I’m off to head down to Bitter’s.  This weekend, we’re doing a shooting class with her coworkers at the shooting range in Quantico, VA. I have the car loaded up with enough guns and ammo to fight World War III.
Year: 2007
Buy Some Ammo Day
August 28th, to coincide with the Brady and Jesse Jackson protests. I could use some 5.45x39mm to take to the GBR 2007. David has the details.
I don’t know if Red’s has 5.45x39mm non-corrosive, but if he does I’ll surely buy more than five boxes. If not, I buy a lot of other calibers too.  Buy some ammo from Red’s that day.
A True Gun Nut
You know your a gun nut when your realtor tells you that you need to remove some “clutter” from your fridge, in order not to scare potential buyers.
Last night I had one of those gun nut moments as I moved an empty PSL magazine and a Soviet PSO-1 scope from my table to make room for the laptop.  BTW, if anyone knows how to make fine adjustments on that scope for zeroing, I’d be most appreciative. The manual for it is in Cyrillic.
Fun Facts About Me
I was reminded of something peculiar about myself when I was riding into work today.  When I see a dead animal, in this case a raccoon tits up on the side of the road, with it’s little raccoon feet sticking up into the air, I think it’s really funny and can’t help but giggling.
I guess I should feel guilty about this, but let’s face it, if you were in the same situation, and a raccoon could laugh at you, it would. It’s unfortunate that animals have to die for my amusement, but I figure all the people who think that’s a sad spectacle kind of balances it all out.
I Guess He’s Alive
Apparently Senator Casey and Senator Specter are taking separate positions on I-80 tolls in Pennsylvania. I think Center Daily is on drugs, because their positions sound the same to me:
But U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Robert Casey, in separate Ag Progress Days news conferences, took divergent stances.
Casey said he supports the position of Rendell, who signed Act 44, the state transportation funding bill, into law. The law calls for up to 10 tolling stations along the 311 miles of I-80, to be planned and managed by the state Turnpike Commission.
Of the Peterson amendment, Casey said: “I don’t think that’s a good idea — we need all the revenue we can get. … I don’t think it (the amendment) will carry the day in the Senate.”
Specter took a hands-off position, saying 511 of the 535 U.S. House and Senate members are from other states and alluding to a proper balance of federal and state authority.
“I-80 tolling has to be decided by the state government,” Specter said. “This is a Pennsylvania issue. You don’t want all the decisions coming out of Washington, D.C.”
The real news here is that Senator Casey is, in fact, alive, and speaking to the media. Seriously, I barely even know that Bob Casey exists, and I have a lot of Pennsylvania political issues and federal issues Google alerted. Arlen Specter may be a nut, but at least I know he’s there.
I’m not one to want my Senators to do anything for me really. But I at least like to know they are alive and have opinions.
More Evidence It’s Not Just Criminals
The VPC is bragging in this editorial about putting gun dealers out of business:
Tougher laws and stricter enforcement cost nearly 200,000 U.S. gun dealers their licenses since the mid-1990s, a new study shows.
Led by remarkably sharp declines in states including California, Florida and Washington, the number of federally licensed firearms dealers fell 79 percent nationwide since 1994. In that year, Congress adopted new gun-control measures that still spark fiery debate.
“The sharp drop in gun dealers is one of the most important, and little noticed, victories in the effort to reduce firearms violence in America,†declared Marty Langley, a policy analyst with the Violence Policy Center.
What the VPC is not telling you is that most of those licensed dealers were collectors who obtained Type 01 FFLs for their own purposes. During the Clinton Administration, a decision was made to put “kitchen table” dealers out of business. They were portrayed as people who sold guns to criminals, when in reality, they were collectors who bought guns for themselves, and sold a few here and there to friends and family.  Sure, I won’t deny there were some bad apples in the bushel, but by in large, getting a type 01 FFL was a way to save money if you were into collecting firearms.
Clinton shut that down by directing the ATF not to issue dealer licenses to anyone who wasn’t zoned as a business. That’s where most of the reduction came from. After that, the only option for people like me was a type 03 FFL, which only applies for certain firearms. For firearms that are not C&R, I still have to go through a type 01 or type 02 FFL.
The government has been making it increasingly difficult to operate business selling firearms. This certainly makes folks at the VPC, and most other gun controllers ecstatic.
Just remember though, they only want to target criminals, and illegal guns.  It’s not about destroying the shooting culture in this country or anything, so that a political climate can be created to destroy the second amendment. If you think that, clearly you’re just a paranoid militant.
City of Philadelphia Terminating Club Lease
The City of Philadelphia appears to be terminating the lease of Holmesburg Fish and Game Protective Association, which is a shooting club in the Northeast:
On Wednesday August 1st the City of Philadelphia notified the Holmesburg Fish & Game Protective Association that it was terminating our lease and that we must vacate the premises and remove all personal property by December 31, 2007. The notice was hand-delivered to the club by several uniformed representatives of a city agency.
Remember this folks, when they tell you that they have no desire to target legal gun owners. It is a lie. The only object of the anti-gunners is the end of gun ownership in the United States. If there’s anyone who doubts that at this point, they aren’t paying enough attention.
Quote of the Day
From Les Jones, talking about reasons to hate Star Wars Episode I:
Someone said a better name for Episode I would have been How a Bill Becomes Law in Space. It’s as if George Lucas wrote the script after being audited by the IRS and getting his building plan rejected by the county zoning commission.
Indeed.
Seems I’ve Inserted Myself Into Idaho Blogotics
You know, it’s funny, as someone who supports gay marriage, thinks abortion ought to remain legal, and has little problem with profanity or other such vulgarities, I still feel I could have a more reasonable discussion with Clayton Cramer on the issues than I could with progressive Idaho bloggers it seems.
At some point, you guys need to learn that just because you disagree with someone on some topics, that doesn’t mean the proper response is to fling poo. I’d like to think that we’ve evolved beyond that particular trait of certain other primates. If you disagree with Clayton, then explain to me why you are correct, and he is wrong. If you can’t, then don’t expect me to take you seriously.
I generally don’t accentuate the areas where I disagree with Clayton Cramer on, because I’m a gun blogger, and on that particular topic, we’re pretty much in agreement. But I wouldn’t be taking time to criticize Idaho Progressives if I didn’t think their criticism, if it can even be called that, had gone so far off the deep end as to be almost comical.
Oh, and, by the way, my blog dashboard highlights my Technorati links. Believe me, I have better things to do than go searching for what Idaho Progressives are saying about me. I’m pretty sure Clayton does too.
Profile of a Gun Control Advocate
It’s often said that a conservative is a liberal who’s just been mugged. It’s probably just as often that someone who’s been affected by violence turns into an outspoken and hard working activist for gun control. I know of few people who are truly passionate about the issue who haven’t been personally affected. It’s not surprising, really. We’re passionate about stopping them because we also have a personal stake in the outcome as shooters.
The Ventura County Reporter has a profile of Tim Heyne, who has been spreading gun control ordinances throughout Southern California:
That black day occurred on Memorial Day in 2005. Heyne and his wife, Jan, were with Heyne’s best friend, Steve Mazin, when Mazin’s neighbor, who held a grudge, approached the trio and shot them all. Mazin and Jan were killed. Heyne was left for dead with three bullets to the chest, but he survived and eventually recovered. All this, despite the fact that Mazin had a restraining order.
Mazin’s neighbor, as someone who had a restraining order on them, was not legally able to possess or purchase a firearm.
“Gun control is an incendiary term which the opposition likes to use because it sounds very condescending,†he said. “It speaks to the Second Amendment. What we are about is having sensible, responsible and accountable gun laws to keep the public safe.â€
The group Heyne refers to as “we†is the Brady Center headquartered in Washington, D.C. Heyne organized the Ventura County chapter, ignoring the warnings from seasoned gun control advocates that it was the Wild West of gun ownership. In recognition of this feat, the Brady Center will be honoring Heyne for his work on gun control issues in November.
California is the wild west of Gun Ownership? Maybe in 1883, but California’s shooting community has been taking a beating since 1989, and isn’t wielding a whole lot of political power these days. I’m all for having “sensible, responsible and accountable laws that keep the public safe”. But gun control doesn’t do that. Mr. Heyne is a shining example of its failure, as the federal and state laws that disarm people subject to a restraining order did not stop someone that was intent on murder. Is it so crazy to suggest that an honest man with a gun could have?
UPDATE: Joe Huffman has a telling quote as well.