Friday, July 27, 2018

You might be a Gun Nut. (Huge list) – Gun Free Zone

You might be a Gun Nut. (Huge list) – Gun Free Zone:
If your answer to the recent rec.guns newsgroup thread, “How many guns do you need?” is, “How many do you have room for in your house?” you just might be a gun nut.
I recently found a link to this 2010 mega-list of  "Gun Nut" characteristics.

It's fun, it's funny, and there's too much truth in it to be denied.

Actually, I remember reading this when it was published ... I was working then, and I spent an entire lunch hour at my desk reading it.   My co-workers asked me what I found so amusing, so I sent them all links to it.

Lunch our was over-extended; we all had to put in some unpaid overtime that evening.

Go, read.  Enjoy.   And thank the Gun Free Zone.



Gun Violence in Peaceful Canada? Impossible!

Hard to believe that Canadians, who have often been dismissive of America's "Culture of Gun Violence", are finally admitting that they have their own share of crazed mass murderers.
Toronto City Council Urges Ban on Handgun, Ammunition Sales After Shooting:
On July 22, 2018, Faisal Hussain opened fire in Toronto’s Greektown, killing two and wounding 13. CBS News reported that Toronto Mayor John Tory reacted to the shooting by saying, “Guns are too readily available to too many people.” The National Post quoted Tory saying, “Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all? ....”

Eventually our Northern Neighbors will acknowledge that all nations need to address the problem of rising gun violence.   And banning guns and ammunition will only disarm the honest public, and turn their citizens into sheep at the mercy of the wild dogs.

Hard to believe that a nice Irish lad like Faisal would go rogue, isn't it?

(NOTE: Bearing Arms reports that the firearm was obtained illegally.   No great surprise.)


UPDATE: 


I mentioned "a nice Irish lad" ... then I read the current news.  It seems that the Irish (bless the ancestral home of my "DILDINE" ancestors) are still causing mischief:

July 27, 2018Justice And you thought the Criminal Justice System in the USA was screwed up. 
Violent burglar dressed up as garda during raid on family.
It seems things aren’t much different in Ireland.
He has 130 previous convictions for burglary, theft, road traffic offences, criminal damage, possession of drugs, taking vehicles and public order matters.
If he was sentenced to 6-months for each of those 130 offenses, he wouldn’t be out causing more mayhem. But the Irish, like their European neighbors, are too civilized to actually put people in prison.


https://wheelgun.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/failures-of-the-criminal-justice-system-international-edition/


If you can't do the time, don't do the crime

Where does it say in the U.S. Constitution that if you get away with a crime for 20 years, you don't have to pay the price?
Trump voter says she is 'ashamed' to be an American after daughter-in-law is deported: report | TheHill
Missouri woman who voted for President Trump now says she is “ashamed” to be an American after her daughter-in-law, a Mexican immigrant who had been in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, was deported.
So ... if you get away with breaking the law for "long enough", that makes it  okay?  Is that the story?
 Shirley Stegall told the Associated Press that while she supported Trump’s campaign promises to deport more criminal immigrants, she did not think her son’s wife, Letty, fell into that category.
You were not aware that your daughter-in-law was an illegal immigrant, after 20 years? 
And you support "TRUMP:", as long as his laws don't affect you personally?
 “I’ve always been proud to be an American,” Stegall said. “But now I’m ashamed.” Letty Stegall came illegally to the U.S. in 1999 and was living with her husband, Shirley's son, and a 17-year-old daughter from an earlier marriage.
Shirley ...you thought that America was "Okay" as long as the laws didn't affect your family.
That's ... interesting, considering your daughter in law is a drunken driver. But that's another story.
 Letty Stegall was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in February, six years after a misdemeanor drunken driving charge, for which she spent a month in jail, alerted authorities to her undocumented status.
So your daughter-in-law is an out-of-control drunken driver, a threat to her neighbors, and you think that's not just cause to expel her?


But that's not the point:

The road to American Citizenship by marriage is clearly defined by law.


(It took me 30 seconds to find the applicable law)

If you marry a U.S, citizen, you won’t be eligible for U.S. citizenship right away. But you may become eligible for a U.S. green card, which can lead to U.S. citizenship.
However, there are certain requirements that must be met before you can apply for a green card and ultimately for U.S. citizenship after marriage to a U.S. citizen.

Apparently, nobody in the family assumed the responsibility to research the law.

Here is the point:

The mother-in-law is "Ashamed" to be an American, because nobody cared enough to research the law on Immigrants who marry American Citizens.

It's not what you don't know that leads to "problems"; it's what you don't know, but think you know.

So .. lady, you can be ashamed to be An American, but it's not because America done you wrong.

You should be ashamed to be An American because you just assumed something that isn't true!

Oh, and by the way?  Claiming that you support TRUMP will buy you a cup of coffee, if you have a buck to pay for the actual .... you know ... cup of coffee.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Teapot ... meet Tempest

If someone buys a soft drink in California and requests/receives a straw, and later sells the "Like New Straw Only Used Only One Time!" to a third party via the internet ... is that a Straw Purchase?

Borepatch: Criminalizing Soda Straws:
There is a proposed bill in the California House that would make it a crime to give a restaurant patron a straw unless the patron specifically requests one. Each instance would be punishable by 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Leaving aside the costs associated with incarceration and the availability of jail space for the offending wait staff, The larger issue is the ongoing criminalization of activities performed by non-criminals regular people everyone.
There are more "Second Amendment" allegories in here, but I've used my Bad Pun quota already.

Readers are invited to contribute.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Public Service Announcement: Heroin Epidemic. Pass it on

"If it saves just one life ..."

Read this:

The Heroin Epidemic, Narcan, and First Aid for Opioid Overdoses | Active Response Training:
Last Thursday at work I saved a heroin overdose patient’s life by giving her Narcan.
I don't think I know anyone who is using drugs which have fatal consequences, but you never know.

I'm not sure what you will do with this information, but it's better to know than not to know.

Doctor Doctor, Tell Me The News ...

Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership (DRGO) frequently publish articles describing the way that anti-gun activists (aka: "Gun Grabbers") warp news reporting to put the blame for gun violence not on criminals and mad men, but on ... well, "responsible gun owners".

Several professionals contribute to this site.

Here, Dr. M.S. Brown provides what may be regarded as satire describing the preferred talking points for anti-gun news articles.  Only the first paragraph is quoted; you are encouraged to "GRTWT" (Go Read The Whole Thing): but since this was published 2 years ago, I suppose I will have to do an internet search to find the implied "Part 2". 
Or you will.

Here's a teaser:

The 2016 Journalist’s Guide to Gun Violence Coverage–Part 1 – Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership:
Guns are a sad fact of life in American culture and are a major topic in modern journalism. As a Journalist, you have a duty to get involved and make a difference in this important societal debate. By following certain guidelines, the concerned Journalist can be assured of having the maximum impact on this shameful American problem. The concepts discussed here apply both to broadcast and print media. For the purposes of this Guide, our work is divided between routine stories about gun violence and the broader coverage of the political debate about gun control. They are both equally important. Let us first address the proper way to construct a news story involving common gun crimes.
I can't wait for Part II to be published! 

And by the way in case you didn't notice .. the Good Doctors use satire to emphasize their pro-Second Amendment political position.   
So if you go to the original article and start ranting ...  you may embarrass yourself.

Monday, July 23, 2018

What the hell is:Free Trade"? And why can't I buy a gun in another state?

Interstate commerce regulations started out to regulate shit. States were shipping "solid waste" to other states whose regulations were more "lenient". Congress got involved ... politically adding to the burden of  "wastes".

Eventually, it was permitted to ship "wastes" between states (for disposal) without much regulation.

Now that decision is being applied to the question whether states have differing regulations concerning the purchase of firearms.   Specifically, can a resident of one state purchase a firearm from another state of which he is not a citizen?

Didn't we resolve this with the Second Amendment?

I guess not.

Interstate handgun purchase ban divides federal court - Guns.com Interstate handgun purchase ban divides federal court:
A decision not to grant a retrial in a challenge to the federal law barring handgun sales to out-of-state residents sparked intense debate in one of the nation’s federal appeals courts last week. The judges on the U.S. 5th Circuit were divided on overturning a decision by a three-judge panel that supported the gun law earlier this year. They narrowly voted 8-7 against granting a rare en banc hearing by the full circuit. The thin majority agreed that the longtime ban on selling handguns over the counter to out-of-state residents is in the public interest. The minority vehemently disagreed with the concept, which predated today’s modern instant criminal background check process, holding it was against the Second Amendment and was confusing when compared to the ability to sell rifles and shotguns without such prohibitions.
The upshot of this is that the lawyers in Congress consider your Second amendment right to "keep and bear arms" to be of lesser importance than shit.

see below:

End of an Era

For the past eight years, I have been teaching a once-monthly class in "Introduction to USPSA" (United States Practical Shooting Association) at my local gun club.

This month, I resigned from the teaching staff at my club.  I'm in my 70's, my eyesight is failing, the rules of competition have grown exponentially, and I no longer consider myself either physically nor experientialy qualified to teach the course.

USPSA has grown from six divisions to ... I'm not sure how many; but I can't teach a discipline which I have not experienced.   And many of the new shooters are disinterested in the pistol course; they want to compete in "Pistol Caliber Carbines", just to mention one new division.

When I started teaching, the divisions were Limited, Limited 10, Open, Revolver, Production and Single Stack.   All of them were restricted to pistols only.

(I've shot at least one match in all six of these divisions.)

Since then, USPSA has included the divisions of Pistol Caliber Carbine and ... well, I'm pretty sure that by the time this article is published there will be at least 1 more division.   I'll still shoot that PCC match, although I need more practice before I'm comfortable with the ergonomics.  But I'm now resigning myself to the fact that new divisions will soon be added and I can no longer speak authoritatively.

If this sounds as if I'm complaining ... I'm not.

One of the more exciting aspects of this sport is how it has grown exponentially over the past decades.  I shot my first match in 1983, no "divisions", and they were thinking about adding a new division to separate folks who were shooting 1911 frames with 7-round magazines from 1911 frames with 11-round magazines! (Yes, 11 round single-stack magazines were rare and expensive, and unreliable; but when they ran "right" they were an advantage!)

Today, it's more expensive.

The equipment I used in my first match (gun, magazines, ammunition, web-belt, holster, magazine carriers .. all army surplus except for my self-reloaded ammunition) cost LESS than the ammunition, and magazines I used in the last match I shot.

Time flies, when you're having fun.