An Unserious Question

If Dianne Feinstein or Charles Schumer were to see this picture and die of the vapors, would I be charged?

We've got everything that bothers them here.

Threaded muzzle.
Bayonet lug.
Detachable adequate capacity magazine.
Semi-auto.
Pistol grip.
Folding stock.
Advanced body armor.

The rifle is an AK clone to boot for double liberal tear flavor points!

Idle Hands

I look at this spring assembly:

My curious monkey mind is saying, "take it apart!"

My more rational lizard brain is saying, "take a nap."

I hope this part is cheap and readily available because I just KNOW I'm going to try taking it apart and not be able to get it back together.

Alcohol Was Involved

Reading Mr Garabaldi's post on visiting East Berlin.

Yup!  What he said.

I went to East Berlin too.

At the time I didn't collect souvenirs or take pictures.

The trip to Berlin blurs with time and gets lost among other things going on with some very busy months with lots of travel, some official, some recreational.

There was a lot of drinking in here, some drinking to forget...

When you drink to forget; you often forget stuff you wanted to remember too.

For instance:  I don't remember there being TWO checkpoints on the autobahn between West Germany and Berlin.

I do remember Fred being cheeky and surreptitiously dropping a carton of Marlboro's on the ground as we closed the doors of his Golf and drove off.  I remember freaking out that we were going to get arrested and sent to Siberia.  Nothing came of it.

Today I don't remember if that was the first or second checkpoint or even if it was on the way to or from Berlin.

This Is Something My Gen 2 Can't Do

Lacking any sort of rail under the dust cover means that neither Gen 2 Glocks in the house can mount a light.

Light is a handy thing in the dark.

I will, of course, give away my position when I turn it on, but that will have been given away by the flashlight I was using to look around with already.

That little Surefire X300 sure has been moved from gun to gun too.  The M&P 9 can mount it, but I hear that mounting a light to your CCW is a bad idea.  I'm erring on the side of caution with the Smith carried in my Miami Classic during the winter months.

The Deal Rammed Home

The $425 for a Glock 45 being an excellent deal was underscored today by finding a blue-label Glock 45 at one of the local pawn-shops marked at $525.

They'd accept $450 for it, bottom dollar.

Willard, gritting his teeth and fighting through the pain of holding it, even allowed that the grip is ineffably better than other Glocks he's handled before.

D&D Milspec

These are funny as Hell!











Now that they've covered training, they're going to tackle deployments next.

Similar

I've read a couple of times that the M&P pistol is similar to a Glock 19 in form.

I think it's closer to the Glock 45.

The M&P is heavier with heavier magazines but the extra 1/4" of barrel keeps the damage and range at 2d+2 pi 160/1,800 instead of 2d+1 pi 140/1,600.

Glock 45 Blue Label

$425 plus tax, title, license and background.

Normal price at Old Time Gun Shop in Hudson, $599.

I wasn't supposed to have noticed that.

I vacillated between a 17 Gen 5 and a 19 Gen 5 and finally settled on a compromise!

I put on the "medium" frame without a beaver-tail, it feels about right.

Glock 45 vs .45 Glock!

Glock 45 vs Glock 17.

It comes apart like every other Glock:

But there's a LOT more springs in the recoil spring!

Because everything is about GURPS:

The Glock 45 gives up a point of damage vs the 17 and some range with the same everything else.

It's 0.1 lb. heavier with 0.1 lb. heavier magazines which hold two more rounds vs the Glock 19.

Transit

That tiny and indistinct dot near the center of the sun is Mercury!

I have also discovered that I cannot set manual focus and expect to play with the shutter speed with my SX20, so it was guess the exposure then set focus to infinity, then take the pic...

Then hope because the phone's display can't show me what the camera can actually resolve.

 

My new years resolution is to lay hands on a real camera and a couple of lenses.

 

The leader in my dreams is a Canon M50 mirrorless.  Of course, that will require an EF-M to EF/EF-S mount adapter because the best glass for this work doesn't come in the EF-M format yet.

 

An interesting trivia item for the M series cameras.  They use the same APS-C sensor as the pentaprism cameras, they just mount the ocular end of the lens closer to it.  With no mechanical mirror box, you can; and the lens is a bit more compact too.  The adapter to EF/EF-S puts those lenses at the same distance from the sensor as they'd be with a mirrored camera; getting the same performance from them!  Kudos to Canon!

Veteran's Day

In the US, it's Veteran's Day!

Thanks to the generosity of many restaurants, it's no longer necessary to buy them dinner!

But you can still buy your favorite veteran a drink!

You can still get them laid.

You can say, "Thanks!"

I'm old enough and been out long enough to remember when Veteran's Day was merely a day without mail where the banks were closed.

That was wrong.

That's A Whopper!

Applying an insulting and derogatory label to someone you disagree with is a form of "othering".

Beware of anyone who's go-to method of debating is to resort to "othering."

Once someone is "othered" it's far too easy to justify doing horrible things to them, after all, an "other" isn't a person are they?

If you find yourself using the phrase "Open Carry Idiot", congratulations you're in some "savory" company.

Company that rounded people up and systematically murdered them.

It didn't start with murders, it eased into it slowly and over time.

If someone is othering you, they're also saying that they're OK if you're dead.  They might even be willing to make it happen if you give them enough time to work up to it.

Othering is something to both avoid and be terrified of.

Simple Pleasures

First cold front means either potato soup or chili.

The inlaws have chosen potato soup.

Comfort food is the best.

30 Years

It hardly seems possible.

I'd lived my whole life with the Cold War and to be just down the road as it ended seemed so very strange.

Our first news about what was going on was the activation of the phone chain and for everyone to get their butts back on post.

It was like an alert, but no alert was actually declared.

We mostly sat in our rooms watching on TV.  Fred and I, who'd been to East Berlin in '88, kept marveling at what we were seeing.

It was very tense though.

I was an avid player of Twilight: 2000 and the reunification of Germany is the trigger for WW3 there.  It seemed plausible that this was some sort of Soviet trick to get us off guard.

When nothing happened...

We were as surprised as anyone.

Analogous

When talking about 2nd Amendment rights being civil rights we often attempt to use analogies to illustrate the similarities to other civil rights.

Almost by definition an analogy is not identical to either situation being compared.  It's a bridge that's supposed to make the relationship between the two situations clearer.

There's the problem with many people.

They've decided that if the two situations are not identical then the comparison is invalid, and you're an idiot for suggesting any similarity.

I would like to note that "identical" and "similar" are not synonyms.

Rosa Parks gets mentioned from time to time with regards to gun rights protestors getting arrested.

Ms Parks was not armed, openly or otherwise.  She broke the law.  She's black.

This is not identical to an open carrier being held at gunpoint during an open carry fishing event.

The open carrier was white.  They were openly armed.  They were obeying the law.

Where are they similar?

Both did what they did to try to raise awareness about the civil rights issue at hand and hoped that would lead to positive change.

In Montgomery, Alabama the immediate response was a huge portion of the bus-riding population refusing to use the buses.  Ms Parks fellow blacks supported her protest and hit the bus company's bottom line.  For nearly a year.

The immediate response to the open carrier being held at gun point was the condemnation of the practice.  It was stated that being openly armed is stupid and that anyone who did not join them in condemnation was likewise mentally deficient.

Clearly one portion of the gun owning population is quite happy with the status quo.

Happily(?) we have an analogous group during the civil rights movement.  It was the topic of many sermons that blacks needed to keep their heads down and not draw attention to themselves because, as bad as it was, it most certainly could get worse.  Being "uppity" was going to bring the whole world down on them!

Good thing, for them, that the activists kept up with their protesting.

Another analogy between civil rights is gun owning and being gay.

There's a lot more similarity between gun ownership and homosexuality because it's not a racial thing.  Literally anyone you look at could be gay or a gun owner or both!

For an unrecorded amount of time a homosexual had to hide who they were and live a secret life.  To reveal their secret could result in lots of unpleasant things; including being killed for it.  Beatings were not uncommon.  Being fired and ostracized was routine.

It was made illegal.  That it was morally wrong was taught unquestioningly.  Unjustified parallels between homosexual sex and child molestation were accepted without consideration of whether they were true or not.

Gun owners in many places have to hide who they are and be very careful about whom they reveal themselves to.  It can lead to termination of employment.  In our modern age of red-flag laws and SWATting, it can lead to ruinous financial burdens and even death.  An extra level of harassment from law enforcement is still routine in many jurisdictions no matter how legal the owner is.

Owning guns has been made illegal, both by type and completely.  Owning a gun has been subject to laws requiring onerous burdens to obtain licenses and permits to own or carry them.

The moral and practical value of gun ownership has been condemned without question.  Unjustified parallels between the mental acuity of some gun owners has been made because they don't wish to own the right kind of gun, or wish to carry it differently.

The rights of both blacks and LGBT were not advanced by accepting the status quo.

Rocking the boat carries risks.  But the rewards are worth the risks.

If we could only convince some of the people who're supposedly on our side to actually be on our side.

When an open carrier was held, illegally and in violation of their rights, at gunpoint by the police: they condemned the open carrier and not the police.

They ignored this violation of civil rights under color law to attack and demean the actual victim.

These are people who are not on our side.

They are ignoring that no laws were broken by the protestors then or in the flamboyantly over the top response the following month.  They are ignoring that the police department learned to behave from legal actions taken in response to their illegal detention of a law abiding citizen.

They equate other protests with this one, regardless of similarity, claim they're identical.

The goal posts shift constantly and they do not argue in good faith.

I say again, these people are not on our side.

They risk nothing, and wish to gain nothing.

They demand others take risks on their behalf when opportunity arises and condemn others for not doing work that they, themselves, do not do.  You cannot complain that nobody showed up when you were invited and did not show up yourself.

It's easy to complain, harder to act.

I wonder, sometimes, if it's guilt that makes them respond so strongly to others attempting to advance freedoms that they will surely avail themselves of.

Min-Max

The solution to the mystery of why so many Special Operators are super geniuses is simple.

The Special Ops campaign is a 250 point one in 4e.

The high stats save points on buying skills, nothing more.

Massaging the point costs to come under budget is sometimes known as min-maxing.

In this case it makes unrealistic characters made to a cinematic ideal.

These are the Rangers, Green Berets and SEALs of Hollywood, not those of real life.

Secret Intel

I endeavored to find out what, exactly, the Blue Label price would be.

This is from Shooter's World in Tampa.  They mark-up $24.99 from the MAP Retail for guns on the shelf.

So, in theory, a Blue Label Gen 5 model 19 would be $404.99.  If they actually had one in stock.

They've a store in Orlando too they claim has more in stock.  It's very tempting.

I have until close of business Monday to make up my mind a search the couch cushions.

For Courage And Strength

Happy Birthday Lex!

Stat Bias

The more I look at the templates in GURPS: Special Ops 3e the more I see a suspension of disbelief killing flaw.

Skill levels in GURPS are based on DX and IQ for the most part, especially in GURPS 3e.

From what I've read and conversed about with regards to the special operator types the high skill levels displayed by these men is from spending many hours practicing; not from natural aptitude.

Points in skills represents hard work and training.

Points in stats represents talent and aptitude.

It is not helped that an IQ of 13 or 14 is often specified.

To lend some scope to the problem:  A GURPS IQ of 6 corresponds to the intelligence level of an average Chimpanzee, which has a functional (real world) IQ of approximately 40.

This puts the bottom range of the human bell-curve (IQ 40) at GURPS IQ 6.  That essentially puts the top of the curve (IQ 160) at GURPS IQ 14.

The center of the bell-curve and "normal" IQ is 90-109 and that's GURPS IQ 10.

If the templates are to be believed, the entirety of the world's special forces is populated by super geniuses.

I am not buying it.  Bumping the stats is a game mechanism to get higher skills for fewer points.

Another reason I am not buying it is how thin the population of these super geniuses with an IQ over 145 is.  1/10 of 1%.  The pool of people in this range, in the US, is 329,716.

There's approximately 3,500 Rangers in the 75th, 4,500 Green Berets, 2,500 SEALs and about 1,000 in Delta.  11,500 people.

That's 3.5% of the available super geniuses in the country.

The military is about 2.5 million people strong, 0.76% of the population.

Because the military typically does have the same distributions as the population at large, then we should expect that there are only 2,500 super geniuses in the entire military.

According to Special Ops 3e, there's almost four times that many in the special forces alone (and I didn't even include the numbers for USAF combat controllers or USMC Force Recon; whose templates are given).

I think I am going to have to revise these templates ruthlessly.

Especially since the bell curve is shifted in other nations compared to the US curve used here.

Of Course It's A Gun Free Zone

Rode with my father-in-law to get his truck registered here in Florida.

I was kicked out for having a gatorade by the most arrogant employee I've ever encountered.

An arrogance that thrives in DMV's across the nation.

I noticed that, while I cannot eat or drink anything while inside the county's precious building, nothing is stopping the employees from chewing gum so that it sounds like a march of sopping wet vaginas in a poorly sound balanced porn film.

Remember when you didn't chew gum at work because it was unprofessional?

While I was outside, waiting for FiL, I noticed the looks on my fellow citizen's faces.  The mood was grim on entry and angry on exit.

It seems the arrogance runs deep.

The customer service is such that I think that if someone were to grab their, "Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon," and went to town on the employees that the customers would react with, "there's one hiding under the desk there," and, "one ran out the back, if you hurry you can still catch them!"

I think I might just remind my county tax collector that he's an elected official in an office that's very easily primaried (ask him how HE got the job) and if he can't make the process more customer centric, then, perhaps, someone else should hold the office.

As an aside, I notice that while there is a teeny little decal saying "No outside food or drink please" the only mention of smoking is the "No smoking within 50' of entrance".

I think I am going to measure 50' from the door inside the place and have me a cigar next visit.  Not posted, stand alone structure.  That, at least, is actually against the law and not because some petty apparatchik likes to lord their power over you.

Additional aside: am I the only person who wonders at the demographics of the DMV?  My county is 96% white, yet the Tax Collector's office employs around 75% blacks.  That seems racist to have disproportionate racial representation in the government.

Guts

People have begun to break their Galaxy's Edge/Savi's Workshop lightsabers and started selling them on ebay for a pittance.

Electronics geeks have started complete tear downs!

We now know the blade is a plastic strip of domed RGB LED's spaced about 1/2" apart.

So the three blades will (should) have:

26" should have 48 LED
31" should have 58 LED
35" should have 66 LED

That's a lot fewer than a 2815 or 2813 running 258 LED on my 35" blade, about 4x as many as the Disney system.  I think this also explains why they're getting such good battery life from 3x AA's!

Marv has been running out of memory to run the LED's and was wondering if we could run them in groups of 3 giving an effective 86 LED as far as the Arduino is concerned.

Excessive

GURPS 3e: Special Ops provided a template to create your very own Airborne Ranger.

Specifically someone assigned to 1/75, 2/75 or 3/75.

I happen to know someone who was assigned to 2/75... (cue name drop) Willard!

I mentioned to him, that in GURPS terms, his younger self was a pretty high point character.

At least 150 in 3e points and more than 200 in 4e.

The bulk of the 4e points are dumped into the stats, 140 of them in fact.

ST: 11
DX: 13
IQ: 13 <-- He disputes this one by saying that Ranger School is not an intelligence test, but a filtration system to find stubborn knot-heads who refuse to quit despite every signal in the universe demanding they give up.  A high Will score would really be more appropriate.
HT: 11

I think these stat levels were more to keep the point totals under control than an actual assessment that the average Ragnar is a certified MENSA candidate.  Making this call is not aided in the slightest by Willard actually being smart.

Then they get 68 points in skills that EVERY Ranger who goes to the battalions should have.

Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms)
Artillery/TL8 (Guided Missile)
Artillery/TL8 (Mortar)
Brawling
Camouflage
Climbing
Driving/TL8 (Automobile)
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Comm)
Explosives/TL8 (Demolition)
First Aid/TL8
Forward Observer/TL8
Gunner/TL8 (MG)
Guns/TL8 – GL
Guns/TL8 – LAW
Guns/TL8 – LMG
Guns/TL8 – Pistol
Guns/TL8 – Rifle
Hiking
Jumping
Leadership
Melee Weapon (Knife)
Melee Weapon (Spear) -- This is for using a bayonet!
Navigation/TL8 (Land)
NBC-Suit/TL8
Parachuting/TL8
Savior-Faire (Military)
Soldier/TL8
Stealth
Survival (Jungle)
Survival (Mountain)
Survival (Woodland)
Swimming
Tactics
Throwing
Traps/TL8 

The guided missile could be a TOW or a Dragon and Willard indicated that there might be a couple of guys who knew the Dragon, but not everyone.

Oafickers spend some more points on Military Rank, extra on Leadership and add Administration to the total.

Schools, like SERE, increase and add more skills as well.

I think I need to revisit the templates for 4e.

The Will vs IQ thing stands out.  In 3e IQ IS your will roll (modified by Strong Will or Weak Will).  4e made it a separate stat based on IQ but made it simpler to modify it, allowed a stone stupid person with a very strong Will.

Shoulda Listened

I should have listened to my first instinct and gone back to The Wily Heidi's to buy that Smith-Corona in the wee morning hours Saturday.

It was sold Saturday afternoon.

I am disappointed and relieved.

It's Fate I Tells You

I was reading this site.

Looking at this:

That there is a Smith-Corona type handguard retainer cut.

The rifle we hope to revive is a Smith-Corona!

Eyes crossed that it didn't sell on Saturday.

Silly Armor

Wore the Testudo II around for about an hour.

It hurts my legs.

It does occur that if I lost about 100 lb. then put the armor on, I'd be about 80 lb. easier on my legs than I am now without armor.

As is typical with body armor, it interferes with getting the stock mounted and the sights aligned.  Even the stylish squared up stance which puts the armor where it does the most good.

That might just mean I need to figure out how to mount the gun, but it's irritating.

At present it looks like the armor will have the ammo, because it's an ammo carrier first like most chest rigs, on the vest and the sundries will keep living in the 5.11 Tactical Purse where they can actually be reached.

That is, when I am going to wear the armor, otherwise the ammo will stay in the purse as the this is still the grab bag.

It boils down to "how much time do I have to get ready to repel boarders/looters?"

An alternative to the purse that works with the armor is a "battle belt" but I am skeptical of a belt carrying all that loot without suspenders.  There might be a way to tie the belt to the vest, but I'm not seeing it from a cursory search.

I can easily see a situation where I have more than one set of "go-gear" depending on how much time presents itself.  I kind of have this going on already.

The home defense rifle has a single mag in it and that's what gets grabbed in the least amount of prep time scenarios.  Grabbing the purse would require a couple minutes.  Grabbing and donning the vest even longer.

The idea of static vs dynamic defense was mentioned in comments.

I'm old, fat and crippled.  Static is kind of the default.  Notice what I said up top about weight, I HAVE 100 lb. of lard that could be lost.  That should be lost.  The crippled part of the equation makes that very hard.

I also have to keep reminding myself that the main reason for getting this was because Charles Schumer said it needed to be regulated or banned.  It's the same reason that I want banned features on as many guns as I can reasonably get and am eternally disappointed that not every one of them possesses ALL of the verboten features.

Long Drink

1x tonic water
4x gin
3x Fresca

Advanced Body Armor

My medium coyote brown Testudo II and 10x12 Level III plates arrived today!

21.2 lb. as shown.  It's only going to get heavier from here as I add pouches, magazines, holsters, blades and sundries.

As feared, the bottom edge is really too high to hang many things from and have them be even remotely handy.

It needs a belt below if it's going to replace the 5.11 Tactical Purse.

DeBubbafication Stage One

Willard found the scant M1903A3 stock he thought he had in his office.

It was also where he thought it would be.

That's a double miracle.  Normally such things have long since disappeared never to be seen again by mortal man.

Like most stocks of its day, it's inletted for both the M1903 rear sight and the M1903A3 handguard ring.

Having the buttplate and rear swivel saves us some time, money ($49) and effort!

At the time of this posting, Numrich has all the parts I think we're missing.

Lower Band Spring (524240) $3.00
Upper Band Screw (524660) $3.75
Handguard Ring (524920) $6.75
Upper Band (524220) $16.50
Stacking Swivel Assembly (1502520) $22.00
Lower Band Assembly (1502540) $20.75
Walnut Handguard, with Clips (853140) $43.75

Total, including shipping/handling $116.50

We think we've got The Wily Heidi locked into $250 for the rifle itself.

We're Off And Running

The local Fox affiliate reports on the assault weapon complete rifle ban that BAWN is attempting to add to our stupid Constitutional Amendment process here in Florida.

Ben Pollara is correct; the effects of his proposal are very simple.

He's dissembling about what those effects really are.

Dissembling is a nice way to say, "lying through your fucking teeth".

I'm hoping that they manage to keep it off the ballot, because I'd be very worried about it going to a vote.  There are a lot of people who don't bother to actually look up these amendments before voting.

OMG

I just realized that buying the printer for my old Mac is something I've done for a long time.

I bought a NIB part to keep an obsolete, but still functional machine running.

There's legions of us hot-rodders out there!

Testing

Replaced the dead HP C4280 with a live HP C4280 because it still works with my obsolete OS.

And newer OS's.

I made sure the ebay sourced "sealed" unit would print.

It did, but the ink cartridges that had been sealed in the box since... probably 2007... didn't work well.

New ink cartridges and voila!

The C4280 is also my SD card reader:

It works!

It's a scanner:

It works!

Nailed It

4chan predicted this:

The president of a Connecticut university said hate-filled flyers were randomly distributed throughout campus on Thursday night.

Harmless message will cause media backlash.

You will notice that no images of the "hate-filled" flyer are included with the article.

The media has showered itself in so much glory that I no longer automatically believe them when they make a hate claim.

They've repeatedly proven they cannot be trusted, so I don't.

Unmentioned here is that both Western Connecticut State University and the reporter feel that being white is NOT OK.  Otherwise, why would it matter and be newsworthy?

For the record, it's OK to be whatever race you are.

White.

Black.

Yellow.

Brown.

Tan.

Pink.

Pale-Blue.

IT. DOES. NOT. MATTER.

That content of character, that matters.

I can see the content of the character of the president of WCSU and Ms. Naples.

Phrasing

Ruining an otherwise feel-good article about a homeowner using an AR-15 for home defense...

...is the phrase, "an AR-15 that was legally inside their house," as if having an AR is normally illegal but these upstanding folks had gone the extra mile to get theirs made legitimate.

It's subtle points of language like this, that permeate the press, that make the fight for our rights harder than they should be.

By mentioning the unremarkable, they make it stand out.

They'd certainly never say, "a car that was legally inside their garage."

Using their cell phone, that was legally inside their pocket, they called the police.

The implication is that it's normally illegal to have it when you point out that it was legal in this instance.

A Deal A Steal

I'd heard about this months ago, but forgot to say anything.

BUT!

If you're in the market for a new Glock, and you have a DD214 with an honorable characterization on it...

Glock is offering to sell to you Blue Label guns at Blue Label prices!

And you have until Veteran's Day to get to a Blue Label dealer and get your new piece of relentless functionality.

Blue Label prices are about $100 to $150 off normal retail and normally come with three magazines instead of the more normal two, so it's like getting another $30 off!

Roasted Cent

What happens to a new penny when you drop it in a fire?

Comment Moderation

Since I turned on "allow anonymous" and "moderate all"...

It seems like there have been more comments than before.

There's been hardly any spam.

The few jerks whose comments I had to routinely delete after they were raging pricks in the comments have stopped trying.

That's the up side.

The down side is a couple of people I've been trying to engage and debate also gave up.  Perhaps they felt they would not be allowed past moderation?

If you're being polite and staying on topic, your comment is going to be allowed.

If I tire of the debate on a given post, I'll just just shut off all comments rather than memory holing the comments I disagree with.  Not too different, but you'll be able to tell going in that we're done talking about it for now.

Debating with people I disagree with is a form of learning.  You might even convince me I'm wrong, you might not.  I might convince you that you are wrong, I might not.

We might even convince others to come to our side, we might not.

One thing is for certain: call me an idiot (or other insult) for taking an opposing view guarantees that you have no voice here.  Opening with insults and derogatory names is an admission that your position has no validity and should be ignored.

In short, calling me an idiot is a concession that I've won because you can't advance your argument on its merits.

Scant Information

Willard thinks he has an M1903 stock in his office...

Somewhere.

Maybe even where he thinks it is.

I use the same system of organization and "where I think it is" often isn't.

The doubt I introduced last night is the question of, "is it an M1903 or an M1903A3 stock?"

They're different.  The A3 is inletted for the handguard ring, the A-nada isn't.

I found out that many (most?) A3 stocks are inletted to be used on any 03 action so the odds might be in our favor should Willard be able to locate his spare stock.

That would also knock almost $200 off the price of putting the Smith-Corona back to rights.  Even more if the stock has the butt plate and sling swivels!

Eyes crossed!

Also sitting here wondering if Willard will emerge from his righteous slumber to hit Heidi's and get the rifle.

HB723 Heading To Committee

This is Constitutional Carry for Florida.

It's been referred to (links show memberships, light 'em up!):

The Criminal Justice Subcommittee.

The Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriation Subcommittee.

The Judiciary Committee.

It's possible to bring a win from this, but we have to let them know we support this bill, and bills like it, and the congress creatures who vote for it.

They have to know we know who they are and will remember them come voting time, especially if they have eyes on a higher office when they term-limit out.

By the way, if you're not going to help: Why don't you shut up and get out of our way?

What that means:

If you're not going to bother to write, call or visit your congress creature's local office: don't complain that others don't.

If you're not going to bother to write, call or visit your congress creature's Tallahassee office: don't complain that others don't.

If you're not going to bother to go to the rally: don't complain that others don't.

If you're not going to bother to attend the committee meetings: don't complain that others don't.

If you're a do-nothing complainer, then you don't get to complain that others are following your example.

16/50

Oklahoma going to constitutional carry marks nearly 1/3 of the US dispensing with the false comfort of unconstitutional restrictions on carry.

They carried their AR's openly too.  Pictures from linked Fox News article.

Wait, that can't be right, I am assured that openly packing an AR leads to nothing but laws banning open carry.

Nope, that's really Fox News, not Babylon Bee...

And Oklahoma is mentioned in the Wikipedia entry on Constitutional Carry too.

Huh!

It's like we should be bold and not cowardly about asserting our rights.

I feel sometimes that some are fervently hoping for these kind of laws to fail so they can cluck that they were, by God, right and the rest of us are "idiots".

But, then, you kind of know when someone doesn't really have a point to make when they start with insults rather than actually making and defending their position.

Potential Bargain...

Question mark...

The wily Heidi has a Smith Corona M1903A3 which has been lightly sporterized with a replacement stock.

It'd take about $350 from Numrich and North Ridge to put it back to mil configuration.

Heidi doesn't even want a lot for it...

We're tormented souls here.

We can save it.

Should we?

Just In Case I'm Moderated

Hate is still the norm at GunFreeZone.

Miguel is concerned that people from Florida, for the first time ever, will break the law by open carrying AR-15's strapped to their chests at the November 2nd Second Amendment Rally.

I commented (and expect the comment to be deleted):

I used to think you had a brain, Miguel.

But now I am not so sure.

Because the people you despise so much have never broken the law to make their point.

You're not on the pro-gun side any more, because you fight against expansion of freedom.

I know it's terrifying that someone might be out there, somewhere, doing something you don't like and not hurting anyone; but that's how liberty works.

And you clearly don't understand it and oppose any freedom past what you're comfortable with.

He's clearly fighting against someone, but they're not named.  Or he's lost it and he's fighting demons only he can see.

If he wasn't such a great resource for spotting and tracking all the gun bills up in Tallahassee, and this is where his blog really shines, I'd stop darkening the door of the place.

Honestly, as long as you stay out of his three or four blind spots, he's a pretty decent fellow.  But he's entrenched into those spots like a tick and not only unwilling to have his mind changed, but unable to see that anyone has a point outside of his righteousness.

On open carry, I wish I could say he's Abe Simpson, yelling at the cloud.

What he is really accomplishing is providing the anti-gun, anti-liberty people a published example of a "pro-gun" voice who vehemently dislikes open carry, therefore emboldening them.  His voice of support for the anti-freedom side also cows the politicians who would support expanding our rights.

"I'm not sticking my political neck out if even the pro-gun people don't want it."

Thus Miguel has become what he despises.  A voice on the internet that's opposed to gun rights.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt.