Category: Guns and 2nd Amendment

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I hadn’t’ planned to comment

I believe that a safer city, state, and nation, is a place where owning weapons is not only allowed but encouraged.

That’s my personal opinion but I’m not completely alone in that thinking.

I grew up in a place at a time when guns weren’t status symbols, or romanticized, or mystical. They were tools.

You respected any weapon, treated it as if it were loaded

If you didn’t know about how a particular model of gun worked…  you asked. It was that simple. There were guns all over Dad’s house, all of them loaded, all unlocked and none in a safe.

A locked, unloaded, gun in a safe is completely and absolutely useless to anyone. Except the thief  that manages to open the safe to take the guns and valuables to the local pawn shop.

There were no shootings, no children played cowboys & indians with a loaded weapon and the guns didn’t spontaneously go off randomly killing members of the family. We all knew from an early age what a gun was, and how to appropriately handle one if it came to protecting the family. Obviously, when there were toddlers around, the weapons were place out of reach.

 

I wasn’t going to comment on SB 249. I’ve been aware of it for a while and was not too interested. I knew it was another idiot gun ban bill that would probably fail or simply be ignored like so many Bills/Laws that are enacted in California.

Then I read the Bill…

This bImagesill is  one of those things that you just have to read to believe.

SB249. The link will download a PDF document. showing the amendments as of 2012 / 08 / 07.

This Link will take you to the original bill as introduced 2011 / 02 / 10 by California Senator Yee.

Part of what has caught my attention is how the bill has metamorphosed.

As introduced, it’s an agricultural bill that seems to be concerning itself with the business of a regional agricultural district and how members of a local association will be selected and appointed. This is standard stuff dealing with the business of governing California.

SB249 as it currently exists is about firearms.

Specifically, in it’s latest iteration if passed the bill could be used to remove almost any semi automatic weapons from law abiding citizens.

The Law and Lawyers are interesting. The definition of a word is EVERYTHING in law. Remember Bill Clinton and his request for clarification about what exactly defines sex?

Think about it.

What is Sex? Is sex defined as mans penis in a woman’s vagina? If that’s the definition you apply then mutual touching, oral and anal activities are not sex and therefore do not fall under any laws prohibiting adultery.

That’s why Sodomy laws are so very specific about the activities that are punishable offenses. Many Sodomy laws start out by defining ANYTHING that isn’t a mans penis in a woman’s vagina as sodomy and therefore punishable.

Masturbation falls under that definition so when your girlfriend gave you a quick hand job under the bleachers at the homecoming game you both could have been arrested.

I use sex here because it’s one of the easiest examples of how much turns on a definition. Mainly because the desire for puritanical control of who does what and to whom in the bedroom has led to some of the silliest laws ever.

Senator Yees Bill says and I quote;

“This bill would define “detachable magazine” for this purpose to mean any ammunition feeding device that can be removed from the firearm without disassembly of the firearm action, and to include a magazine that may be detached from the firearm by depressing a button on the firearm either with the finger or by use of a tool or a bullet.”

This paragraph isn’t talking specifically about rifles or assault weapons. Because it’s defined “detachable magazine” as any ammunition feeding device it’s broadly encompassing almost any semi-automatic pistol, so called “Assault Rifles” and a number of hunting rifles including standard bolt action types.

At first glance you scan down the items that are listed as strictly forbidden (defined as an assault weapon) and you think “Oh it’s only AR-15s or AK replicas.

You even get to Item 18 (4) which says;

(4) A semiautomatic pistol that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of the following:

(A) A threaded barrel, capable of accepting a flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer.

(B) A second handgrip.

(C ) A shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel that allows the bearer to fire the weapon without burning the bearer’s hand, except a slide that encloses the barrel.

(D) The capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip.

So you think “OK cool, my Glock, doesn’t meet all of those requirements so while this is a bad law it’s not going to take all my semi-automatic weapons away”.

Then you get to item 29 (5) which says;

(5) A semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that has the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds

Again… this still doesn’t ban yoImages 1ur normal Glock. But it’s ONE single word away from making the possession of a semi-automatic pistol illegal in California.

A Fixed magazine is a magazine that still requires tools to drop & reload. All that has to happen now is for Yee or one of his co-authors to delete the word “Fixed“.

Since most semiautomatics can take high capacity magazines which accommodate more than 10 rounds, if they delete fixed, then because your standard Glock, SIG, or S&W CAN have 11+ round magazines now they’re all banned in California.

Remember how the definition of a word is so important? 

With the deletion of one single modifier, this law could be used to ban most weapons in California.

Yee goes on to open the door to unreimbursed confiscation of weapons but hasn’t actually written that into the bill as of yet. However, due to the rather broad definition of assault weapons, possession of any weapons defined under this law would become illegal.

Even if you’d purchased the weapon when it was legal to do so.

This brings up a constitutional issue. You’re not supposed to have to worry about something being made illegal after the fact.

Again, let me use sex as a vehicle for example.

You’ve got 10 children, some dimwit in the government makes it illegal to have more than 2 children.

Since you’ve got 10 you’ve obviously violated the law 8 times. That gets you and your wife 20 years in a detention / re-education camp and your children all get sent to the state run orphanage where they’re told they’ll be a scum underclass of workers all their lives because daddy and mommy couldn’t be socially responsible.

That’s why way smarter people than me set up a basic framework that was designed to protect the individual from abuses of power by the government.

Think about it… the “Founding Fathers” had been screwed over time and time again by an oppressive government that was all about power, privilege, and wealth.

It makes sense that those same men would want to prevent that kind of thing from happening in a country where they were trying to create a better system of government.

And lets be realistic here… that better form of government was a form of government that favored people like the founding fathers.

But here comes Senator Yee.

He knows better, and is wiser than our founding fathers. In the best interests of the people of California Senator Yee is willing to circumvent the constitution allowing an Ex post facto implementation of the law… just this once…

…to take the guns away. It’s for the good and safety of the people of California. Think of the children…

Well Senator Yee,

I’ll give my right to have a gun up, the day that no criminal in the united states has a gun.

Until then, having the ability to protect myself and my family is my first concern.

Apparently sometime in the past two weeks Senator Yee has pulled the bill. This doesn’t mean he can’t put it back on the docket. 

The major point here is about gun control

But there’s another point that may actually be far more important.

This bill started out as an agriculture bill and is in some cases still listed as an agriculture bill.

This begs the question,

How many other innocent sounding bills are being voted on and PASSED that are eroding any of the myriad rights we believe are un-assailable?

Authors note: I’m sorry that this piece has been republished and edited so much. For some unknown reason when it published this morning it was really garbaged up. After taking the piece through three editors and finally stripping out and re-inserting most of the HTML code, it’s stable. There are line breaks and spacing that make no sense but the piece is readable. I’m not editing it anymore.

I am going to see if I can figure out what happened and why.

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Over-React Much???

In an article this morning in the Christian Science Monitor the pundits and wags are already talking about the probability of increased security at theaters.

Uhhh It was ONE fucked up dude…

Statistically speaking ONE does not represent a trend.

While tragic, the Aurora theater shooting was an incident carried out by exactly 1 crazy person. 

This is not a wake up call to increase the level of fear in our country. Unfortunately that is exactly what the media is doing. 

I already don’t go to the movies very often.

Here’s why

1) the expense,

2) the crowds

3) the idiots texting throughout the whole fucking movie

4) the idiots talking throughout the whole movie

5) most of the movies SUCK!

But if you add metal detectors, and prohibitions on what can and cannot be carried into the theater, For example a shopping bag from another store in the mall then a lot of folks are just not going to bother. Really? I’ll have to carry my $200 of jeans out to my car then come back to the movie theater? Nahhh I’m going to get in my car and go home.

I’ll simply wait until the movie in question is available on pay per view or DVD/BlueRay. Lets face it, the time from theater to DVD has gotten ridiculously short.

So I personally have no problem waiting until I can rent a movie for 5 bucks and then every one in the whole house can watch it. I save 13 bucks, can make my own popcorn, have a beer and press pause when I have to take a leak. I like my surround sound system better than the theaters most of the time anyway and I don’t have to wear earplugs because the soundtrack is too loud. Everything is under my control and honestly, I like it better that way anyway.

Of greater concern to me is how we as a people react to these situations.

I agree with metal detectors at airports. The metal detectors at airports were not a result of terrorism… They came about as a reaction to NOT ONE… But Several aircraft Hijackings to Cuba. The metal detectors weren’t about making people FEEL safe… they’re about actually doing something to BE SAFER. 

Today we have to take our shoes off at the airport because ONE stupid moron tried… AND FAILED to light explosives in his shoes.

We are patted down and / or XRAYED, Microwaved, or otherwise imaged to determine if we’re carrying weapons or bombs on airplanes because a couple of morons tried to set off explosives in their underwear. We can’t carry liquids on planes because of the threat that someone might make a bomb out of two liquids.

As any 1st year chemistry student knows, there are elements that are inert until they are mixed with plain simple water. There are a variety of chemicals and elements that in even small quantities can make big booms, or poison gases. These chemicals could be carried on planes in a variety of ways.

The only way to be truly safe on an airplane is to not permit luggage, or carry-on bags of any type. And every single passenger and crew member on the plane would have to be naked. In addition,  there could be no in flight services, no moving about the cabin, no bathrooms, and every passenger would have to be locked into their seat for the duration of the flight.

1342801511 james holmes

Even then, you’re only mostly safe… the plane could be sabotaged, or there could be an act of God that causes the plane to fall out of the sky.

In the wake of the theater shooting, New calls for gun control, restriction of ammunition, and greater security in theaters, are being heard from around the country.

Nidal Hasan

When does it stop? Where do you draw the line?

One could argue that James Holmes and Maj. Nidal Hasan were both involved in the study of brains… By the knee jerk logic of the talking heads… ALL psychology and neuroscience study should be halted because it makes gun toting crazies who shoot into crowds of people.

Are we to have TSA style security in all public places?

Should going to the local shopping mall require a pat down? How about the grocery store?

Will we be required to take our shopping bags out to our cars as we complete each purchase?

Done at Macys, out to the car, back through security Second X-ray of the day, done at Pennys back to the car, back through security 3rd X-ray of the day, and so on.

If that’s what we’re heading for we’ll all be glowing in the dark by the end of the year.

Why didn’t we hear calls for tighter security in the wake of the Brian Stow beating? Oh… yeah the criminal thugs who destroyed Mr. Stow’s life did that with their fists and feet, in a parking lot. I suppose that the only way to prevent something like Brian Stow is to shackle everyone from the time they leave their cars until the time they are returned to their cars.

The point is this…

Being completely safe is an illusion. The only way to be completely safe is to never leave your house, even then safety isn’t guaranteed. So whether you acknowledge it or not we all make choices about the level of personal safety that we’re willing to accept.

Gun control, Draconian Security procedures, and restrictions of our freedoms are not the answer.

We as a people, shouldn’t live in fear. We shouldn’t change our lives because of terrorism, or lone gunmen, or the fear mongering of the talking heads on TV, or of the political candidates.

We as a people, can help to insure greater safety of the society at large by paying attention, by choosing not to ignore odd things.

James Holmes reportedly opened an exit door in the theater and then propped that door open while he went to his car to get the guns and body armor.

All it would have taken is for any one of the people in the theater to close that door. Presumably Holmes purchased a ticket… if he’d forgotten something or needed a medication from his car, he’d have a ticket stub and he could have re-entered the theater via the front door. Holmes needed the dark, he needed stealth and inaction on the part of the theater goers. Someone would have raised an alarm if he’d walked through the main lobby with guns and body armor.

This is not to imply that the victims were at fault. They behaved exactly as predicted and exactly as everyone in America would have. They didn’t get involved. They didn’t ask WTF? 

People who are about to do bad things typically “telegraph” their intentions before they act. If everyone in our society would stop ignoring the odd, the out of place, or the strange, then we’d be a long way toward being safer.

If we instead reported odd behavior or odd situations or asked questions of the person that was acting odd then we’d be in a safer environment all the time.

Criminal activity almost always requires stealth. Asking or having a Policeman ask a suspicious individual what they’re doing may be just enough to stop a crime before it happens.

We text, call, email, Facebook and tweet pretty much 24 / 7 you’d think that with that kind of communication there would be no crime.

But in fact we are so glued to the glow of our smart phones that we’re not only driving distracted…

We’re LIVING distracted.

Consider that, the next time you’re in a restaurant and you notice people texting more than talking.

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My first shooting match… AKA FUN!

I’ve been Slow to Blog.

Monday I woke up crabby, hurting, and out of sorts. A massage helped out there. Today… well it just sort of got away from me.

Sunday, I participated in my first shooting match ever.

I was nervous. Here’s the deal, whenever I try anything new I get nervous. I’m not talking butterflies in the stomach I’m talking hands shaking nervous. In extreme cases it looks like I’ve got the DTs. 

The more dangerous the activity the worse the shakes get even if that danger is only perceived. Opening a 100K computer system isn’t any big deal for me because I know what to expect NOW, but that first system in front of the customer… I looked like I was fresh out of the Betty Ford Clinic. The shakes don’t instill confidence in your audience… Trust me on this!

The same was true Sunday. 

I had a number of “New” things. going on.

1) I’d never walked around with a holstered weapon (Unloaded) at a firing range.

2) I’d only fired guns around my family members (picture small groups of immediate family)

3) I’d only fired at targets from a stationary position, this competition you move to engage targets at some of the stages.

4) I’m familiar with firearms, but not confident enough yet that we’ve seen each other naked.

Thank goodness I was there with friends. One friend was teasing me right from the start. He said “Perhaps you should have taken an Ambien before you got onto the range.” Believe it or not that made me feel better. You know there’s not much point in trying to hide the shakes when your bud just called you out on ’em. By the third stage the shakes were minimal. By the end of the match I was annoyed with my target accuracy or lack thereof instead of being pleased that I was hitting the targets.

I want to point out that while I had fun… Safety is first and foremost in everybody’s minds. There is a pretty strict protocol and the rules are to be followed at all times. The Club reserves the right to ask you to leave if you’re doing something unsafe. On the other side of the coin… there are tons of experienced people around who will answer any questions or give you helpful hints.

The folks at the Palm Springs Gun Club were awesome the weekend before last, and equally awesome this past weekend. 

I felt very comfortable and “at home” at the club. There’s a “Stock Gun Match” next Saturday. I’m sorry that I’m going to miss it. I’ve got plans with a friend on Saturday afternoon and Don’t think that I could get to the match and still get back to my place in time.

Of course the other factor is that I’m waiting on a grip screw from Sig Sauer.  Sometime during the match on Sunday,  I lost a screw and as I finished the match the grip was working itself loose. (being held on by only one screw.) I’m not going to say that the loose grip affected my score… I could probably make a case for it, but none of the guys I was shooting with would buy it… so there’s no point.

The  friend who talked me into trying this shooting match thing suggested that I just tape the grips on the gun and go for it. Tempting!!! But then I started thinking about cleaning the sticky tape crap out of the textured part of the grips and figure… Nah I’ll wait & go to the next match.

Here is a video of me shooting. Yeah I SUCK! So what? It’s a condition that is reparable with lots and lots of practice. I also noticed watching the video that I’m so tense that I was trying to loosen up by unconsciously shrugging my shoulders and it was like I just couldn’t quite get comfortable.

You’ll also see that I’m struggling to get magazines out of my pockets during the reload. My hearing protection and my magazine holders finally showed up this week. Gee, only two days late!

I’m slow as sin but I was very fortunate to have a friend that’s been doing this for a long time, encouraging me. You can also hear the Range Safety Officer encouraging and coaching me.

You see John the Range Safety Officer standing behind me to the right. At one of the other stages of the match John, stopped me and corrected me on a potentially unsafe thing I did. (Finger on trigger… while moving to engage another group of targets.) It wasn’t a major infraction it was a simple mistake and frankly I appreciated that he was keeping an eye on me.

After I finished that stage I said “Thank you, I didn’t give it a thought.” He gave me this big smile and said “You never think of stuff like that until you stumble and shoot yourself…” I didn’t make that mistake for the rest of the day.  At the next stages, John began volunteering info about my stance and how to better proceed and improve. I don’t think I told him Thank you nearly enough… 

Next Time I see him… I will.

Now that you’ve seen what a sucky inexperienced shooter looks like… 

Here’s a video of what someone who knows what they’re doing looks like. This is from a different match at a different location.

I’m not completely sure, but I think this gentleman is the man behind me acting as a Range Safety Officer in the first video. The reason I’m not completely sure is that he was firing an exotic looking weapon in the match where he was a Range Safety Officer for me, and in this video he isn’t firing the same gun plus you never see his face. 

Nonetheless, this is a representative example of how you’re supposed to shoot in these matches.

In the first video you can hear coaching and encouragement. You have to admire the fact that really experienced competitive shooters are patient and willing to coach complete newbies.

Needless to say I was, and am impressed.

So In summary, I had a great time. I suck. These people are very nice. I want to go again. 

I’m going to catch some matches at a couple of other sites and then probably join one of the gun clubs as a regular participant.

***** (5 Star Activity Rating)

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Had a good day In Palm Springs

It was hotter than Hell!

By the time I decided to leave it was 104F, but what a great day.

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I went to Palm Springs for a shooting match.

I was expecting to meet a friend who’s a regular participant but I’d screwed up on my calendar, I was supposed to meet him NEXT Sunday! OOOOPPPSSS!

I’d showed up with my camera, not a gun so there was perhaps some understandable suspicion on the part of the gun club members. My plan had been to snap some pictures of my buddy and his daughter while they participated in the competition.

After I’d observed for a while, one of the folks participating in the match spoke to me. When I told him I wasn’t a spy for “The Other Side” trying to dig up dirt on the evils of guns he laughed and opened right up. 

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I’d screwed up and my friend wasn’t going to be there, but I decided to stay, observe and learn what I could. As it turns out that was a good decision. The crew shooting was a gregarious bunch and genuinely decent people. Two Englishmen were perhaps the most welcoming. 

After spending about half the day watching, I decided that I will be out there again next Sunday. Next time I’ll be participating. I think it’s something that I’d like to do as a bit of a hobby.

We’ll see how it goes after next weekend. 

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Holy Shit Batman… There’s a picture of a gun! Lets arrest everyone

Ok, this is sooooo over the top I can’t even wrap my head around it.

Aa Second Amendment montage good one

In general I like Canadians, I’ve even thought about living and working in the Great White North from time to time. Well after reading this article…

All I can say is NO FUCKING WAY!

My Brother is probably right… (As Usual about such things) Alaska might be a better choice of place to live, since he & I are both more about being left the hell alone to live our lives.

The article is from the thespec.com and details how a father was arrested, strip searched, his wife & 15 month old child detained and removed from their home, their other three children placed in protective custody by the Canadian child protective services all because his daughter Drew… YES you read that correctly DREW as in on paper with a crayon… a picture of a gun

Are you fucking kidding me?

As I read the article I couldn’t believe how crazy this whole thing was. I’ll tell you this If I was this guy… I’d have been way less that cooperative and After my release I wouldn’t be accepting an apology… I’d be seeking damages in a court of law.

Since when does ANY civilized country arrest someone without informing them of the charges?

In this case I had to keep reminding myself that we were talking about Canada, not some third world cesspool like Iraq or Iran where death squads do this kind of thing on a daily basis.

This behavior is exactly why the NRA screams every time some idiot mayor or city decides that the 2nd amendment doesn’t apply to them.

In fact reading stuff like this makes me want to join the NRA! Living as I do in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia, I know it’s only a matter of time before some asshole in Sacramento will figure a way to suspend the 2nd amendment. Well they can try…

I’ve put snapshots of the article out here too so that if the Canadian government orders thespec.com to take the article down, out of embarrassment you’ll still be able to read it.

Frankly the Canadians should be embarrassed by their over-reaction.

TheSpec Man arrested after daughter draws picture of gun Page 1

TheSpec Man arrested after daughter draws picture of gun Page 2

TheSpec Man arrested after daughter draws picture of gun Page 3