I kid you not (link will auto play). I actually do believe that being fit makes one a better shooter, but doping in shooting? Really? I guess the Indian NRA is a lot more exciting, at least in this respect, than the American NRA — or even USA Shooting, which is the Olympic shooting sports association for the USA.
Yesterday was the annual Congressional Shoot-Out by members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. I haven’t seen an official report yet, but word of somewhere around 3 dozen members of Congress took time out to hit the gun range.
Interestingly, not a single member of Pennsylvania’s delegation mentioned anything about attending on Twitter or Facebook. This is a shame because Pennsylvania native Olympic gold medalist Jamie Gray attended, and members of Congress from other states bragged about getting a photo with her.
It’s such a disappointment to see so little support outside of the House chamber for our sports. We’re not even talking a politically contentious side of the issue. With multiple Olympians in attendance, including a Pennsylvania gold medal winner, there are ways to make this event a completely positive photo opportunity that gets a few points with gun owners while creating no media headaches.
However, I’m tempted to give Rep. Glenn Thompson a pass since, during my search this morning to confirm the lack of Facebook posts about attending, I did stumble across an announcement for a trap shoot fundraiser on his campaign page.
UPDATE: Well, good news for some Pennsylvania gun owners. According to a comment, Rep. Glenn Thompson was actually in attendance. It just hasn’t been promoted by his office as of today.
UPDATE II: A formal report is now available:
Current CSC Co-Chair and team captain Representative Bob Latta (R-OH) was joined by his co-captain, CSC Vice-Chair Representative Rob Wittman (R-VA) as they accepted the trophy on behalf of team Republican, who edged out the Democrats by a score of 242 to 201 to take the Member Trophy for a second consecutive year. Team Democrat was lead by current CSC Co-Chair, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice-Chair, Representative Tim Walz (D-MN). …In the individual category, Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC) was named the overall Top Gun Member of Congress. The Top Gun from team Democrat was Representative Collin Peterson (D-MN) and the Top Gun from team Republican was Representative John Kline (R-MN). The Top Skeet shooter was Representative Bill Huizenga (R-MI); Representative Steve Southerland (R-FL) won the Top Trap competition and Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM) won Top Sporting Clays.
Uncle did far more thorough testing with his Bug-a-Salt than I did. I did not try it on bees, for instance. I did try it on stink bugs, and found that stink bugs are pretty hardy. With my unit, I would often find it would often dewing flies, requiring follow up shots to put it out of its misery. But it is fun.
Courtesy of Exurban Kevin, I just noticed that Tom Knapp passed away today.
Clayton Cramer blogged about the possible impact of a copper mine landslide on ammunition production, and that got me thinking about the extended impacts of today’s continued ammunition shortages.
Working with the Friends of NRA program, I’ve met several local instructors for youth shooting programs. Since most of these folks work with new junior shooters, they always start off with .22. I know at least one local Boy Scout camp shooting instructor who seriously questioned their ability to have any kind of shooting program due to the lack of ammunition. This is a long-term problem, folks. Every opportunity we lose to introduce new shooters to safe firearms handling is an opportunity to lost creating another pro-gun voter in the future. At the very least, it’s the loss of someone who likely won’t become hysterical gun policy debates because they at least have some basic understanding of firearms.
I’ve actually thought about getting back into shooting at Sebastian’s club more this year since I largely haven’t shot anything in a good year or more. But then that goes to the issue of not wanting to use up what ammunition we have knowing that we can’t easily get more of it.
A local gun shop is showing their new shipment of 50,000 rounds 5.56 which is already on sale (normally, they wait and put all ammo on sale on Saturday mornings) and even available for up to 10 boxes purchased at a time. Meanwhile, the few boxes of .22 are limited to one box per customer. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the shock of .22 being the high demand caliber of ammunition.
I am thinking about pestering Sebastian to fix my Crosman this year so I can shoot air gun again. A quick search of places that sell pellets actually show specials to get a free tin (or multiple free tins!) of pellets with a purchase. That’s a very refreshing change to see. (For what it’s worth, any air gun billed as “tactical” makes me laugh.)
Apparently a huge landslide has happened in an open pit mine that supplies 17 percent of US copper. Gun folks are already pretty good recyclers, but I think we can do better, and we’re going to have to do better. There’s only so much copper and lead in the world, and as we use up all the easy supplies, it’s not going to get anything but more expensive. A lot of clubs and ranges these days do lead reclamation, but many don’t. As the price of raw materials goes up, it’s going to become more and more important that we recover most of the lead and copper we shoot. It’s not only better for the environment, it’s just going to make economic sense once the raw materials hit a certain price point.
h/t Tam.
A Bucks County man was arrested after attempted to steal ammo from the Hamburg Cabela’s. Locally, one of our gun stores was the victim of an ammo theft as well. I wonder if even the crooks are having a hard time getting a hold of ammunition. You’d think not, since criminals don’t tend to practice with guns, but it’s possible the less scrupulous are realizing there’s decent money to be had reselling ammo.
If you’re looking for some positive press for gun ownership and use in your area, make sure you do your homework on who you pitch at a local paper or other outlet. The same group that published an op-ed mocking the idea that guns can be used to defend families also ran an article promoting 4-H’s program to teach youth how to shoot safely.
In the article, they note that at least two parents who have brought their kids up through the 4-H shooting program at Branch Valley Fish Game & Forestry Association have claimed that their child’s grades improved as a result of the concentration they learned in the shooting sports. I love this quote:
Jordan Bell, 12, of Chalfont, said she signed up when she learned her friends were going through the program.
“I really like it, on Friday I can’t wait for school to end because I know I’m going to come here,” Jordan said. “I like being able to improve — trying to outdo myself.”
That’s pretty much an anti-gun advocate’s worst nightmare. A 12-year-old girl who decided to try shooting because her friends did it and is now so hooked on the sport that she’s going to spend her summer on the range. I feel like someone will need to get some smelling salts up to Joan Peterson if she reads this story.
Even better, the article closes by telling parents how they can get their children involved with the added note that it’s only $3 a week to cover the equipment and ammo expenses.
Some have speculated that the ammo shortage is a result of market manipulation by the government. I think the shortage is a social phenomena largely the same as a run on banks. All it takes is an initial panic to get it started, like say, the government threatening to steal 10% of deposits, in the case of banks, or the government threatening a rash of new, draconian gun laws, in the case of ammo. Once the initial panic buyers clear the shelves, then other people start to join the panic because the shelves are bare. Most gun owners don’t shoot all that often, and tend to buy ammo as they go rather than stockpile. If all those people decide they need to stockpile, because they don’t know when they’ll see another box of .223, the panic feeds on itself. Add to that the fact that you hear a lot of talk of coming civil wars in gun circles these days, and you have a recipe for bare shelves for quite some time. Are the huge government orders affecting the supply? I don’t know enough about the ammo business to speak to that, but it’s certainly not helping the panic.
Midway USA has a million active customers. This is one of the companies that the gun control crowd claims funds NRA:
Please note that NRA “Round-Up” contributions come from you, our Customers, and each week since 1992 we have sent your contributions directly to the NRA/ILA National Endowment for the Protection of the 2nd Amendment. Our Customers should get all the credit for that, we just collect and remit your money. Now, in March of 2013 came another milestone to celebrate – one million active Customers – Customers who have ordered from MidwayUSA during the last twelve months. For a country kid from Missouri, that’s an amazing milestone.
Midway is one of NRA’s largest, if not the largest corporate donors, but it’s all done voluntarily by the customers… the one million customers. Like I said, the gun control proponents go through great lengths to convince themselves they aren’t battling millions of real people, but that would make them kind of awful, wouldn’t it?
It’s hard for me to think of any activity or past time people engage in that I find horrible enough that I think it ought to be taken away from them. Even though I will admit I like being able to go out without having to deal with cigarette smoke, as a general principle of freedom I remain opposed to public smoking bans. That’s about the closest thing I can think of. It’s hard to think of anything else that doesn’t involve a tragedy of the commons issue. I guess I just don’t have any Carrie Nation type moral crusading tendencies. I have enough going on managing my own life. I definitely don’t have the time to manage anyone else’s.
