CC On Campus: Laws Are Bullshit!

Push for concealed guns on campuses is gaining steam @insidehighered:

In all, seven states have laws that allow concealed guns on campus, though the details vary on who can carry where. Twenty states still ban carrying a concealed weapon on a college campus, and 23 states leave the decision up to individual colleges.

This is all touchy-feelie, but in the actual event ... you still can't carry guns on campus in Oregon .. even though State Law allows it.

WARNING:  I know I've posted this information before; more than once.  I'll post it again, just in case someobody hasn't yet heard how Univiersities (at least in Oregon, and probably in other states), unilaterally and arbitrarily abridge the law.

I worked at Oregon State University (one of those "20 states") and the laws have no effect, because college and universities are a law unto themselves.

They will NOT allow anyone to carry on campus, regardless of the status of the CHL holder.

Lee Paige Rides Again! (Senior Moment?)

MILLER: If people kill people, why do we still need more guns? - Odessa American: Editorial:
(March 26, 2015 - Odessa, TX)

Last week, it was reported that a police officer with the Ector County Independent School District accidently discharged his service weapon while trying to clean it.

 Normally, a gun going off is not news. The bullet supposedly ricocheted off a wall and into a ceiling. No one was reportedly injured and the officer was alright.

 This, however, is news because it happened while he was on duty at Crockett Junior High. The district’s explanation was the gun got wet in the rain, and while the officer was cleaning it, it discharged.

The similarity to the Lee Paige incident is ... troubling.


Because so many people seem to think that "only the police and the military should have guns, because they are trained and skilled and not scarey and, like, you know, not scarey!"

The fact is, police and military are human.  Which is to say .. fallible.

And as Fallible Human Beings, they screw up from time to time.

There's only one way to ingrain safe gunhandling practices until the good habits become second nature, and that's experience.

Well, training is important as well, but safe gunhandling is one of those skills which deteriorate if not practiced; often, under supervision, and strictly enforced by that supervision.   Obviously, none of these elements were present here.

Close Air Support and the "Flying Bathtub"

A-10 Warthog Is Out, F-15 and F-16 Are In, Says the Air Force:
(March 22, 2015)

The U.S. Air Force wants to kill the A-10 Warthog. Really, really wants to kill it. But some of the Air Force's ideas for replacing the A-10 are starting to strain credibility.

This is an 'economic' opinion, not a 'tactical' opinion.

The A-10 may be a fabulous CAS platform, but right now, it doesn't have a corporate backer with a truly vital interest in its survival. Northrop Grumman serves as prime contractor to maintain the plane, and Boeing has a contract to upgrade wings on some of the older A-10s, both of which bring in a few tens of millions of dollars annually for the respective companies. But without an actual A-10 Warthog replacement program in place, no one's making billions of dollars off of the Warthog.

Some suplementary commentary  here.

SAFETY IS EVERYBODY'S RESPONSIBILITY! (Our Worst Nightmare)

There are some uncomfortable questions that need to  answered here!

Borepatch: Complacency: All you can say is they all got lucky. If you ever work as an R.O. on a range for any event, here's the anti-complacency video of the year.

Range Officer Nightmare; and who is to blame?

Watch, think.  Then discuss:




This surprising event .. a man caught downrange taping targets after the next shooter is already halfway through shooting the stage ...

The questions that need to be answered include:

Semi-Auto Madness: GRIP SAFETY!

Sometimes, it makes me want to just chew my leg off to get out of the trap,

I find myself teaching an advanced "safety" class in a competitive sport, and I expect people who sign up to be experienced, compent and SAFE pistol shooters.

Instead, I too often discover that I am teaching basic pistol skills.

Now, when you read the title you probably thought that the phrase "GRIP SAFETY" had to do with the John Moses Browning (PBUH) design where the external thumb safety must be set 'off', and also that the grip on the support hand must be sufficiently firm to depress the "grip safety'.

No.

What I'm talking about is that it is possible with both revolvers and pistols to GRIP your handgun in such a manner that you may cause physical injury (and a LOT of pain!) when you fire it.

"Laser Sights"

I'm not really sure what the correct nomenclature should be here, but apparently Crimson Trace is the current epitome of (projected) Laser Sights for pistols.


Did you miss that?  The key-word is "PROJECTED".

We'll get back to that in a minute.

Disclaimer:  I'm not bad-mouthing Crimson Trace, 'cause I dont know squat about them.  I just figured that this was a brand name which would be familiar to most readers.  As far as I know, it don't get no better than Crimson Trace!


But if you don't work with the laser sighting technology .. if you don't practice with it, you're not taking full advantage of the technology.  So if you choose to go with that sighting system with your defensive pistol, you absolutely need to change your technique from using sight-alignment to point-shooting and then allow the dot-on-target to ensure target engagement.

Concealed Carry Readiness State Question

Consider that you're carrying a single-action pistol.  A fully loaded magazine is already inserted.  You're licensed, It's legal.  What's your readiness status?

(1) Chanmer empty, hammer down.
(2) Chamber loaded, at half-cock.
(3) Chamber loaded, thumb safety on.

What are the pros and cons?

I already know it takes at least a second or more (on the average) to rack the slide in Condition (1).

But what's the difference in time and .. well, I guess I mean "Confusion vs Safety" between [(1) and (2)], and [(2) and (3)]?

"It's Painful To Watch A Giant Tree Being Killed"

That's a comment recorded on an earlier post "Wildlife Photos", in response to a 1940-1950 era photo of two "lumberjacks" halfway through the onerous job of cutting down a tree with a diameter of over twenty feet.

The thing about my readership is that they are generally fine people with a truly droll sense of humor.   (I don't get a lot of readers who are tree huggers and PETA members, for obvious reasons.)

Anyway, it's not always easy to tell if a sensitive person might have stumbled on my website and made a SINCERE comment.

But I really liked that photo of two small men hewing mightily at a mighty forest leviathan.  Because my father was one of those brotherhood of manly men, and so were most of his brothers.   So I'm going to assume that someone who sincerely mourned the felling of a "Giant Tree" might have seen the photo, and might really have felt that that commercial act was a travesty of nature.

Or yadda-yadda something-or-other.

Anyway ....

Just like a bad neighbor, Microstamping is still there

"Microstamping" is a technique which will invariably, under all circumstances, positively stamp information about the gun which fired a specific cartridge (supposedly recovered at a Crime Scene) and thus lead the police to solve the crime.

The only problem is .. it doesn't work.

Other than that, it's perfect!

Here's the reason why Oregon NEEDS an ASSISTED SUICIDE law ..

Police say Oregon woman self-immolated, crashed car and jumped off bridge | Fox News:

 Police in Oregon say an apparently suicidal woman was being treated for critical injuries (she apparently lived through it) after she intentionally set herself on fire, crashed her car into a guardrail, and jumped 40 feet off a bridge Thursday. According to The Eugene Register-Guard, the 39-year-old woman had recently been reported missing by her family. The paper reported that a 911 caller first spotted the woman's car at around 12:30 p.m. local time. The caller told emergency responders that the interior of the woman's car appeared to be on fire, and she was driving recklessly. After the car crashed into a bridge guardrail, witnesses told police the woman jumped out — on fire — and began taking her clothes off as she ran to the edge of the span. Truck drivers tried to put out the flames with fire extinguishers and another person tried to grab the woman, but she was still able to jump, police said.

-emphasis added-

... we're obviously too stupid to manage the job by ourselves!

Wildlife Photos

My friend, "Big John", is an avid shooter.  He competed in international rifle competition (I know there's a proper name for it, but it's a lot like HighPower) a couple of years ago.  He also surfs the net for wildlife photos. HERE is a link to an amazing series of photos from the Rivermen Rod & Gun Club.

Some of these just scream out for captions, so I'll include a small representative sample:

"You can take your "Task Completion Time" estimate and ...."

HillaryLove

Ready for Hillary dumps 'email poster' in 3 for 1 deal | WashingtonExaminer.com: Hillary Clinton's campaign in waiting, Ready for Hillary, is dumping its poster of the now infamous image of Hillary Rodham Clinton in sunglasses reading her Blackberry. An email sent today offered the poster, titled #Ready and that sells for $20.16, in a three for one deal for the very same price.

Where have I seen that picture before?

I'm sure .. oh, wait.  I KNOW!

Training, Practice, Experience. And now ... shame?

Tam had a good look at a loaded muzzle at a gun show, as recounted below:

View From The Porch: The Safety Dance: He mulled that over for a second as I turned away to see what was going on down Mike's way when, out of the corner of my eye, I see the cop unholster his sidearm. I got a real good look at the muzzle in my peripheral vision, and also took extremely good note of the fact that, even if his lack of muzzle discipline was appalling, at least his trigger finger was in register against the frame. Thank heavens.

One only assumes that this Uniformed Officer of the Law (you know, one of the "Only Ones") had been trained in gun safety practices and procedures.  Also that he was experienced.   So we can only conjecture about why he didn't actually PRACTICE safe gun handling.

My guess is a combination of things:

• The only time he draws his firearms is on the range, and
• he doesn't spend a lot of time on the range, and
• that time is not under the direct supervision of a Range Officer, and
• he just never got called on his shoddy skills, so
• safe gun handling was never made to be (in the words of our revered Vice President of the United States of America)  "... A Big F*CKING DEAL!"

I recognize this.   I train new shooters for USPSA competition, and I see a LOT of people who are supposedly experienced, competent gun owners.

They do some really stupid shit.  Like, keeping their finger on the trigger when moving, loading, unloading, or clearing a malfunction.  or waving their pistol around when they're distracted by non-shooting activity.  (One of the more common errors: reaching down to pick up a dropped magazine at the end of the stage without holstering their pistol ... possibly sweeping themselves.)   Or they forget that one of the primary rules is to always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

You okay?

There are four ways you can insure that people who are new to shooting guns have a 'bad experience', resulting in YOU voicing the hopeful question:

You okay?

If you hear yourself saying that, you have probably done something stupid.  And someone else will pay the price.  Either that 'other person' will never again think that shooting a gun is "a good idea", or they will think that continuing their association with you is "a good idea".

The first is problematic; the second is unquestionable.  You are a Gun Dork, and your friends will never be "OKAY".

Here are the four ways to absolutely turn your friendships .. and your prospective shooting partners .. off:

Teaching Pistol Safety: Knuckle-Duster Alert

Have you ever seen someone shoot a semi-automatic pistol with his/her thumb wrapped around his/her wrist?

I have .. and I have ALWAYS stopped it!   That's a good way to hurt yourself ... badly!

Here's how it looks (sorry, it's a staged presentation, It looks kind of crummy, but it DOES demonstrate the problem!)

Selfie Alert: It's difficult to get a good picture of your hands, when you've nestled your digital camera under your chin.  I'm sure you're all familiar with that situation.

Anyway ... looking at the user-end of a 1911 (here, 2011 EDGE from STI), you can see that the knuckle of the off-hand thumb is sticking up into ... or at least near ... the 'glide path' of the slide.

I've seen a LOT of 'new shooters' use this grip, and it's perfectly acceptable if you're a revolver shooter.

But if you're shooting a semi-automatic pistol of ANY brand, make or model ... using this grip is terribly dangerous.

A Day Late and a Shamrock Short

I'm Irish.

Well, a quarter Irish ... blame it on my Paternal Grandmother, who was a Dildine.  (That's an Irish name, trust me on this.)

And I failed to observe St. Patrick's day properly.

I was sober.

Sure, and I'm happy to drink my friends' Jameson's, but I actually prefer Canadian Whiskey (MacNaughton's) when I have to buy my own liqueur.  And that's just wrong, in so many ways.  On the other hand, I'm a quarter Scots, so perhaps that explains my moral error.

I feel I've let the Ould Sod down, somehow, by not getting stinking drunk.   I hope my family doesn't learn about this ... my daughter married an Irishman (hope that's not a racial term, like "Chinaman", which got a Fox News commentator fired) and I have enjoyed many a tipple while celebrating National Holidays.  You know, like Independence Day, and Friday?

Hopefully, my Irish brethren will forgive me for not making a public spectacle of myself.  I promise to be a better Irishman in the future.

Makin' Bacon .. the Full Auto Way!

How to Cook Bacon Using Automatic Weapons and Suppressors [VIDEO]:

Bacon. Suppressors. Automatic Weapons. These are a few of my favorite things. In what maybe the most American video ever posted to YouTube, Top Shot Season 3 champion Dustin Ellerman managed to combine all three and prevent trichinosis all in one awesome video.

Perhaps my destiny is to point my readers to quality content available on other blogspots.

But I'm not too proud to steal their videos!

Maryland Considers Bill To Confiscate Guns From 110,000 Registered Gun Owners - Bearing Arms

Bearing Arms Maryland Considers Bill To Confiscate Guns From 110,000 Registered Gun Owners - Bearing Arms:

 If passed into law, the new bill would require police to run a check twice a year in search of convicted felons with registered guns.

I was under the impression that the Supreme Court had decided that felons were not required to register firearms.  Something about self incrimination .....

PLEASE PROVE THAT YOU ARE NOT A ROBOT!

I've seen a lot of these comment approval gimmics showing up the last few months (usually on BLOGGER .. this is an improvement?)  And I just want to know?

Am I the ONLY one who can never correctly interpret th image-based text that you have to write in order to enter a comment?

I'm half blind and entirely clueless, and I think this is a monstrous conspiracy against the Farsighted Community.  Perhaps the OldAsTheHills Community, and certainly against the Clueless Community.

And I'm so tired of my computer saying "HUH?"

Luddites of the world, rise up!

When Pigs Fly: An 850 Round Burst From An M60 - The Firearm Blog

It's late at night in the jungle.

A column of patriots walk single-file down a jungle trail toward a known enemy position; this is war.

Usually led by a traitor who is familiar with the local jungle pathways, the follow each branch of the trail toward their objective: a South Vietnamese position which guards a strategic permanent encampment.

Their mission: to destroy the military position, the  Soldiers who occupy that position, and also the wives and children who live there with the husbands and fathers.  All must die, to make the point that there is NO safe place in Viet Nam.  There is no mercy; given the time, they will rape the women and slaughter the leaders of the South Vietnamese inhabitants, because Terror is their most influential weapon in this, their war on civilization.

Suddenly, there are a series of explosions .. claymore mines pour 700 rounds each of .32 caliber pellets at their cadre at the head of the line, killing the commander and the traitor who leads them as well as their most politically devote members.

And then comes the most fearsome treat: the Rat-a-tat-tat of the fearsome M60 machine gun which lays down a fearsome volume of fire which is so devestating, so profound, that there is no defense except to return a second or two of AK-47 return fire by the few survivors of the Point element .. followed by a complete route of the entire company.

For if you are not killed or mortally wounded by the initial directed-mine blast, you will surely scourged by the unfailing, if short-lived, machine gun burst.  The worst of it is that the ambushers will then pick up their machine guns and walk them through the kill zone, slaughtering all that linger there .. and then they will follow you into the night, for they are the devil incarnate and they have Hell at their fingertips.