The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
I congratulate Ryan on his new computerized A&D system:
On top of that we have modified our system to fit the specifications of the ATF Seattle Field Division. ATF Director of Industry Operations Richard Van Loan had earlier stated that if we would have gotten a computerized system that he would have never revoked our license.
And the bad news:
The ATF is still moving forward on revoking our license.
Can you hear the cah-ching of your tax dollars being flushed down the toilet?
Jeff Soyer responds to a statement by Peter Hamm of The Brady Campaign on the Castle Doctrine law in Mississippi: “Do we want to kill every 16-year-old kid we find stealing a car stereo?” Jeff’s response:
Actually, yes we do. Here’s why: Because after a few of these teen thugs are removed from the scene, their peers will get the message that stealing is wrong. They’re not getting that instruction from their parents or prosecutors or judges so it’s left to us — the law abiding members of society and the victims of these criminals — to educate them ourselves.
Further, if they (the miscreants) don’t get that message, they continue to steal and emboldened by toothless laws tend to move-up to more serious crimes such as assault, muggings, and home invasions — often resulting in the death of their victims (us!).
This isn’t something I can get behind. Even under castle doctrine laws, it’s illegal an immoral to execute someone (and that is what you are doing, make no bones about it) for stealing your property. I am entirely in favor of people being able to use, and using deadly force to protect themselves and others. If you confront a car stereo thief, and he threatens you with a weapon, you are within your rights to use deadly force on your attacker. If he runs away with your car stereo, that’s a job for the police.
In order to enjoy the benefits of living under government in a peaceful society, we largely agree to surrender our right of retribution to the state, and to rely on it to punish people who take our property. We retain the right and means of self-defense as a people. Seeking retribution for petty crimes is the proper role of the police and the court system, not of individual citizens. I admire Jeff’s clear thinking on a great many issues, but if we are to convince our fellow citizens that castle doctrine is not “vigilantism”, then we must not feed that fire by actually advocating that.
I noticed Uncle linked to this piece in the Seattle PI. It’s worthwhile to remind everyone exactly who Richard Feldman is. As it mentions at the end of the article, Feldman “became too close to ‘the enemy’ and was sacked as a lobbyist.” Feldman was canned because he was more interested in cutting deals with anti-gunners, and seeking out media attention than he was fighting for gun rights.
Now, before anyone goes “But Sebastian, you always say that sometimes you have to make a deal?” That’s true, but there’s a difference between brokering a deal that makes something that would be really bad a bit less awful, which sometimes you have to do, and actively trying to make deals you don’t need to with the anti-gunners and hope they go away happy.  We all know that won’t work.  Feldman is the latter type.
It’s worthwhile to remember why he was forced to resign from his position at American Shooting Sport Council.  After a series of disastrous appeasements of the Clinton Administration, Feldman became an advocate for settling the lawsuits that were brought by various cities against the firearms industry instead of fighting them. Feldman poorly understood when it was smart to cut a deal, and when you should fight. NRA chose to fight, and the industry quickly got together on that and showed Feldman the door.
So it’s worthwhile to remember that Feldman has an axe to grind.
The NRA, he says, would love to see Hillary Clinton in the White House, because once again it would have an adversary in power. “In the endless struggle, it is always better to fight than to win,” he said last week. “For the NRA, losing is winning.”
And the NRA will spend large sums of money trying to defeat Hillary, just like they did Al Gore, even though Feldman also claims Al Gore would have been better for fund raising. If they are in it merely for the money, it would seem that they don’t know what’s good for them.
The gun issue ain’t going away folks, and there will never be a time when we can stop fighting and NRA can go back to being a shooting sports organization. I doubt highly that Chris Cox lies awake at night worrying he might be so successful that he’ll be out of a job.
Armed and Safe talks about why he’ll never vote for Rudy. I have to say, it’s a compelling reason. You know, if Fred doesn’t pull it off, even I might have to vote for Ron Paul.
Looks like the Philadelphia Police have a suspect.
Considering what Countertop is saying, I think Jeanmarie Devolities Davis is about to get a harsh lesson in how politics works in the gun issue. There really aren’t many anti-gun votes to attract, bit there are an awful lot of pro-gun votes to lose if you offend on this issue.
I decided to head over to the club this morning and try my hand at International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association (IHMSA) shooting. I’m a long ways off a respectable score, but I don’t think I totally embarrassed myself. I got at least one on every position. There is a few things I’ve discovered, though.  One is that my Ruger Mk.III Hunter’s factory sights are entirely inadequate for this kind of shooting. At 75 and 100 yards, the front nylon dot was larger than the targets. At 100 yards, my bullets were impacting dirt, because I wasn’t compensating enough for the drop at that distance. Two is I need to practice more. I haven’t shot handgun in several months, and it showed. I also need to learn to slow down and not rush my shots. I’ve had that problem with our e-postal matches too. Three, air gun silhouette shooting is a lot more fun than I would have imagined, and it’s pretty cheap to get into.
I think I can definitely up my score next time with a little practice, and a better sight for my Ruger. I also think I will need to get myself a decent air pistol. The organizer of our Silhoutte shoot let be borrow his, but I’m told a pretty decent one can be had for under 200 dollars.  I would definitely like to try that again when they resume shooting in March.
TD has some advice to Sturm & Ruger. I couldn’t agree more. I am less than pleased with my Mk.III Hunter. It shoots fine, but all the extraneous idiot proofing features make a bitch to clean and disassemble. I agree it would be unwise for Ruger to enter the AR-15 market, but they could do something with the 10/22 and Mini line to make it as easy to accessorize as the AR platform.
Ruger’s big problem is they become a politically correct gun company in a market that doesn’t want politically correct guns. I think Ruger still needs to stay in the beginner target .22 market, but they need to make guns for serious shooters as well.