Primers = Bottleneck

I've been writing about the crisis in reloading component availability, recently, about as much as I've written about any other subject.

The reason for this is: I may not like the politics of President O, and I may easily find fault in the Socialistic Cultural trend of The Brits, but the single most immediate problem facing Competitive Shooters today is the increasing inability to expect reloading components to be readily available.

Prices have risen during the past 18 months, faster than any period in my 25-year (+) participation in Practical Shooting competition. And those of us who spend much of our "disposable income" and often some income which would ordinarily be expended on "essentials", are usually willing to pay a fair market price ... or even an exorbitant market price ... just to ensure our attendance at the next match.

Unfortunately, reloading components are not now readily available at any price.

I suspect that I am not atypical in having sufficient bullets, cases and powder to maintain a basic stock of loaded ammunition. Sure, I would have to cut back to two instead of three matches a month, but that's bearable.

The availability of most components (again: powder, bullets & brass) is fairly generous. Lots of alternative sources, and while the cost & availability of brass for 10mm and .38 super is perhaps not as varied as for 9mm, .45acp and even the forty short-and-wimpy, at least that reloading component is usable. That is to say, you can spend some time after shooting a stage and pick up many of the expended cartridge cases.

You can use a wide variety of bullet weights, designs and dimensions; there must be at least a dozen different powders by as many manufacturers who provide a gunpowder which is at least marginally usable ... if not optimal ... for whatever caliber you or I choose to reload.

But primers seem to be another situation entirely.

How hard can it be?

I can load .38 super with ANY small primer, although I would prefer the small rifle primer because it is said to be less likely to puncture and/or leak under high pressures.

And I can use either rifle or pistol Large Primers for .45acp and 10mm.

What's the problem?

NSH: Not Stocked Here.

Why are primers so hard to find for pistols & rifles, when we still see shotgun primers almost everywhere we look?

It may be because there are not as many people competing for the available stores. True, Military and Police purchasers need to build some stock of shotgun ammunition, but certainly less than, say, two percent. (Yes, I needed to bend over to grab this statistic out ofr thin air.)

Pistol ammunition is more commonly expended in military and LEO arms, as is rifle ammunition. They are more extensively reloaded by civilian users, too. Consequently, the proportional supply of primers for shotguns is less burdoned by demand.

The results we are all well aware is that primers which will fit in pistol or rifle cartridges are in much greater damand than shotgun reloading components, including primers.

Is this due to "hoarding"? Perhaps. Michael Bane links to a commentary which seems to summarize the reason why the demand far outpaces the supply in his recent article "Primer Shortages To Continue".

To summarize:

1. primers are needed to fill an increasing need for LEO, Military and public ammunition;
2. the increased demand of loaded ammunition is evinced also by private citizens who reacted to shortage of components, and the fewer primers are perceived as being available, the higher the demand.

This is exacerbated by the concerns that the Obama Administration will eventually impose draconian controls on the availability of ammunition, and reloading components, in a Liberal attempt to restrict the effective availability of firearms to private citizens.

Realistic? Maybe not, you say. So far, however, even if this is not part of the Obama agenda, it seems to be working out that way.

The Gun Grabbers policy has ever been:

• Nobody ever NEEDS a gun;
• Even if you do NEED a gun, you don't need more than one;
• And if you NEED a gun, for hunting or even [gasp!] for self defense, how much ammunition would you need? Surely one, perhaps two, cartridges should be sufficient to either get your deer or save your ass.

Well, they may not publically put it so baldly, but read between the lines and that is the best interpretation you can put on what they say.

Bullshit! See it; know it!

Last week (June 7) I wrote about the rumor that American Fire-Fighter Team Chiefs were being fired (let go, demoted, bypassed ... you choose the expression) because they had spanish-only speaking team members and they, the Supervisors, could not communicate with them in their native language.

Titled "What we have here ... is a failure, to communicate!" I made the points that:

• The issue was not current, but several years old;
• The original article was biased in being written by a reporter who failed to check the facts with multiple sources;
• And the primary source was a 'crew chief' who was demoted not because of inadequate language skills, but because of being unqualified for the position.
• Multiple other sources supported the statements of the Oregon Department of Forestry, in the person of spokesman Rod Nichols.
• No other sources were available which supported the charges in the original Portland Television Channel KATU article.

My sources were easily found on the Internet, and consisted primarily of the legitimate spokesmen for the Oregon Department of Forestry, Rod Nichols, and sources quoting Mr. Nichols.

Since that time, I found a comment from Mr. Nichols. (I invite you to go to the cited link and read his comments, where he very clearly describes the difficulty in defending ones self or ones employer against unsubstantiated rumor.)

The thing is, as I mentioned before, the MainStream Medis -- despite it's protestations that it is a more legitimate news-source because its published articles are subject to "multiple layers of checks and balances".

In this case, we see that this supposed oversight protection of Truth and Reality does not necessarily exist. Even the most junior reporter in a local news-gathering environment is often not subject to even the most cursory review and confirmation process befoe being broadcast.

And we, in our trust and naivete, are inclined to accept their published stories as fact without the most elementary attempt to determine the veracity of their assertions.

________________________


The steps I took to confirm or disavow the 'facts' presented in the original story ... and in the resulting Fox news broadcast video ... are not beyond anyone who is sufficiently Internet-savvy to access and read the story. I simply plugged in the basic story key-words to GOOGLE, and pushed the SEND button. I was presented with a plethora of hits and it was up to me to find those which were no more than second-echelon sources. (First echelon is the Story; second echelon is the "Story about the Story", or either rebuttals or conformations of the information contained in the original story.)

It's not more difficult than referring to WWW.DICTIONARY.COM to determine if the word you use is the correct word for the meaning you intended. It should be the basic minimum of background checking for anyone who desires to forward what seems to be controversial statement.
_______________________

The purpose of this article is to encourage everyone who reads it to check the facts before you forward that tittilating YouTube video to your friends and family.

The folks who write to me have often sent me Urban Legend warnings about computer Urban Legends ("Forward this email to all of your friends, and Microsoft will pay you money for each person who receives it") which cause you to proliferate lies to your friends and family; and "nuisance viruses" ("The Oregon Forestry Department is firing Fire Crew Chiefs Because They Don't Speak Spanish").

Because the basic premise is not true, the only effect is the proliferation of junk mail and often some people become upset because they honestly believe that the cited situation ... either positive or negative, is true.

In fact, a minimum amount of research will completely dispell your belief in the concept. But instead of investing that time and effort to research the Legend, the proposition is proliferated to many other people.

Often the perceptions of the general public causes damage to well-intentioned publics works, such as the Oregon Department of Forestry.

If nothing else, it not only upsets the recipients of these Viral emails, but it encourages them to write to the appropriate agency to speak out against a situation which does not, in fact, exist.

My advise to you is that if you receive an email which claims to represent a great Public Wrong, research it yourself before you forward it to your unsuspecting friends and family.

One of my primary sources to determine the veracity of a rumor is Snopes.

In this case, no results were found in SNOPES.COM, so it is obvious that SNOPES is not the only reliable source to confirm or dispute a rumor.

However a simple search on "oregon forestry spanish" to GOOGLE returns sufficient hits (302,000) to satisfy the moste determined searcher.
_________________________

So, before you sent that email to your friends, I encourage you to do your own preliminary research. This may not be sufficient for you to definitively determine that an assertion is or is not true; however, it may help you determine whether a question is absolutely true, or that it is sufficientl controversial for you to forward the question to other folks.

After all, their research skills may not be any better than yours, but they may be more determined to get to the bottom of the question. And if they provide evidence that the assertion which you have proclaimed is not reasonable, won't you feel silly to have forwarded it to everybody you know?

And well you should!

YouTube - Jon Voight speaks about "This False Prophet Obama"

YouTube - Jon Voight speaks about "This False Prophet Obama"
--
I apoligise in advance for hosting a baldly political event.

Here is Jon Voight's speach to the Republican Senate/House Fundraising Dinner, as hosted on YouTube.

Before you view the 10-minute video, here are just a few of the Voight quotes that you will hear:

• "I'll tell you what scares the hell out of me, because everything that Obama has recommended has turned out to be disastrous."
• "We were the Liberators of the entire world, and we are becoming a Weak Nation."
• '... we, and we alone are the right frame of mind to free the world from this 'Obama Oppression'.

(I report, you decide.)

More information about this speech is available from Newsbusters dot com.

(Voight was later interviewed by Bill O'Reilly. That interview is available here.)

Weekend at Bernie's

SWMBO (Sandie) has 4 sisters, and one of them is named Nancy. Nancy's husband is named Bernie. They have a cabin in the woods ... actually, more sagebrush than trees ... just out of Sister's Oregon.

Nancy has been one of SWMBO's most constant supporters since SWMBO came down with lung cancer. She has taken SWMBO on overnight trips to see a nationally recognized Oncologist in Seattle; she has taken her to, or driven her home from local doctor appointments and chemotherapy treatments. Nancy has also called SWMBO at least once a day to check on her, gone shopping for her, and one time last year Nancy and Bernie completely replanted SWMBO's annuals garden with new plants while SWMBO was at a 4-hour Chemo session.

And this weekend, Nancy and Bernie offered the weekend use of their cabin in Sisters for SWMBO and me to 'retreat' for a quiet 2-day holiday in the mountains.

Of course we took them on their generous offer, and we had a wonderful 48-hour "down-time" vacation. Very romantic, except that while we were shopping in Bend on Saturday she found a Dan Brown novel and I found Lee Child's latest Jack Reacher novel "Gone Tomorrow", so perhaps you can understand that we spent much of the rest of the weekend reading. That doesn't make it any less a Romantic Getaway; we both love to read, and reading on the front porch of a cabin in the wilderness is one of the best ways to be together. (No, not the very BEST way, but part of "being alone together" that helps a serious long-term relationship grow.)

SWMBO went there with a plan.

About 5 years ago we went to the cabin as part of our participation in the 2003 USPSA Nationals match. We both served as Range Officers for this and the subsequent Nationals at the same COSSA range venue. During those matches, we invited several of our friends ... many of whom were also serving as Staff Match, and some who had chosen to only participate as competitors.

One year we served Geek-Hot Spaghetti, and the other year we had a barbeque.

This time, SWMBO decided that the ageing BBQ grill (Propane, one grill) had about completed its expected tour of duty and it was time to retire it in favor of a new, much more versitile and useful BBQ grill.

Accordingly, we set out this Saturday morning to the Home Depot, located 11 miles away in Bend.

There we found a very nice (and not terribly expensive) 4-burner propane BBQ grill with an extra warming-oven compartment. The best part about it was that it fits neatly in the back of my Ford Exploder.

We got it home, called Nancy's daughter Tanya begging for help unloading the grill onto the front porch of the cabin. Tanya, SO Jeff, and Jeff's father Dave showed up a couple of hours later (after Jeff and Dave finished a day's fishing ... they offered us some trout to initiate the BBQ but we declined) and with very little help from us the pulled the 42" high grill out of the back of the Exploder and toted it up the six steps to the front porch. There's no way that SWMBO and I could have carried that massive grill up the stairs by ourselves without dropping and denting it several times by ourselves.

When we left the cabin the next day, we had wheeled the BBQ, under it's grey plastic cover into the house to a temporary resting place against the breakfast counter by the kitchen island. SWMBO left a note explaining that this was a gift meant to express our mutual gratitude for Nancy and Bernie's continuing support during the past year.

We can't wait for them to come up to the cabin from Albany next weekend, and discover the surprise gift.

---

Here's the part which relates to the Shooting Sports:

While we were in Bend, we stopped off at the Sportsman's Warehouse in Bend. SWMBO wanted to get replacement sunglasses (hers had deteriorated ... the finish on the bows were painted on, and had chipped off), and I was looking for primers, and additions to my Emergency and Medical kits to carry in the Exploder.

We went to the counterman in the Hunting and Fishing counter and asked him if he had any primers for sale. (We had made a cursory visit to the appropriate aisles and found the cupboards nearly bare.)

The counterman spent ten minutes explaining that "Primers are the hardest to find reloading component in the world just now".

He went on to illustrate that even loaded ammunition was hard to find and dear at any price. He recounted high-end .22 ammunition selling at $20 per box of 50. They got some 9mm 'defensive' ammunition in a couple of weeks before ... only two cases ... and they were sold out by noon. The shipment had arrived in the morning, there was no advertising except word-of-mouth, and they were priced much higher than the .22 ammunition. Still, they lasted less than three hours. Once customer was reported as having bought two boxes of the .22 ammunition "to shoot at woods rats". Certainly the lowest quality ammunition would have served his purpose, but he couldn't find them at all, let alone at a lower price.

And when ammunition, or components ARE available, the retailers are 'rationing' them. They won't sell more than two boxes of loaded ammunition (for example) to a single customer.

Again: they don't advertise. They don't have to. They can't meet the public demand for ammunition or components, anyway.

Primers?

They didn't have them, for rifle or for pistol. Large, small or magnum; it made no difference. They didn't have any in stock, they had them on order, and they had no idea when the manufactureres could reasonably expect to fill outstanding orders.

He said he had "a reasonable stock of bullets". I found nothing but high-end small boxes of bullets. I did fine one 500-round box of .45-70 bullets from Laser-Cast on the shelves, but nothing for ordinary pistol calibers. (I was unwilling to check the price of these hard-cast bullets. I was afraid it would be too discouraging.)

Bottom line:

BBQ grills are available, in stock NOW, and selling for not much more than a case of .38 Super bullets from Montana Gold.

But you can't get .38 Super bullets. Or loaded pistol ammunition. Or the kind of rifle ammunition which is used in competition. Or their components, except (again) high-grade at premium prices.

I suspect that this is a trend. It has to do with the huge demand for military ammunition (which is the primary customer of ALL ammunition manufacturers). Our counterman friend explained that companys which once made "millions of rounds" of ammunition during a given period are now being asked the make "billions of rounds" in the same period ... and they are unable to meet the needs of the military, let alone set aside product for the general public.

"What we have here is a failure ... to communicate"

This weekend I received an email from a friend with the following video attached (not this youtube link, but the same video):


While this appears to be 'timely', the actual news story was reported by KATU ...

- By Melica Johnson and KATU.com Web Staff

SALEM, Ore. - Some English-speaking firefighters are losing their jobs because of an Oregon state law that requires them to be bilingual.

The Department of Forestry enacted a law three years ago that requires them to be bilingual, but this year they're actually enforcing it.

2002 was such a devastating wildfire season, contractors were scrambling to find firefighters.

Hispanics often filled their needs on the fire lines.

Jim Walker of the Department of Forestry said "what we do know is 85 percent of the crew make-up is of Hispanic decent."

But many of the Hispanic fire fighters do not speak English. Walker says the language barrier is a concern.

Those concerns led the state to draft a new rule that all firefighting bosses speak English, and the languages of crew members who don't speak English.

Jaime Pickering, a squad boss overseeing 20 firefighters, says the rule means "job losses for Americans. The white people."

Because of the state's language requirement, Pickering can no longer work as a crew boss and supervise 20 firefighters, he can only manage a squad of four.

Pickering says that "if you have one Spanish guy on the crew, as an English crew boss, you can no longer be a crew boss, you have to step back to a squad boss, which is a demotion."

While the state made the rule change in 2003, it decided to strictly monitor the law this year as Hispanics continue to fill fire lines.

As I say, this was reported by KATU ... on June 22, 2006!

Yes, the story is over three years old.

Not only that, but the interpretation of the original story has been questioned by the Oregon Department of Forestry, in an un-dated article saying "This is not the case, here are the facts ..." (see the link).

A further blog article (June 26, 2006) on the "La Shawn Barber's Corner" Blog cites a Department of Forestry employee who also states categorically that:

"Rod Nichols, an information officer for the Oregon Department of Forestry, responded to the e-mail I sent Jim Walker. He said the story I linked to is inaccurate." The article goes on to hit several bullet-points disproving the accuracy of the original reportage.

But why is this ageing canard still circulating through the Urban Legend Mill?

Perhaps it's because of this article from this forum subject in FireFighterNation.com under the topic heading "Oregon firefighters out of job becuase [sic] they speak english[sic]"
The topic was started January 15, 2008 and the last entry was date-stamped January 25, 2008. The original entry even embedded the video which (two years after the original article) was loaded to YouTube.

It is not my intention to criticize FireFighterNation.com -- open forums are subject to a lot of misinformation, and in fact it may have been the general unwillingness of forum members to accept the validity of the charge which led it to an early death. (The forum topic, not the website; it's still going strong.)

Granted my websearch was not the result of a deep and intensive effort, I only looked at a few pages (less than 100 hits) under "Oregon firefighter supervisors' and "oregon firefighters speak english". Still, I found only the single 2008 forum entry which was more recent than the original 2006 KATU article.

Given that the references I found were overwhelmingly inclined to repudiate the charge, my guess is that it was a misinterpretation of a quote from a single person, which may not have been cross-checked for accuracy prior to press time. It's unfortunate that Fox News picked it up and ran an on-line report with no further accuracy checking.

Full Disclosure: I'm no better than KATU or FOX-TV. My fact-checking took me about ten minutes. On the other hand, I turned up enough information to doubt the article, and I'm only "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writting" without "multiple layers of checks and balances". Fox and KATU are those "Professional Journalists" ... like Dan Rather. Granted, KATU did make one contact with a Forestry Department Official, but that resulted in the charges by a single quoted source with (arguably) his own axe to grind. Pardon the pun.

So why are you reading all of this after-the-fact commentary on a blown story?

Because after all these years, that misleading video is still making the circuits of email mass-postings, and every time I receive an email about an "outrageous situation" it's impossible for me to resist throwing the spotlight on it.

Here's hoping that my friends and family will take this to heart and do their own fact-checking before they forward bogus Urban Legends (or in this case "Forestry Legends").

Here's the Box Score:

• A local news station to run a bogus story without confirming the facts: a reporter's career.
• A network affiliate picking up the story and running it on Network TV without confirming the facts: undermines a MSM Network's reputation.
• A lone blogger putting a stick in their professional eyes 3 years after the fact: priceless!
  

Heller? Fugetaboudit!

The Seventh U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal by the National Rifle Association and in doing so has confirmed the legality of a Chicago, Illinois, ordnance banning handguns and "automatic weapons" within the Chicago city limits.

This is a curious ... and surprising ... decision for at least three reasons:

1. Because of the Heller decision, the Federal Government (in the persona of the Supreme Court) has determined that the Second Amendment refers to a "personal right" to possess a firearm.
2. The 14th Amendment is explicit in stating that "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ...", which means that if a federal law (or, in this case, interpretation of the Costitution) exists, no state may abrogate that primcipal. In detail, this extends to municipalities, such as the City Of Chicago.
3. The 7th Circuit Court (west coast) recently ruled in favor of the individual right to possess firearms, which is particularly striking in that this is the most liberal court in the nation by dint of its record.
   
   

Not to put it too delicately, if the Feds say you (as a Private Citizen) can do a thing, you can do it in any state in the union. This may be considered by some folks a "Dangerous Thing", as it is the reaso n (for example) that Roe V Wade prevails over States Rights to declare abortion unlegal.

What's good for the Goose is good for the Gander, so the states can't prohibit abortion beyond the liits set by the Federal Government; by the same token, the states cann't prohibit private possession of firearms by the private citizen And yes, this does mean that the individual state or munincipality cannot restrict firearms ownership any more than it can restrict "Pro-Choice" issues.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Barbers Gone Wilde

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

Oscar Wilde

Look up in the right-hand corner of this website, and you will see SWMBO and The Geek in all our hirsute loveliness.

Well, SWMBO has lost all of her hair, started growing it back, and to our great mutual surprise her hair looks a LOT different from previous years.

For one thing, her hair is growing back grey, not red, and there's a curious white patch in her forelock. I've been tempted to refer to her as "Stripe", an homage to the lead gremlin in GREMLINS (the movie). Frankly, I haven't had the nerve to so address her in person.

That's the Geek Survival Instinct kicking in, I think.

Whatever the motivation, I have recently been reconsidering my bearded/mustachioed persona, and thinking about getting rid of some of it. Well, it's Summer and my Spidey Sense suggests that it's gonna be a scorcher. "Medium Cut, taper the back, trim the beard and 'stache", I told him to do the usual on the head-hair and as for the beard and mustache?

"Take them off. Doesn't have to be perfect, I'll shave the stubble when I get home."

So he did. Laboring industriously, he attempted to carry on a conversation about the ball-game on television while I, in turned, attempted to impress upon him how personally traumatic the shearing was to me, referring to the years and the decades since I had the beard and/or mustache, respectively, removed. The last time I had both shaved off was over 30 years ago, and it frightened my children.

When he finished, he generously observed "You look five years younger!"

(I was hoping for something more positive than that.)

Then he turned the chair around to allow me to look on my newly shorn visage.

I said: "Now I remember why I grew the beard and mustache. Please put them back."

He laughed, and sent me on my way.

That's the last time I'm giving $20 for a $15 shave-and-a-haircut from Tanaka.

So if you see an old, fat, bald guy at a Practical Pistol match in Oregon, and he looks familiar but unplaceable, it's probably me.

Senior bowlers strike down Hillsboro purse thief – OregonLive.com

Senior bowlers strike down Hillsboro purse thief – OregonLive.com

Hillsboro is a nice town.

I lived there for a couple of years, and the only two things I have to say against it are (1) the unfortunate proclivity of developers to build "community villages", with "covenents" that can allow the property managers to fine you if you don't cut your grass once a week, and (2) the city park is ... or was, then ... the hunting ground for drug dealers (mostly undocumented immigrants") who were prepared to defent their turf with violence. The good news: The "Community Police Station", located across the road from the park, never had to bust skate-boarders.

But it retains one iconic community gathering location: bowling alleys.

Remember "Pleasantville"?

In the middle of the movie, when 'color' begins to permeat the town, J.T. Walsh gathers his cronies in a defensive position and says: "Thank God we're in a Bowling Alley!"

That's the kind of town Hillsboro represents.

On with the story.

According to the May 29 story, this kid tried to swipe a couple of purses from folks who seemed to be too intent on the serious business of bowling, when someone noticed what he was doing.
Then ... but I can't say it any better than the OregonLive reporter:

HILLSBORO - It turned out to be Pound-A-Punk day Wednesday at the Hillsboro Park Lanes Family Entertainment Center, a bowling alley in Hillsboro.

A 16-year-old would-be thief reportedly tried to swipe two purses from tables inside the bowling alley at 6360 S.E. Alexander St.

Then, at least from the teen's perspective, things went terribly awry.

The purses weren't the easy pickings he apparently thought they'd be. They belonged to two ladies from V.I.P. Summer Trio, a senior league, said Lanes owner Dean Johnson.

The women, along with other bowlers from the senior league, blocked the 16-year-old's escape through an exit on the building's west side. When he ran toward the glass doors at the building's front, league members were in hot and loud pursuit.

"One lady started screaming," said Nathan Krawitz, 44, who saw the whole thing.

Johnson said others in the league also sprang into action.

"A bunch of the senior ladies and senior men started hollering at him and chased him," Johnson said. "That's when Steve, my son, kind of held him down."

Oh, it gets even better after that. I have no wish to steal the thunder of the original author, so I implore you to go there and read the last few paragraphs.

It seem like a small story to you, but to me it's one more persuasive argument for "Bowling Ball Control"!

If it saves just one child ...

7 killed in 6 Chicago shootings

7 killed in 6 Chicago shootings -- chicagotribune.com

Guns cause Violence, right?

We hear that all the time fromthe fine folks at such illustrious Moral Paladin organizations as The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.


The CSV main page says:
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence seeks to secure freedom from gun violence through research, strategic engagement and effective policy advocacy.

The Brady Campaign, no less iconoclastic, says:
We are devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.

These Mission Statements strongly suggest that they have determined the cause of "gun violence", and are working to remove these causal factors from American Society.

Reading the details, their only goal is to reduce or eliminate the availability of firearms ("guns") to private citizens ... law-abiding or otherwise.

The proof of their theory, that guns are the direct cause of "gun violence", is that the communities and states which most restrict access to firearms are and should be those which most stringently restrict the private ownership of firearms.

Case in point: Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago is the municipality which, when confronted with the indisputable decision in HELLER V DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, refused to conform to the guidelines of "the second amendment defines an individual right". It is still, after all these months, almost impossible to receive 'permission' from the City of Chicago (and the State of Illinois, although who knows what will happen in the Illinois State Assembly now that Rod Blagojevich is out of office.).

Since the vast majority of its residents cannot legally possess a firearm, Chicago should logically be a bastion of peace, serenity, good citizenship and conviviality. Right?

BZZZZZZT!

Sorry, Charley, that's not the way it works.

Last weekend, seven Chicago residents (every one of which was unarmed) were shot down in the street - during a period which, judging from the Chicago Tribune Article, seems to extend for less than 12 hours.

A 30-year-old Chicagoan who was striving to be the "man of the house" in which he and his extended family lived was killed and two of his cousins were wounded Saturday evening in a shooting near their South Side home.

The shootings occurred on the 10500 block of South Indiana Avenue in the Roseland neighborhood about 11 p.m., down the block from the home of the fatal gunshot victim, Demond Stansbury.

Stansbury was among seven people slain in several shootings Saturday night and Sunday in Chicago. No one was charged in any of the slayings.

Calvin Stansbury said he, his brother Steven and Demond were talking with several other people in a vacant lot when the gunman approached them. Words were exchanged, then shots were fired.

"I got shot, my brother got shot in the knee and my cousin, one of my best friends, he's dead," said Calvin Stansbury, who was treated for a wound to the arm and released.

Steven Stansbury, 30, was treated at a hospital and released.

• Shooting incidents in one day: 6
• Shooting victims: 7
• Shooters arrested: 0

Oh, wait. One 'gunman' was arrested:

Chicago police said a 46-year-old man calmly shopped for food at the Aldi supermarket, 6621 S. Cottage Grove Ave., at 10 a.m. Sunday and was leaving when he walked up to the security guard and stuck a handgun in his face, police said. After a brief struggle, the security guard shot the man twice in his leg, police said.

(That doesn't count in the "Number of incidents/victims/arrested" stats, by the way.)

Somehow, this information doesn't seem to support the social theories of either CSV or HCI.

If I have somehow mis-interpreted or subverted the message of these incidents, I do hope you will help me out. For example, it may be that the shooting of a shopper by a security guard DOES caount in the number of incidents.

To tell the truth, in all the excitement, I kinda lost count.

So you got to ask yourself, "Do I feel lucky?"

Well, do you?

Punk?

Kindred Geeks

I get such interesting email, sometimes I can't stop myself from sharing.

A new sidebar link (in "Hot Links Of The Week") is "The Firearms of Kid Kaos".

Kid Kaos ("Joshua") wrote me yesterday suggesting that we may be "Kindred Geeks", in the sense that we seem to share similar interests. His main topic was the Mech Tech Carbine Conversion Unit, because he bought one of the "new" versions (with the telescoping wire stock) in .45acp and has spent some time dressing it up.

I won't steal all of his thunder, but I will note that the entry page of his website includes several topics in a bar across the bottom of the page, and under "Firearms" he discusses not only Mech Tech but also the M1 Garand.

I bought a Garand about 20 years ago, shot two clips through it, and stashed it in the closet with 20 or 30 clips of .30-06 ammunition for my "Apocalypse SHTF" long-arm.

Maybe I ought to take it out and shoot up some of that really, really old ammo, but I'm not sure I can find components to reload it.

That's a topic for another post, which I have already written two or three times.

Go check out Joshua's website. If you're a Gunny (and I suspect most readers of this Blog are, in one degree or another), you may find something of interest to you there.

'See through' swimsuits

In the words of Ella Fitzgerald: "At Last My Love Has Come Along"!

I think this is a concept whose time has come.

Kinike Swimsuits has introduced a line of swimwear made of a 'chicken-wire mesh' weave which allows sunlight to penetrate the material with little attenuation of melanoma-producing intensity. The design, unfortunately for us 'dirty old men', includes camoflauge-effecting patterns of whorls, spots and blotches which disallow the human eye from perceiving the details of the wearers' hidden charms.

I remember a cartoon from a decades-back Playboy Magazine. Two geezers lounging on a park bench, apparently in a Nudist Colony. A voluptously naked woman walks past them, one geezer turns to the other and says: "I bet she's a knockout in a swim suit".

Perhaps you had to see the actual cartoon to get the joke.

Still, you can go to the Kiniki website as I did to form your own impression.

While you're there, you can dig out the "X-Ray Vision" glasses you bought from that comic book 30 years ago and see if they work any better now than they did then.

No Gun Zones

"Why on EARTH would anyone want to carry a gun in a ___________?"

Fill in the bland with your favorite "No Gun Zone" location, sooner or later someone is going to pack a gun in there not because they're legally authorized to Carry a Concealed Weapon, but because they have a grudge against the world and Dr. George Tiller, who was shot by a revolver-toting 51 year-old militia-man and radical anti-abortionist.

I'm sure it wasn't a huge surprise to The Good Doctor. He's been shot by anti-abortionists before, in the 1990's. AND had his clinic bombed, said clinic was often the the focus of many picket lines by less-radical, more law-abiding anti-abortionists. Whether you're Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, you probably agree that shooting a man for his profession is not usually considered to be the act of a rational person.

But Dr. Tiller was shot and killed while collecting donations this past Sunday at his church, in from of his choir-member wife.

And that's just wrong.

On the other hand, Bagdad-By-The-Bay sets the standards for late-term abortionists.

And today (Monday, June 1, 2009) a gunman stormed into an Army Recruiting Office in Little Rock, Arkansas, and opened fire on a recruiter and a couple of slick-sleeves fresh out of Basic Training. They (the recruits) were there to show that "This is what I was then, This is what I am now".

One soldier was killed. 23-year old recruit William Long couldn't crawl past the sidewalk after having been shot by 23-year old Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (nee "Carlos Bledsoe") .

Bledsoe/Muhammed "probably had political and religious motives for the attack," the police chief said.
________________________

What other places are designated "Gun Free Zones", but have recently (within the past few years) been subject to mass-murders by deranged assasins who KNEW that honest citizens were not permitted, by law, to carry concealed firearms on the premises?

Let's see.

How about Shopping malls, school grounds (including University Campuses), and restaurants.

In response we should consider Westwoods Mall in Omaha, Columbine and Virginia Tech, and Luby's Restaurant. Right?

Xavier Thoughts (my "go-to guy" for fascinating topical sources) has a link to a Louisiana State Senator ("Gordon Hutcninson's Latest Blog") who provides an excellent review of "Gun Free Zones" as "Target Rich Enviroments for Wackos". (See here for direct link.)

I encourage you to read the whole thing. It ties together all of the cultural biases against the arming of honest citizens vis-a-vis the anti-gun bias in America.

America doesn't come out looking so smart.


You think?
_______________________

UPDATE: Wednesday, June 3, 2009

In a surprising development, website "Opposing Views" asks:
"Why is killing an abortionist like George Tiller so wrong?"

It's no wonder why they call themselves Opposing Views. If I understand the Jacob Sullum opinion piece correctly, the thesis is that Tiller is a murderer of innocents, and society has condoned his actions, so doesn't that make him fair game ("a legitimate target"?) for anyone who would stop his murder of innocents?

I haven't replied in the comments section of this article, although several people have. But if I did, the following phrases would probably be used:

• Rule of Law
• Civilization vs Barbarianism

It doesn't matter what your opinion on abortion ... even "late-term" abortion ... may be. Once we allow ourselves to condone vigilante justice, we are no longer a civilized society. In the traditional logic of the "If This Goes On ..." school of Science Fiction writing, the extension from logic to absurdity would result in videos on YouTube showing masked AMERICAN terrorist chopping heads off.

I do not choose to be a member of a sick society.

Windows 7 - a pre-release caveat

According to Blogger Bill Pytlovany's recent "Windows 7 may come at a steep price" post, Microsoft's latest exercise in obsoleting your previous purchases by releasing a new operating system may have more than the usual potholes in the road to modernity.


ITEM: Number of versions
Yes, there will be a lot of versions, and the differences between one version and another may only be inclusion or exclusion of features which don't necessarily seem to be 'major components'. For example, ability to remote to another computer.

ITEM: Incompatibility with Major Software Packages
Yes, this OS will (or may ... not clear yet) not be compatible with Windows Office 2003. Did you buy that? Too bad, you'll have to pay for Windows Office 2007.

That's bad, but we've all cursed Microsoft for these little marketing ploys before.

What's new?

Price!
Word is, Windows 7 will cost between$150 and $350, depending on the version.

I bought a new bespoke computer last summer, all the Mods Cons, and paid $710 for it (including 2GB RAM).

If I want to keep up with the Joneses, it'll cost me half the purchase price of my custom-built computer. And that's more than I'm willing to pay, since I'll have to re-purchase Windows Office besides.

What's the good news?
Word is, I won't have to buy a lot of new hardware to accommodate W7. Maybe.

And you CAN get a duo-OS setup -- called "Windows XP Compatibility Mode". But you have to buy the top-of-the-line version (W7 Professional [Business]).

You can also get it in the "W7 Enterprise and Ultimate" version, but that's not for public consumption. it's for businesses and it sells as a corporate installation with a set dollar cost per 'seat'. Ball-park, it's for networks and corporations and the cost will be $x,000 + $z0 to $z00 per seat

For more information, go to Bill's article (presented courtesy of PITSTOP) and click on the ARTICLE CONTINUED HERE link to see details, including links to descriptions of most versions.
___________________________________________

Oh, yeah. Somebody's bound to ask if I'm going to migrate to M7.

Answer: I bought the laptop computer I'm currently posting on with VISTA installed. I spent two days trying to work with it, them bought a Windows XP Home disk and paid a competent PC technician $50 to install it.

I considered it a bargain. And I still do. This, from the guy who migrated from Windows 2000 to Windows XP and never looked back.

Enough said?

Killer Solar Storm Predicted for 2013

Weather Scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration early this month predicted that in May of 2113 the most severe Solar Storm since 1858 will blast the earth with solar radiation.

The problem isn't sunburns or melanoma, it's the drastic effect on communication and electronics.

Solar storms are eruptions of energy and matter that escape from the sun and may head toward Earth, where even a weak storm can damage satellites and power grids, disrupting communications, the electric power supply and GPS. A single strong blast of “solar wind” can threaten national security, transportation, financial services and other essential functions.

[...]

"As with hurricanes, whether a cycle is active or weak refers to the number of storms, but everyone needs to remember it only takes one powerful storm to cause huge problems," said NOAA scientist Doug Biesecker, who chairs the panel. "The strongest solar storm on record occurred in 1859 during another below-average cycle."

The 1859 storm shorted out telegraph wires, causing fires in North America and Europe, sent readings of Earth’s magnetic field soaring, and produced northern lights so bright that people read newspapers by their light.

A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a storm that severe occurred today, it could cause $1-2 trillion in damages the first year and require four to 10 years for recovery, compared to $80-125 billion that resulted from Hurricane Katrina.

One to Two Trillion Dollars, eh?

The question you have to ask yourself is "In what way will this be more disastrous than Obama's Economic Stimulus Package?"

Good question.

According to a May 28, 2009 Fox News report, the U.S. is not prepared for such a storm.

Scientists at the 2009 Space Weather Enterprise Forum spoke of ...

... the legendary "Carrington Event," a series of magnetic storms from the sun that hit the Earth in August and September of 1859, disrupting telegraph lines across the U.S. and triggering auroras so bright they turned the night skies into day as far south as the Caribbean. The storm went on for days.

In 1859, that was inconvenient for the few people who regularly expected to send or receive telegrams, but other than that it was probably was only -- "interesting".

Even in 1959, almost every home in the United States had electricity, and there were few electronic system to demonstrate their vulnerability to "power surges".

There are lessons to be learned from these past events, the researchers emphasized, and the danger posed by solar storms is increasing.

This growing threat comes not from changes in the Sun, but from the increasing dependence of human societies on technology and electricity.

A storm on the scale of the Carrington Event could damage the U.S. electrical grid to such an extent that vast regions of the country could be without power for weeks, perhaps months.

Without electricity, drinkable water would soon be in short supply, as would fuel, food, communications and just about everything else society depends on to function.

An extreme solar storm hitting our modern, high-tech world would severely disrupt oil and gas supplies, emergency and government services, the banking and finance industry, and transportation. The cost of the damage could reach into the trillions of dollars, he said.short supply, as would fuel, food, communications and just about everything else society depends on to function.

"The consequences would be almost incalculable," said Daniel Baker, director of the University of Colorado's laboratory for atmospheric and space physics

New electrical systems are designed to be efficient, which is different from being robust and hardened against the effects of a solar storm.

"There is an efficiency-vulnerability tradeoff," said George Mason University social scientist Todd LaPorte, who studies critical infrastructures. "Sometimes efficiency isn't your friend."

Sounds almost like the effects of the ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP) generated by a nuclear device detonating in the atmosphere. Remember that television movie (The Day After) in the early 1980's, where Jason Robard showed us what it was like to be caught on the very fringes of a nuclear attack? Everybody's car died, and most of the people in them.

I don't think we have to worry about a "Nuclear Winter", or people's hair falling out from radiation poisoning, but folks who telecommute to work may have a new definition of the "Network" concept.

Oklahoma Pharmacist vs Antwun Parker

On May 19, 2009, Antwun Parker (16) and another teenage friend entered a drug store in Oklahoma with the intent to rob it. In the ensuing events, pharmacist Jerome Ersland drew a pistol from his pocket and shot Parker in the head. The other robber fled, followed by Ersland, who returned to the store after he was unable to catch the second robber.

Sometime during that few minutes, Ersland shot Parker another five times in the abdomen, killing him.

An autopsy revealed that Parker was still alive, despite being shot in the head, when Ersland shot him in the abdomen. Those shots were the cause of death.

After reviewing the videotape of the robbery from surveillance videos mounted inside and outside the store, and visiting the crime scene, the Oklahoma County District Attorney arrested Ersland on charges of First Degree Murder. He contends that Ersland was justified in shooting Parker the first time, but that the subsequent shots were essentually gratuitous, and tantamont to murder.

When I read the story on the NEWSOK website, I thought this was a fascinating story, one which explores how far the right to self-defense is limited by circumstances.

After all, First Degree Murder includes the element of premeditation. When did the robbery 'end'? Was the defendant still defending himself, and his co-workers, when he returned to his shop to find the shot robber still on the floor, but alive? Did Ersland "plan" to kill Parker? Ersland contends that Parker was "trying to get up". Does that justify shooting him again?

Apparently, between the time he returned to the store and the time he shot Parker five times in the abdomen, he retrieved a second gun from a locked drawer, after walking past the recumbant Parker, and it was this second gun with which he delivered the fatal five shots.

Before I began writing this article, I visited some of my favorite blog authors only to find that Xavier Thoughts presented the situation so well that I cannot presume to upstage him. (Xavier lives in Louisiana ... he gets to his keyboard hours earlier than I do.)

I recommend that you read his article "Robbery Victim Charged With Murder", and watch the videos ... which I had not even been able to search out before I read his rendition.
_________________________________

After you read the whole thing, you'll understand why one of the man-on-the-street interviewees on the second video, when asked "if you were on the jury, how would you find for this case" (or words to that effect), replied "I'd Abstain!"

It's a curious case, reminiscent of the Texas home-owner (Mr. Horn who last year shotgunned to death two men as they exited their neighbors house laden with booty gleaned from a daring day-time burglary.

"Mr. Horn, do not go outside the house. You're going to get yourself shot if you go outside that house with a gun," the dispatcher told Horn at one point."You wanna make a bet," Horn responded. "I'm gonna kill them. They're gonna get away."

Mr. Horn was acquitted by a Texas Jury, who obviously believed that robbers ... even unarmed burglars ... deserve anything that happens as a consequence of their deliberate Felonious action.

Will an Oklahoma jury feel the same way about a commercial robbery in which one of the robbers (though perhaps not the one who was killed) was armed and pointing a gun at the victim?

And why did the armed victim shoot the robber who was NOT pointing a gun at him?

As the Chesire Cat confirmed to Alice:

"We're All Mad, Here."

Jeff's USPSA 2009 Nationals Blog

Jeff B., a local USPSA competitor, has just started a new blog today and I've included him in my sidebar. Look for the link under "Hot Link(s) Of The Week" for now, I'll move him to a permanent spot later.

Jeff started the blog to chronicle his adventures (and perhaps mis-adventures) at the USPSA Nationals this September, and he has started it early enough to include all the preparations that a "a lowly B-class shooter" makes prior to going to the biggest USPSA match of the year.

I suggest you stop by his blog, perhaps bookmark it for frequent visits. (I did.)

Today, you'll learn how "a lowly B-class shooter" got Hornaday to sponsor him for the Nationals!

ps: if nothing else, you appreciate the Neon banner he has at the top of his blogpage. I'm experience Pix Envy!

Microstamping in Wisconsin: Another Cheezy State Weighs In

The Cheeze-Whiz Wheel has roped in another state.

Wisconsin has introduce bills requiring that (Semi-automatic Handguns) sold within the state of will "microstamp" identifying information on every cartridge case.

This isn't a one-house shay ... Assembly Bill 211 (introduced April 17, 2009) and Senate Bill 174 (introduced April 23, 2009) appear to be identical, in the summaries presented (see links).

Most of the provisions of these bills seem familiar:

This bill prohibits a gun manufacturer or a firearms dealer from transferring a semiautomatic handgun that does not produce an identifying code (microstamp) on each cartridge case it expends if both of the following apply: 1) the handgun was manufactured on or after January 1, 2011; and 2) the handgun has not previously been transferred to a person that is not a manufacturer or dealer (new handgun).
This bill also prohibits a manufacturer in this state from manufacturing, on or after January 1, 2011, a semiautomatic handgun that does not produce a microstamp. A person that violates one of these prohibitions is subject to a fine of up to $1,000 or imprisonment for up to nine months, or both.

An interesting sidelight:

This bill prohibits a person from modifying a semiautomatic handgun that produces microstamps if the person intends to prevent law enforcement from being able to access the microstamp on an expended cartridge. A person who violates this prohibition is guilty of a misdemeanor and is subject to a fine of up to $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both. A person who transfers a semiautomatic handgun that he or she knows has been modified in violation of this prohibition is subject to a fine of up to $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than nine months, or both.

So, if you sell a non-microstamped handgun you can get 9 months in the pokey, but if you deliberately deface the stamping portion of a handgun you only get 3 months in the pokey. Who are they going after, the retailers or the criminals?

Obviously, this is an attack on the Firearms Industry. There are no serious provisions to "reduce crime".

Of course, there are the usual impositions on dealers, including:

The bill also requires manufacturers and dealers who transfer a handgun that is required to produce microstamps to certify that the handgun, if it is a new handgun, produces microstamps and that the manufacturer of the handgun will disclose to a law enforcement agency that has collected a microstamp from an expended cartridge during a criminal investigation the make, model, and serial number of the handgun that expended the cartridge.

SOoooooo ... if you're a dealer, you not only have to personally verify that each semi-auto pistol is manufactured so as to microstamp ammunition, you have to provide an "expended cartridge" ... and (as far as the bill summary suggests) KEEP the expended cartidge in the event that some LEO representative or other governmental agency decides they want to examine it.

This bill receives the enthusiastic support of the Crime Laboratory of the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

The complete text of AB221 is available in PDF form here ... and there's not much more information than in the earlier links.

Similarly, the Senate Bill SB174 is available in PDF form here (you have to go to the bottom of the StateSurge webpage and click on the SB174 link under "Bill Text").

The Senate Bill, on pages 4 and 5 of the PDF, includes a bit more detail than does the Assembly Bill. For example:

Any person who modifies a semiautomatic handgun, or portion of a semiautomatic handgun, that produces microstamps with the intention of preventing law enforcement from being able to access the microstamp that identifies that semiautomatic handgun is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.

I don't know if "a Class B misdemeanor" is more perilous than "...a misdemeanor and is subject to a fine of up to $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both." But it does seem to standardize the penalty clause.

Most interesting, a review of both bills fails to detect any funding for this program. That is to say, the Great State of Wisconsin has managed to put the entire financial burden of complying with these bills squarely on the shoulders of Private Enterprise. The state does NOT fund any kind of program to enforce these draconian laws; they apparently don't expect to have any problems including the enforcement and prosecution to increase the expenses of either Law Enforcement or the Judiciary.

What, they expect everyone to comply voluntarily?

If you're a resident of Wisconsin, here are the folks you have to thank for these bills:

AB221:

April 17, 2009 − Introduced by Representatives YOUNG, BERCEAU, TURNER, RICHARDS, GRIGSBY, A. WILLIAMS, COLON, KESSLER, SINICKI and PASCH, cosponsored by Senators COGGS and TAYLOR. Referred to Committee on Criminal Justice.

SB174:

April 23, 2009 − Introduced by Senators COGGS and TAYLOR, cosponsored by Representatives YOUNG, A. WILLIAMS, TURNER, BERCEAU, GRIGSBY, COLON, RICHARDS, KESSLER, SINICKI and PASCH. Referred to Committee on Judiciary, Corrections, Insurance, Campaign Finance Reform, and Housing.

Go get 'em.

My 2-year old can kick your honor student's butt at 8-Ball!

Two year old is a Pool Wizard, called "The Little Sniper".

Awsome pool-sharkery.

The kid only needs longer legs to get into The Color of Money.

We've seen the same phenomenon (almost) in Practical Pistol competition. Get a child interested in competitive shooting young enough, and if he has any talent and determination at all he ends up a World Class competitor.

Witness ... Travis Tomasie.

Dundee Match: May, 2009

It was a sunny day, it was a fun day.

No wind, no rain, no dark of night.

There are no better precursor to a Good Day At The Range.

The company was convivial, and I thoroughly enjoyed my match even though I didn't shoot well at all.
We had some very challenging stages, which taught us (as they should) to strive for accuracy rather than for speed.

One example was Stage 2:"The Door Into Summer" ... which is reminiscent of a Robert Heinlein story.


Another example was Stage 6: "Croc Run", which supposedly intruded us to the kindof stage we could expect to see at the 2009 Croc Match.

All in all, Coach Paul and Evil Bill (who designed and built the Evil Oregon Star) gave us an exciting and challenging introduction to the 2009 Croc Match ... only without such a high Round Count.

I love this game. I'm not very good at it, but I can't imagaine a better way to show my appreciation for a sunny day,.

Psssst! Wanna buy some hot primers, cheap?

I had barely stepped out of the Damed Old Ford at the Dundee match last weekend before Coach Paul stepped up, shook my hand, and started asking me about ... the availability of reloading components.

He is concerned about the 2009 Croc Match, currently scheduled for September.

He said he usually gets 20 or 30 emails asking about the match by this time, but this year he has received exactly one query. (Four guys in Virginia want to travel cross-country to take in the annual Banzaii Ballistic "You Got Bullets?" match.)

Trouble is, it's now hard to find bullets. Also powder. Especially, there are zero primers available to reloaders in most markets.

The Shooting Wire's Jim Shepherd, in his May 20 (2009) wrote:

At NRA, everyone talked about two things: [one was] the ongoing "bubble" in firearms sales, and the continuing backlog for product and ammunition. Yesterday, word that some ammo was coming back into the marketplace. A couple of retailers are advertising .223 and .22 caliber ammo availability. Pricing ranges from around twenty bucks for a "brick" of .22 caliber "plinking" ammo to around $400 for 800 rounds of .223.

Powder, primers, bullets and cases, however are a different matter for handloaders. Manufacturers and reloading equipment companies tell me there's still quite a delay on components.

[emphasis added]
Michael Bane had an even grimmer perspective on his blog last week:

The short story?

The end is not on sight.

"If everybody in America stopped shooting tomorrow afternoon, it would take us 3 months to clear the backlog, best case."

That quote is from a friend in the ammo industry who knows his stuff. Consensus I heard was the huge shortages continue until AT LEAST through the year and maybe through Q1 2010. And - again the consensus view - when "normal" returns, it's going to be the "new normal," not the normal we remember. We've proven what we're willing to pay for ammo and components, so don't expect a return to $89/1000 5.56.

Civilian demand, military and police contracts, and issues/prices of components was sited as the culprits.

Re: primers...off-the-record advice was buy what you can find at a sane price...reloading components may well be the last to recover as the industry sucks up all the available components for loaded ammo. Some of the back orders for primers at the big Internet sellers are being filled at roughly 4-5 months lag time.

And a co-worker approached me last week asking where he could buy .22 ammunition.

I told him that I had no idea where he could find any ammunition at all. I told him about my exercise in futility early this month when I stopped in the local Bi-Mart asking for Large Pistol and/or Small Rifle primers, by any manufacturer. The cheerful blue-vested clerk laughed, and said "what you see on the shelf is it! I have three boxes of primers, and they're all for shotguns." (I would be willing to bet that those three boxes are gone, by now.)

My co-worker asked me why the good folks who make ammunition components couldn't build more. My best response was to quote other bloggers who note that the manufacturers seem to have already gone into maximum productivity profile (one assumes 3 shifts a day, 7 days a week), and between the expense of building a new factory and the governmental hurdles required to get the necessary permits, there is a minimum of a full calendar year before manufacturing capacity is likely to increase.

Isn't it odd?

The Obama Administration is bailing out Bankers, the Mortgage Industry and Automobile makers, and it doesn't seem to help a bit.

On the other hand, here is a thriving industry which can't meet the demand on their (already proven) product, but nobody in The Obama Administration seems willing to step in and offer the "stimulus" incentives to allow this industry to grow.

It's especially curious since The Obama Administration -- and the fears that firearms and ammunition access will be curtailed by The Obama Administration.

I mean, they made this supply-and-demand crisis. They say they want to 'grow' the Economy, but they seem to have a blind spot against paving the path for economic growth for this one small portion of the economy.

It's as if they would prefer that new jobs NOT be created here.

One wonders why?
__________________________

Getting back to the Dundee Match, during the Shooter Walk Thru, Coach Paul asked for a show of hands for "anyone who thinks they will have enough ammunition to shoot the Croc Match in September."

Surprisingly, at least half of the 48 competitors raised their hands.

I'm sure that was encouraging to Coach Paul and Evil Bill, the current Administrative Staff for The Croc Match. They're now rethinking their choice of (a) holding a match which is poorly attended because nobody has enough ammunition, or (b) taking a vacation this year, and promoting next year's Croc Match in the expectation that the current Reloading Components Crisis will be over by then.

Personally, I hope that the match will be held this September, and there is a record turn-out.

If you have definate plans to attend the September Croc match, please contact Coach Paul and reassure him of your participation by sending in your entry.

ARPC SIngle Stack Championship, May 9, 2009

I was unable to attend this years annual Single Stack Championship at the Albany Rifle and Pistol club, but fortunately the inimitable Trevor ("TrevorMaster") did and he filmed this video of the entire match.

I think it's the entire match. I haven't counted the number of stages on the 3:25 minute video.

And he didn't actually film it himself; it only includes his own performance on each stage.

Still, it's nice to have a chance to see what it looked like. From this point of view it looked very challenging to me ... even though Trevor made it look easy.

Kids, don't try this at home. When compared to the performance shown here, your results may be disappointing.

PBS: How will "Non-Sectarian" Programming Change It?

PBS board to vote on sectarian programs (Seattle Times)

According to the Washington Post, Public Broadcasting Service's board are scheduled next month to define the one of their basic precepts: not to broadcast "religious programming".

News Reports refer specifically to Television programming; at this time it is not clear whether any decision or clarification of terms will similarly apply to radio programming.

The discussion, some station managers fear, could lead to a ban on broadcasts of local church services and other faith-oriented programs that have appeared on public stations for decades despite the prohibition.

The Public Broadcasting Service's board is to vote next month on a committee's recommendation to strip the affiliation of any station that carries "sectarian" content. Losing its PBS relationship would mean a station could no longer broadcast programs that the service distributes, from "Sesame Street" to "Frontline."

Not being much of a television watcher, I can only remember from my childrens' youth how much they (and I) enjoyed "Sesame Street". Disenfranchising a station would have a powerful impact on local programming, one which no station would easily ignore.

In my locality, I've been listening this afternoon to my local PBS radio station. They just finished a two-hour programming complex (several similarly related programs) which might be called "Songs of The South". The last program was "Alabama Music", which prominently featured Hank Williams.

A preceding segment might be termed "Black Music of The South", which featured Jazz, Blues, Soul ... and Gospel.

It would be difficult to imagine an attempt to portray this segment of American culture without including Gospel music. If this attempt to Bowlderise programming content were to be enforced, the programming would (inaccurately) suggest that religious music was not an important part of American culture.

That is, by definition any reference to religion, no matter how innocuous or how important and/or necessary to the content, would be identified as "objectionable" by implication.

This isn't 'just' a corporate decision; this is a decision which affects how the First Amendment may be applied to Public Broadcasting. Even though it would currently affect PBS, under the current administration it would establish a dangerous precedent.

The worst part of it is, it's a decision which is not made by The People (the "Public" which the system is intended to serve), it's not even a decision which will be made by Congress ... our elected representatives.

Should it be?

If, for example, Clear Channel radio made the decision to discontinue any "sectarian content", that would be a legitimate Corporate decision. One wonders, though, whether the PBS Directors can legitimately make this decision.

There are doubtless those PBS patrons (listeners or viewers) who truly do find "sectarian" or "religious" programming objectionable.

The First Amendment, though was defined specifically to protect "objectionable speech".

And there are may be even more PBS patrons who will be disappointed that Public Television and/or Public Radio will no longer be permitted to present content which may be considered "religious". Or "Sectarian".

It depends on whether the word "sectarian" means "applying to a specific religious sect to the exclusion of others", or "applying to any non-secular content".

The dictionary definition doesn't define sectarian as religion in general; it refers to a "sect" as:

a body of persons adhering to a particular religious faith; a religious denomination.

And "Sectarian":

1. of or pertaining to sectaries or sects.
2. narrowly confined or devoted to a particular sect.
3. narrowly confined or limited in interest, purpose, scope, etc.

[emphasis added]

I don't personally go out of my way to listen or view religious programming. If something come up which I choose not to listen to, or to view, I simply change the channel or do something else. I don't demand that it be removed from the airways because it offends me.

But not everyone is like me.

In the New Liberal / Politically Correct culture which we have watched develop during the past generation, there seem to be a narrowly defined group of people whose attitude is that anything which offends them must be forbidden. And we are deferring to their selfish demands.

In other words, we are catering to a Sect.

Now, that offends me.

May Blogger Hiatus Expected to End Soon

Between familial situations, THREE Major Projects at work, and recurring bouts of dyspepsia and sleep-pattern irregularities (not to mention my eight month fight with Hand Eczema), I have been way behind my personal expectations in three major areas for the past several weeks:

• Blogging
• Work
• Family
• Shooting

My epidemiologist finally found something that helps the Hand Eczema, but it is not yet a cure. At least I can now type without wearing vinyl gloves. This also suggests that I may be able to reload ammunition, work on my semi-nonfunctioning competition pistol, and perhaps even compete in USPSA matches without shredding the skin on my fingers (and triggering another Eczema outbreak).

My family situations are settling down. My son and his family have moved to his new duty station in San Diego, which is (not coincidently where my daughter and her family live.) They are now mutually supportive, and don't expect to be displaced by change in duty station for the next few years. There's a pleasing symmetry to this situation, except that they all now live so far away that it's virtually impossible to see them more frequently than once a year. But when I get to see them, I'll visit them all --- all four adults and SEVEN grandchildren!

Also, we just celebrated my Mother's 91st Birthday, the day before Mother's day. She's doing very well now; her health has settled into a comfortable rut. My sister has been increasingly concerned because Mom has developed problems with her balance (and memory, Osteo-arthritis, etc.) We got her one of those "Help Me I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up" systems and I installed it last weekend. Together, Mom and I tested it and we received a very warm welcome from the Medical Alert operator. My sister is completing the forms with family contact information and medical history. When she submits it to the Medical Alert people, they will have friends and neighbors who they can call to contact in case the alarm rings, before they call the EMT and local police. We all feel a lot more comfortable now. Especially since Mom fell down the back-porch stairs two weeks ago and got a black eye and four stitches in her eyebrow.

(I also installed grab-bars in Mom's shower, and my sister got mom a walker to get around at home and when she goes out shopping. Plus, my sister is taking Mom places so she isn't driving hardly at all any more.)

Work is going to continue to take more time than I have, and less time than I will be able to give. Last month I missed more hours of work than I could cover with accumulated sick leave and vacation leave. Most of this was because of insomnia, but some due to dyspepsia. Without getting into the Too Much Information, these are both stress-related.

I had intended to go to the ARPC Full-Auto Shoot this weekend, but I missed Friday and parts of Saturday and Sunday due to dyspepsia, so I had to choose between spending my time with SWMBO and going to the gun range. Easy choice, SWMBO and I went out to breakfast this morning (after I slept 11 hours last night) and did some essential shopping (books, groceries) before I headed home early in the afternoon.

With any luck at all, I'll be able to put in a full week's work during the next 7 days and still get ammunition loaded at night, so I can attend the match at Dundee next weekend.

I'll still be shooting iron sights, but my bifocals have made it easier to see the sights and even, sometimes, get proper sight alignment.

It's a joy to be able to shoot Limited again. Still, I'm hooked on shooting Open division. If I can bet .38 super ammunition reloaded I'll replace the mainspring on the Open gun and start using it again. That is, I will if I can find primers!

Saving the best for last, SWMBO has been continuing to slowly build her strength. Her Oncologist increased the volume of infusion a week ago, and it severely affected her balance, strength and mental accuity. She has an appointment tomorrow and plans to insist that the negative affect on her quality of life is not worth any marginal benefit, since it appears that the tumor is not shrinking no matter what they do. Her choice, and I won't argue with her. It's a joy to see that twinkle in her eye and hear the joy in her laughter. I've missed that.

Bottom line, I feel more free than I have for months, and I've saved up so much blogmeat that I don't know what to write about first. Guess we'll all just have to wait and see what comes out of the Geek Meat Locker next.

(Now, if I can just get my PC and SWMBO's fixed, we can go back to Business As Usual.)

Ammunition shooting off retailers’ shelves

Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV - Ammunition shooting off retailers’ shelves
I went to Bi-Mrt last week to pick up a prescription. While I was there, I stopped by the Sporting Goods Department to pick up some primers.

The clerk was very attentive; he didn't have much to do.

"I'd like a brick of Large Pistol Primers" I said.

"Sorry Partner, I don't have any in stock" he said.

Before I suggestged that I could also use some small Rifle Primers, he continued:

"The fact is" he said, "All I have is three boxes of shotgun primers. Oh, I have more primers on order, but my supplier says he doesn't know when he wil have any primers available at all."

As I search for reloading components around the Greater Corvallis Metropolitan Area, I realize that this situation is endemic all over the country. Nobody has reloading componenets in stock, let alone "Loaded Ammunition" ... even in the most popular calibers.

I hear that Obama's espoused Anti-Gun Mind Set is driving this run on ammunition, guns and ammo components. Folks aren't convinced; they think he is going to enact laws designed to make at least guns, and probably components, less available than they are now.

Add to this the long-term effect of the War on Terrorism (lots of shooting in Iraq and Afghanistan), and it's easy to understand that ANYTHING related to guns is in short supply.

Sure, the manufacturers are working to increase their production rates. That's not enough to suply the high demand for firearms, ammunition and ammunition components.

In the meantime, if I were to schedule myself to shoot all of the three-matches-a-month which are available in the Columbia Cascade Section, I am limited by my personal stock on hand: about 700 primers for the 10mm, and another 800 for the (currently non-functional) .38 Super. that means my 1500 rounds will allow me to shoot another seven, maybe eight matches before I can no longer compete in USPSA matches.

Will this situation resolve itself in the next three or four months?

I don't think so. I has been a couple of months already since the American Public began to react to Obama's policies ... even though they haven't even been enacted (and we don't know what they will look like until then.)

I regret that I haven't been more inclined to post new articles to this blog for the past week or two, but who can blame me?? If this doesn't improve soon, I won't be the only person who cannot afford to shoot in competition, maybe even in practice.

The sorry fact , with Obama leading the American Nation, we don't know what to expect. The bes we can do is to expect he worse, which leads us to assume that our best practice is to conserve ammunition and their components.

At least that way, we won't find ourselves in the unenviable situation if having guns, but no ammunition to make them work.

A gun without ammunition is like a car without gasoline. Come to think of it, we're not all that far from that situation, either.

Remember, you heard it here, first.