The Boy Scout Lawsuit

Good editorial in The Daily News talking about the lawsuit the Boy Scouts have filed against the City of Philadelphia, who are trying to evict them because they exclude gays.  The Inqurer has run other editorials denouncing the Boy Scouts position, and arguing the city is justified in what it’s doing.

I take a bit of a conflicted position on it, in that I believe the Boy Scouts of America is wrong for excluding homosexuals and atheists from scouting, but I also think the city is wrong for punishing this particular troop because of the backwards policies promulgated by the national organization.  The next thing you know, they’ll be punishing local shooting clubs because they don’t like what the NRA does… oh wait.

The kids in the Philadelphia Boy Scouts shouldn’t be made to suffer for the position of the national organization over which they have no control.  This is political grandstanding, pure and simple, and it’s shameful.  Scouting offers a lot of positive things to young boys, and in a city that’s in desperate need of giving young boys positive leadership, and keeping them out of trouble, it seems to me that this move is supremely short sighted on the part of the city politicians.

I understand their beef with the Boy Scouts of America.  I even share it.  But they are a private organization, and are free to exclude whoever they want.  The Boy Scouts are not a hate group.  They don’t preach discrimination, or notions that some people are better than others; they view homosexuality and atheism as immoral behavior and belief.  I disagree with them strongly on this matter, but that’s what the national organization has decided.  The city politicians should be free to denounce this all they want, but they shouldn’t go so far as punishing the boys of this local troop by canceling their lease.

Gas Riots of the 70s

The Philly media seem to act surprised that people are taking high gas prices in stride:

Twenty-nine years ago, service-station owner Steven Lankin watched as a summer-night Levittown crowd seething over gas rationing, two-hour lines at the pumps, and a then-stunning hike to $1 a gallon turn violent.

What began as a truckers’ gas-crisis protest lasted two nights, June 23 and 24, 1979. It drew thousands of people and left 100 people injured, nearly 200 arrested, and one Shell station shattered in the first gasoline revolt in American history.

When inflation is considered, today’s drivers are paying more for gas; $4 in 2008 is equivalent to $1.35 in 1979 terms. Even so, the gas-buying crowd remains civil, though unhappy, at Levittown’s Five Points intersection, where the riots broke out in front of the Getty station Lankin has run since 1964.

I think you’d find people were more pissed off at the fact that there was no gas, and people had to wait in line, because government price controls created shortages which forced the government to ration gasoline.  The price may be higher today than it was then, but because the government has, for the most part, not gotten involved with manipulating the free market price of oil, there are no shortages or lines, and we don’t need rationing.

Of course, the funny thing about the gas riots of the 70s, was you had people vandalizing gas stations over the fact that there were lines for gas, and chronic shortages, only to realize later that meant there were fewer stations that were able to sell gas.   Sounds like the kind of collective stupidity South Park likes to parody, only this time it was real.

That Didn’t Take Long

No sooner does Ahab debunk the Brady’s latest post on “God, not Guns” than it disppears down the memory hole.  Turns out a lot of gun people are really into this Jesus thing, and know their stuff.  I guess the Brady’s haven’t been listening much to Barack Obama tell them about people clinging to religion and guns.

Headline of the Day

“British Columbia Severed Feet Mystery Deepens.” I tend to think when you have severed feet washing up on shore, complete with socks and shoes, that mystery is starting off on a level that’s already about as deep as you can get.  I’m also rather surprised that this article reveals that body parts washing up on shore isn’t all that unusual.  I don’t know about you, but if I’m out in the surf with a boogie board, and I notice an uninvited passenger that turns out to be an arm, leg, or severed head — that’s it man, my ocean going days are over.

E-Postal Match – Silhuetas Metálicas

This is the June edition of Mr. Completely’s E-Postal Matches.  Many thanks to Manfred for hosting last e-postal.   Due to some confusion on my part as to when the match ended, I didn’t manage to get to the range in time this month.

Metallic Silhouette has its origins among the followers of Pancho Villa, in early twentieth century Mexico, where live animals were originally placed at various distances.  Presumably that got a bit messy, so by the mid-twentieth century they had made the transition to metallic cutouts of the live animals, and Metallic Silhouette was born.  The first match took place in Mexico City in 1952.  The targets were Gallinas (Chickens) at 200 meters, Guajalotes (Turkeys) at 385 Meters, and Borregos (Rams) at 500 meters.  Later on, the Javelina (Pigs) would be added at 300 meters.  The National Rifle Assocation began sanctioning Silhouette competition in 1972.

Since we’re limited in target type and distance in our e-postal matches, our silhouette match has to be roughly approximated.

Tenth Scale Silhouette Animals
The target we will be using is here.

Rules are this:

Place the target at 10 yards or 25 feet, whichever is available at your range. If you want to compete in the rimfire rifle category, targets will be placed at 50 feet, or about 20 yards.

Take one carefully aimed shot at each animal on the sheet, for a total of 20 shots.

Silhouette is generally shot in strings of five.  Put the target out, load the magazine up, and take 5 carefully aimed shot at each of whatever animal you’re on, going from left to right.  Start with the string of five chickens, and work your way down to the rams.

But here’s the catch with this match.  In Metallic Silhouette, if you miss your shot, and hit another animal, you loose the animal you hit, and the animal you were aiming at, so it’s a double loss.  On paper, there’s no good way to simulate animals that have been knocked down, so we’ll make the rule this:

Any animal that has two hits on it counts as a miss.  Any animal that has one shot on the silhouette or touching it, counts as a hit.  Any miss not touching an animal is just a miss.  Each hit counts as one, for a maximum score of 20.

Shooting position for all classes is offhand standing, unsupported, one or two hands allowed.

CLASSES:

CLASS ONE: Rimfire – Iron Sight. Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12″ barrel. Optical sights such as red dots, lasers, or scopes are not allowed.

CLASS TWO: Rimfire – Optic Sight. Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12″ barrel. Red dots sights, lasers, or scopes can be used.

CLASS THREE: Centerfire – Iron Sight. Any centerfire handgun with no more than a 12″ barrel. Optical sights such as red dots, lasers, or scopes are not allowed.

CLASS FOUR: Centerfire – Optic Sight. Any centerfire handgun with no more than a 12″ barrel. Red dots sights, lasers, or scopes can be used.

CLASS FIVE: Rimfire Rifle – Iron Sight. Any rimfire rifle. Optical sights such as red dots, lasers, or scopes are not allowed.  Target to be placed at 50 feet or ~20 yards.

CLASS SIX: Rimfire Rifle – Optic Sight. Any rimfire rifle. Red dots sights, lasers, or scopes can be used.  Target to be placed at 50 feet or ~20 yards.

BONUS CLASS: Masochist class.  Take as many shots as you need to hit all animals.  In this class, two shots on an animal still count as a hit.  Your score is the number of shots it takes to hit all of them.  No shotguns, please!  But if you want to enter a submachine gun, I’d be game for that :’)  I swear the ammunition manufacturers did not bribe me to create this class!

MULTIPLE ENTRIES: One entry will be taken per gun per class, though you may shoot the match as many times as you like, and submit your highest entry.  You can make multiple entries in a single class as long as you use a different gun.  You can use the same gun in two classes if you add or subtract optics.

Don’t worry if your score is low.  Silhouette is a difficult discipline, and scores aren’t supposed to be high unless you’re an expert shooter and have been doing silhouette for 20 years.  This match is meant to be difficult, and will be especially difficult for centerfire pistol shooters.  In fact, if you’re good, you will probably beat me, as I’m still a beginner.  There’s no embarrassment in scoring low, only in not submitting an entry!

Entries should be mailed to sebastian at snowflakesinhell dot com by midnight on the 30th of June, which is a Monday.   Results will be posted soon after.

UPDATE: I’ll also score anyone who wants to enter with an air pistol.  I shoot open sight with air pistol, so I’ll create a category for that if I get two shooters in the same category.

Race Baiting with Father “Snuffy” Pfleger

Apparently the reason Hillary was crying is because she felt entitled because she’s white.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H11x6bMu4Y&e[/youtube]

I actually agree with him that Hillary feels she’s entitled, but I think she feels that way because she’s Hillary.  I couldn’t give a flying fossilized pterodactyl turd that Barack Strawberry Shortcake Obama is a black guy and Hillary is a white woman.  I’m not voting for him because his policies would be bad for the country, and because I don’t want to elect a president who’s spiritual mentors continue to fan the flames of racial division.  America has had enough of that.

I Could Use This

The ultimate clip loader for the Ruger Mk II and Mk III and the Buckmark.  The only problem I’d have is that my club has a five round limit on magazines.  A highly obnoxious rule, especially if you’re an M1 shooter, but it’s mostly a shotgun and silhouette club, and it’s 10 minutes from my house.

A New Brady Blog Feature

Looks like they are trying to post more in hopes of attracting more traffic.  I was wondering why I suddenly had three new posts in Bloglines, which is unusual for them.  Either way, they point out that the guy who got into a gunfight in Seattle, and has a CHL from the State of Washington, never should have had one.  Well, the fact that get got into a scuffle with someone and shot him ought to be an indication he wasn’t the type of person who ought to be armed.  Regardless, the fact that he was addicted to a controlled substance means he wasn’t eligible to own a firearm, let alone carry one.  CeaseFire Washington had this to say:

Kristen Comer, executive director of Washington Ceasefire, a gun-control advocacy group, said the situation underscores problems with Washington state’s concealed-weapon law.

“The background checks done in Washington state are very primitive,” she said. “We didn’t have background checks before 1994.”

Right now there are two background checks, Comer said.

The state check is the equivalent of law enforcement asking each other if “John Doe is on your list,” Comer said. “And the federal system and the state system don’t talk to each other much, as far as mental health goes.”

The problem is, there is no more thorough background check that would have likely turned up these records, since it’s not clear they exist.  Was there ever a previous adjudication or commitment?  Were the authorities ever involved in his addiction treatment?  No doubt this will be used as an example of why we need ever deeper probing of carry license applicants, but it’s not clear it would have made a difference in this case.