July 2007 – Page 2 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Paintball Kalashnikovs

Ahab links to paintball guns that look like Kalashnikovs.Â Oddly enough, they are variants on the same type of paintball gun I have.Â I do occasionally play, but I have to admit this is kind of silly.Â Painball has absolutely nothing to do with marksmanship or equipment.Â It’s all tactics.

I’ve shot expensive paintball guns and cheap ones, and it all comes down to the fact that you can’t get a liquid filled gelatin ball to go in a consistent direction no matter what fancy things you imagine your gun does to it.Â Paintball guns that look like real ones tend to be impractical, because the mask you need to wear when playing prevents a reasonable cheek weld, and aiming doesn’t really do you any good anyway.

Advice to Squeaky Wheel

Sqeaky Wheel is looking for first time gun buying advice. I’m going to assume she’s not completely novice shooting, because I advise novices to start with an inexpensive .22LR semi-auto, work out the basics, and then move up to a pistol with actual recoil.

For concealed carry, I’m a fan of semi-autos. They are easier to shoot accurately, carry more cartridges, and are easy to reload. Of the pistols she lists, I would go with either the Glock 19 (which is what I carry) or the Springfield XD.

However, I am a 6’3″, 230lb male. I can conceal a compact frame pistol without too much difficulty. Carry for women is a more difficult proposition, because there’s no really good way to conceal. Women have curves in the wrong places for concealing a gun, and unless you’re ok with wearing baggy clothes all the time, it can be a real problem.

The best method for women is probably purse carry, but to do that you need to invest in a quality carry purse that allows quick and easy access. If you can’t draw and present the gun for firing in a few seconds, you need to rethink your method. Especially if you plan to carry a semi-auto, it’s vitally important that the firearm be contained in a proper holster within the purse. Some purse holsters come with fabric holsters that I think are entirely inadequate, because they don’t allow for easy re-holstering. If you see one with retention straps on it, ditch them. If the firearm is secure in the gun compartment of the purse, they are superfluous, and will complicate your draw. You will also need to be very careful about placing down the purse. If you’re the kind of person that misplaces it, purse carry is not for you. This is one area there’s no room for error. You also have to be prepared to thwart purse snatchers, and be prepared for them; if they get your purse, they get your gun too.

There are other deep concealment methods that can work if you practice them enough, but I’ve always been skeptical of their utility in a stress situation.

Alias or Sockpuppet?

Lessons from Macca has brought up a big question, as to whether that type of commenting is just using an alias, or engaging in sock puppetry. Sock puppetry is a distinct act, and we should be careful not to accuse it when what we’re really seeing is use of an alias. Sock puppetry requires misrepresenting yourself as another distinct person. Was the poster misrepresenting themselves as another person? Or merely trying to hide identity? To me that’s the key distinction. Sebastian, for instance, is an alias. I use it to hide my true identity, but anything I tell you about myself, or any of my opinions, are the real deal. I’m not trying to represent myself as a different person than I am.

Is Macca and alias, or a sock puppet? Discuss in the comments.

Good I-80 Toll Editorial

This CentreDaily editorial is pretty spot on:

Making I-80 a toll road is, at best, a quick fix and would disproportionately affect those living near the swath the highway cuts through the Keystone State countryside from New Jersey to Ohio. Worse, it would greatly expand the authority of the highly inefficient, patronage-laden Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Toll booths at the borders — incoming and outgoing — would be less objectionable.

Leasing the turnpike — turning over a valuable asset to a for-profit corporation with less, if any, accountability to the public — is an even worse idea.

Read the whole thing.

Pennsyvlania Sportsmen Divided on Global Warming

Good article about the divide appearing on the global warming issue among sportsmen here in the Keystone State:

An intense debate about whether global warming exists — and what should be done about it — has created a sharp division within Pennsylvania’s largest sportsmen’s organization and threatens its 71-year conservation alliance with the National Wildlife Federation.

The 100,000-member Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs has wrestled with global warming for years. But the issue came to a head in March during the group’s spring convention in Williamsport, where several delegates threatened to quit if an NWF-sponsored resolution recognizing global warming as a serious environmental problem was adopted.

I think there’s a real risk in bringing other parts of the conservative agenda into situations like this.Â While I would agree sportsmen should reject anything seriously radical, it seems to me recognizing global warming as a serious environmental problem ought not ruffle enough feathers to risk fracturing the coalition.

Lessons from Macca

So we know that SayUncle posted here his theory for what happened with the Brady Blog.Â I suspected that Macca was a young staffer, but I would appear to have been incorrect, after comments on my post here.Â I am fairly certain that I know Macca’s true identity at this point.

In the interest of decency, I’m not going to out who she/he is.Â My personal curiosity was merely to find out whether we had some real grass roots showing up on Brady’s Blog or whether we had people closely associated with the organization showing up to make it appear that way.

Macca would appear to be a board member for the Brady Campaign, and an activist with the organization in Texas.Â It would appear Macca is not full time paid staff, but nonetheless is closely associated with the organization.Â Just for contrast, SayUncle isn’t even a member of the NRA.Â I am a member, but I doubt there are any NRA board members out there who would know me if they saw me. Â I have met some prominent people in the gun rights community, but all those contacts I developed through blogging. Â Before I started blogging, I was just a number in the member database.Â I started this blog, because I cared about the issue, and I wanted to impress a chick.Â All of us have similar stories.

I have no doubt that Macca is as passionate about gun control as I am about stopping it, but if one of the few proponents of gun control that’s showing up to argue against us, on their own blog, is a Brady Board member, they have a lot of work to do getting people energized about their issue, and getting them informed.

The gun control movement has had three decades of a fawning media who were willing to eat up everything they said without question, and regurgitate it for public consumption. Â The new media isn’t going to work that way.Â We’re out here and prepared to challenge them, and their new media efforts to date stand as a shining example of how unprepared I think they are. Â They had better come up with new arguments, and get used to dealing with tough criticism and questions, because it’s not going to get any easier from here. Â We’re all going to make sure of that!

Good Luck? Or Bad Luck?

So, is it good luck that both times you’ve been struck by lightning, you survived?Â Or is it bad luck that you’ve been struck by lightning two times?Â Maybe this guy’s diet is a bit too high in iron or something.

Tell Joe What You Think?

Looks like Joe Biden will be doing a book signing event in Dickson City (near Scranton), PA.Â You could personally ask him why he thinks you’re a lunatic, if you like.Â Except that you’d actually have to buy his book.

NRA Wine Club?

This is interesting:

The National Rifle Association has created a wine club, and a donation of its proceeds go to the NRA in its battle to preserve the Second Amendment.

According to winespectator.com, NRA members can go to the organizationâ€™s Web site and shop for a variety of â€œvintage boutique wines handpicked for club members.â€ Buy $500 worth of wine, and youâ€™ll get a rebate that pays for your NRA membership, the Web site said.

According to many, the NRA are nothing but a bunch of trailer park bubbas. What’s with the hoity toity wine club? I’m not much of a wine drinker. I pretty much do the two B’s: beer and bourbon. I feel left out.

Armor Piercing Ammo

The regulations on armor piercing ammo are among the strangest of the federal firearms regulations. The first is that AP ammo is rather odd in its definition. The ATF defines it as handgun ammunition, but there’s a catch. If any handgun has ever been made in a specific caliber, then ATF considers that the AP ammo regulations then apply to that caliber. That’s why you can’t buy AP ammo for cartridges like 7.62×39 and several others. The 5.56x45NATO is specifically exempted from this, even though there are pistols made for it.

It’s perfectly legal to possess, purchase, sell or shoot armor piercing ammunition. It’s not legal to manufacture or import armor piercing ammunition.

In order to manufacture AP rounds, you have to hold a type 10 FFL (18 USC sec. 922(a)(7)). In order to import AP rounds, you have to hold a type 11 FFL (18 USC sec. 922(a)(7)). If you hold either one of these FFLs, it’s not legal to sell or export AP rounds, except to military, law enforcement (18 USC sec. 922(a)(8)). In addition, if you hold a type 06-08 FFL (manufactures of firearms, importers of firearms, manufactures of ammunition), then you also my not sell AP rounds to the general public.

For regular type 01-03 FFL holders, you may sell or deliver AP ammunition, but it must be entered into the Acquisition and Disposition Record (bound book). So if you have any AP rounds in your possession, that’s ok. But it’s been illegal to manufacture or import new ammunition that’s transferable to ordinary citizens for quite some time, and for the most part, it’s generally unavailable, and certainly not in any significant quantity for most calibers.

Of course, there are also various state restrictions. Pennsylvania prohibits KTW ammunition. NJ and NY have additional restrictions on AP ammo.