Merry Christmas to you all. Let’s all enjoy it. The Grinch is coming to town on January 20th, and we don’t yet know which presents he’s going to try to take away.
Month: December 2008
Guns Stolen from Class III SOT
Looks like one of the Class III dealers attending the Valley Forge Gun Show decided to stop and have some dinner with $200,000 worth of inventory in the back of his truck, and $5,000 cash. It got broken into, and the contents stolen.
If I had $200,000 dollars worth of Title II firearms in the back of my truck, and I got hungry, I think the drive through would work just fine. Not only are those firearms now in criminal hands, they are no longer available to the civilian market. If I am ever in the market for a machine gun, I won’t be buying it from Arms & Ordnance.
Getting Your Letters Published
American Manifesto managed to get a letter to the editor published in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He followed Bitter’s advice about waiting until they actually publish the letter before blogging about it. It’s a good idea, since papers won’t print what’s already been printed.
Merry Christmas Eve
I hope you’ll keep the important things in mind today and tomorrow. I know I’m looking forward to the small things about Christmas.
For those of you who received a little extra something from either work or gifts, I leave you with this excerpt from an article on the state of charitable giving. Read it all the way to the end, as the last number may surprise you.
Charitable organizations are feeling the effects of the economic downturn, too. A recent news story entitled “Giving season struggles to earn its name” lamented that this year’s charitable giving total is unlikely to top last year’s total of $306 billion. It will be only the second time in 40 years that charitable giving failed to grow from one year to the next.Certainly, that’s bad news for organizations that depend on private contributions, particularly given that the poor economy will increase demand for many charitable services. Yet there is a very “glass half-full” way of looking at the statistics: Americans’ ongoing willingness to give, even as their household wealth shrinks by trillions of dollars, is testimony to the true generosity of our citizens.
Americans stand out in the world for their commitment to private charity. Americans don’t lead the pack just in terms of total dollars donated but also when giving is measured as a percentage of gross domestic product. In 2005, private giving in the United States was 1.67 percent of GDP, more than twice the next most charitable country, the United Kingdom, which gave away just 0.73 percent of its GDP.
A recent report released by the Philanthropic Collaborative shows that Americans’ commitment to charitable giving is more than a sign of compassion. It’s also an important investment in the country’s well-being. The report measures the impact of private and community foundation giving, and it suggests that the grants made by these organizations produce very large economic returns. The authors estimate that each dollar of grants provided by the foundations generates $8.58 of economic benefit.
NICS Data for 2008
Cemetery lists the NICS data for the entire year of 2008, up through October. There was definitely a spike beginning in October as gun owners read the writing on the wall in regards to the election. It’ll be very interesting to see the final November and December numbers once they come out.
UPDATE: November 2008 numbers are 1,529,635, so yup, quite a spike. Last year’s November numbers were half a million less.
Careful Para
Joe Huffman points out that the ParaUSA Calender’s December March model is non-functional. I have to admit I didn’t notice what was wrong until someone pointed it out, and then I felt stupid :)
Part II from the Machine Gun Lawyer
Greg posted Part II.  If this is true, then I think most NFA rentals are probably unlawful?
The biggest misconception of the NFA is the definition of Transfer. Most lay people (non lawyers) would use the definition found in a dictionary to interpret a transfer. Unfortunately that is not the way it works with the law. When a word is defined in a statute, you must read the statute with the definition that is contained within. In this case the word transfer creates many pitfalls for the typical consumer. Until recently if you asked anyone if it was ok to let someone else use your silencer, SBR, or Machine Gun while in your presence at the rage, they would almost always say it was permitted.
In fact, this is a violation because it is a transfer under the NFA. Only in the last year or so, since I began pointing it out to consumers has there been anything written on this topic.
I always figured a transfer only happens if you assume physical control over the device outside of the supervision of the person who legally possess it. In other words, shooting a friends legal subgun on the range is fine. Taking it home with you is a transfer.
How To Get Linked
There’s been a bit of activity around the gun blogosphere about linky love not being shared as freely as some would like. This is the eternal problem of the blogger, namely, how to get linked and build an audience. There are some things I’ve found which work.
You have to think of your blog as an enterprise, so in order to get linked, you have to market yourself. Now, there are smart ways to market yourself, and annoying ways to market yourself. A smart way to market yourself is to pimp your best material around to other bloggers. Note that I’m saying your best material. Not all your material is great, because I know at least half (probably more) of the stuff I post is crap. There’s a fine line between occasionally e-mailing a post you think is good, and putting a blogger on your mailing list to receive every single post or mailing you send out. The former is acceptable, and even welcome. The latter is annoying.
A second way is to link to bloggers as a way of getting their attention. Now, when I say link, I don’t just mean point out something the other blogger said. If you’re linking up the food chain, this is especially important: the blogger up the food chain will know what he said. He will also likely know what other bloggers at his level in the food chain have said. The trick in marketing your blog through strategic linking is to offer something that advances the conversation. The essence of blogging really, is a rolling conversation (or rhetorical food fight, depending on the subject).
Understand that bloggers have editorial priorities. Even if what you have is very good, it might not fit in with what the blogger wants to blog about that day, or the blogger just might have better things to do at the moment, and by the time he gets around to your post, his editorial priorities are different. Also understand that bloggers who cover a lot of blogs, like I do, have to resort to a lot of skimming to get to it all. We miss a lot that way. Your fine literary work may have actually just gone unoticed by someone who does generally follow your blog. It happens. Also understand some bloggers are more generous with links that others. SayUncle links more than me, and I link more than, say, Jeff Soyer. If you target a blog who never links around, you’re a lot less likely to get something in return.
If you follow these guidelines, you should get links every now and then, and people will start noticing you. That assuming, of course, you’re following the first rule of blogging, which is to have something to say. A lot of bloggers post a lot, but don’t really say much. Having something to say can be a lot of work, but if you do, and you’re marketing well, things should be happening for you. If they aren’t, it’s likely a deficiency in one of those two key things.
Indianapolis Mayor for Gun Control
Ahab has some things to say bout the proposal of the Indianapolis mayor that the state needs more Illinois style gun control laws. He’s certainly not the first Indiana mayor to think this.
UPDATE: Got that article confused with this one, where the mayor actually does advocate more gun control.
Knives at a Gunfight
Brillianter has some interesting things to say about bringing knives to gunfights.