June 2008 – Page 10 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Home Improvement With a Gun

No, I’m not talking about that guy who used a .22LR to try to bore a hole in his house for installing a satellite dish, and accidentally shot his wife.Â I borrowed my friend Jason’s nail gun to get some last minute baseboards installed in the loft area, where the builders and previous owners have so far neglected to put them.Â Baseboards are one of those things I thought were mostly decorative, until you see what happens to drywall when you don’t have them, especially on corners.

After using a nail gun, there’s no way I could ever go back to a hammer.Â I’m not sure how civilization made due before the nail gun.Â Â The Amish don’t know what they are missing.Â Clearly a barn raising could be done before noon if they adopted this technology, and then they could spend the rest of the day drinking, if the Amish actually drank.Â Â Perhaps this is why they eschew technology, because with all the spare time, what are you going to do?Â Drink, and watch TV.Â It’s a vicious cycle.

Now we just need to finish the painting in that room, and get Bitter’s stuff put up there, and we’re good to move on to painting the bedroom.Â Before too long, I might not feel like I’m living in a warehouse!

My New Hero

Why can’t we run this guy, instead of McCain?Â Â Seriously.Â And he’s NRA “A” rated too.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=LPc9xG1sajI[/youtube]

The delivery is top notch, I think.

Al Gore Hot Air

Apparently Americans for Prosperity was planning to take their “Hit Air Balloon Tour” right over Al Gore’s house in honor of his ever growing energy consumption.Â Â Seems they had the permits all lined up, and out of nowhere, the permits got revoked:

Sure enough, just a few hours before our event was scheduled to kick off, the Nashville Parks and Recreation Department has been in touch, claiming that theÂ permit they approved doesn’t allow us to launch our balloon from the city park where we’re holding our event — even though we told them repeatedly exactly what we planned to do.

Roy Wilson, the director of the Board of Parks and Recreation, has even reportedly told one of our staffers on the ground that Nashville police officers will be on hand and will physically restrain members of our crew if they attempt to launch the balloon.

And if that weren’t enough:

UPDATE 3:00 pm Eastern time: Roy Wilson at the Nashville Parks Department must not have liked our earlier post, since he just completely revoked our permit — even though his department’s own rules state that he can’t do that unless we break a law or one ofÂ the department’s rules, which we haven’t done and have no intention of doing.Â Then he hung up on our legal counsel.

In the meantime, good news to report — we’ve secured a private location for this afternoon’s event.Â We’ll be in a field at the corner of Sneed and Vaughn Roads — just about a mile and a half from the original event location.

You’d almost thing that someone didn’t want to deal with being publically embarassed.Â After all, he’s Al Gore.Â He’s hunting down and trying to kill manbearpig.Â Who are we little people to queston the great one?

Anti-Gun Bills in California Headed to Senate

They passed the assembly earlier in the week, and are now slated to head to the Senate:

Assembly Bill 2062 was passed by the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, June 17. The bill now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee for its consideration.

Sponsored by State Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), AB2062 would make it a crime to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a â€œhandgun ammunition vendorâ€ in the Department of Justiceâ€™s database.

Internet bulk ordering?Â Forget about it.Â It’ll be illegal.Â And as if that weren’t bad enough:

Assembly Bill 2235 has been assigned to the Senate Public Safety Committee and is scheduled to be heard next Tuesday, June 24.

This legislation would prohibit the sale of handguns other than “owner-authorized (or â€œsmartâ€) handguns”– that is, handguns with a permanent, programmable biometric feature that renders the firearm useless unless activated by the authorized user.

And, of course, law enforcement is exempt.Â I guess either their kids don’t matter, or this isn’t about kids at all, but about making sure people can’t buy guns that actually work.

First National Bank Hates Gun Owners?

Looks as if that car dealer who was giving away a gift certificate for a gun with the purchase of a car is getting jerked around by their bank.Â I’m reserving judgement until more information comes out, but this doesn’t look good for FNB.

UPDATE: Cam Edwards says it’s the First National Bank of Kansas that Max Motors is talking about.Â He’s going to call and get their side of the story on Monday.

Learn More About Ammo Than You Ever Wanted to Know

Last night I was looking for reloading data on how to closely match NATO spec M193, since my package of 500 Lake City 5.56×45 brass arrived last night.Â I found some interesting information in my search.Â Â The first is on the history of the powers that were used in the production of M193 round.Â The second is some background and comparison of the Chinese 5.8x42mm round against other commonly used rounds.Â Neither of these are new, but I found them interesting, and thought maybe readers would too.

PGC Looking to Reopen Ranges

According to the Times-Leader, the public range at State Game Lands 91 will be rebuilt and reopened in October.Â My county’s range was closed in 2005 as well, and I do hope it can reopen at some point.Â The closure of that range was my primary impitus for joining a club.Â Even if they reopen the range, I probably won’t shoot there much, but public ranges are important for hunters, casual shooters, and new shooters.

Looks like PGC is going all out on this one, with a covered firing line, baffles, an improved back stop, and a management program to prevent lead contamination.

Guns Magazine AOW

SayUncle discovered Guns Magazine were mistakenly making an AOW:

On page 58, is a similar pic with a note that says something like equipped with a surefire flashlight and forward grip, it makes a fine home defense weapon. Trouble is that ATF holds that attaching a vertical forward grip to a pistol makes the pistol an Any Other Weapon (AOW). The manufacture of an AOW (which you would do simply by putting a foreward grip on a pistol) requires payment for a $200 tax stamp and an extensive background check.

It goes to show how easy it is to violate federal firearms law.Â We’re often told that gun control doesn’t affect ordinary gun owners, only criminals and nutjobs.Â Well, sorry, that’s bullshit.Â It’s easy to become a felon in this hobby if you don’t know what you’re doing.Â And when I say don’t know what you’re doing, I mean that you have a better knowledge of the laws in this area than the average lawyer.Â That’s a tall order for any hobby, and I can’t think of too many others that are the legal minefield ours is.

Paterson Goes on Anti-Gun Offensive

New York Govenror David Paterson is negotiating with Democrats in the New York House of Representatives to get his gun control package passed.Â His package includes requiring the taking of a training course before gun licenses are issued, no matter how long you’ve been shooting, and no matter how familiar you are with guns.Â Apparently this has some Democrats in New York upset, because it allows for training to be done by the National Rifle Assocation.

I actually agree with the anti-gunners that training is important, and that people need to be educated on the safe use of firearms.Â Where I depart from them, is that I don’t believe it should be a condition on exercising a constitutional right.Â Every person who graduates from high school should have had a course in safely using a firearm.Â There was a time when most high schools had shooting teams, and back then, we didn’t seem to have a problem with kids shooting up their schools.Â We teach kids safe sex because that knowledge could end up saving their lives.Â Safe handling of firearms is in the same ballpark, not to mention useful for our military readiness.

Think Paterson and the anti-gun folks would get on board with that?Â Hell no.Â Because their goal is to make it harder to buy a gun, not in looking for ways to deal with the problem of uneducated people with firearms.

Australia Relaxing Strict Gun Laws?

Looks like there have been some changes in the New South Wales government, which have allowed them to pass some easements to the insanity they passed after the Port Arthur massacre.Â As Dave Hardy said:

Looks as if, as is common in parliamentary systems, the largest party is still slightly less than a majority. And pro-gun Members formed their own party, the Shooters’ Party, which is just enough to give the dominant party a majority if it votes with them.

When I was in Louisville, I talked to a gentleman from Australia, who was forced to turn over a lifetime of collecting, worth approximately 100,000 dollars, including guns his father had given him, to the Australian authorities.Â They banned every semi-automatic and pump action firearm in the country after Port Arthur.Â If Australian shooters can start taking back what’s theirs, there’s hope for us all.Â This is a very welcome development.