 rounds on hand.
8. 5.45×39mm – I have a thousand or so of this, all corrosive.  Another 300 rounds of non-corrosive.
9. 9×18mm – For the Makarov and CZ.  I was shooting this a lot for a while, but don’t so much anymore.
10. .30-06 – For the Garand.  Club matches require buying the ammo from the club.  Don’t keep all that much loaded, as I don’t practice with the Garand as much as I should.
11. 12 Gauge – Sometimes I like to shoot trap night at the club.
12. 7.62×54R – I haven’t shot much of this lately, but when I get in the mood I can go through a lot.
13. 8mm Mauser – Have one box of this for if the mood ever strikes me, which isn’t often.
14. .17HMR – New caliber I have added to my stocks.  Have only shot about 50 rounds of 200 so far.
15. 7.62×38R – For the Nagant revolver.  Expensive ammo.  I have a partial box because I will typically blow through one cylinder at the range and call it a day when the mood strikes me.

I need .308 now that I have a FAL, but my backorder for some hasn’t been filled yet.  That is the only firearm I have for which I have no ammunition.  I have the most number of guns in .22LR, since that’s what I shoot the most.  I like any caliber that’s cheap, and I don’t have to reload.  What ammunition to you keep in inventory.  I suspect many of us are poster children for the old Brady “Arsenal License” nonsense from back in the days when they dreamed big.

Some of you might remember back in September that Olympic shotgun shooter and Gold Medalist Kim Rhode had her one-of-a-kind very expensive shotgun stolen from her car.  I think I was actually remiss in blogging about that here.  But I just got this from The Outdoor Wire:

The Riverside, California Sheriff’s Department has recovered four-time Olympic medalist Kim Rhode’s shotgun. Police officials say the gun was recovered during a routine parole check. According to Rhode, the gun is in “immaculate” shape, although the competition stickers she had collected during her shooting career had been removed. “I can’t believe it,” Rhode told The Outdoor Wire only minutes after the gun was returned. A complete report in tomorrow’s edition of The Outdoor Wire.

We’re very happy for Kim that she got her shotgun back.  That’s one of those things you almost don’t expect to ever see it again, and it breaks your heart.  Obviously that gun had to have meant a lot to her, and it’s good fortune that she is reunited with it.  Good work on the part of the Riverside Sheriff’s office.