First-time applicants for a handgun license must now prove that they have been members of a shooting club for at least a year. In addition, all applicants must provide a note from a doctor about their mental health.
So you have to spend a year in a club without having access to a firearm? And this is the kind of gun laws people want for this country.
Speakertweaker is a Texan, the land where printing can get you in trouble. He agrees with me that open carry should be legal, but warns “Don’t overdrive your headlights,” using a Drivers’ Ed metaphor. Every time something like this comes up, folks seem to think I’m advocating never pushing beyond people’s comfort level. That’s not what I’m saying. But you do have to be cognizant not to push so far beyond most people’s understanding that they dismiss you, rather than thinking.
Most people don’t feel a need to carry a gun in public. We don’t live in a society that’s so absolutely plagued by violence that most people are thinking about carrying a firearm for self-protection everywhere they go. That’s why people have a difficult time wrapping their heads around carrying openly to a kids’ soccer game. The disconnect for people is that they assume that carrying a firearm is a large burden, when it is not. It’s less burdensome than carrying a cell phone. When people see that it is burdensome, even if it’s only socially burdensome, they aren’t going to conclude that people who carry firearms for self-protection are normal, they are going to conclude they are unusually fearful. That’s not really the image we want people to have of public carry.
“Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family.Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility.When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts – not a free society.â€
And I thought the Clintons were dirty. Hillary would be a godsend compared to this guy.
Yves Rossy has to either be the craziest guy in the world, or the coolest guy in the world. Quite possibly I think both. It takes some balls to jump out of a plane with a jet wing you built strapped to your back. Apparently he used it to cross the English Channel Friday. Here’s some video:
I actually won a gun in one of the raffles at the Bucks County Friends of the NRA dinner! I never win anything. From the Friends of the NRA merchandise:
NRA Edition Marlin .17HMR
Imported from Italy by Marlin, each rifle includes a carbon fiber dipped stock, four-shot and seven-shot clip magazines, and stainless steel heavy bull barrel. Perfect for a long day at the range or hunting varmint. With the NRA logo lasered on its stock, this rifle will boost any hunter’s collection.
That’s not all I got either. I bid in the silent auction too, and ended up with one of these, which I figure I can use to store powder and primers:
NRA Tool Chest
Up and coming Friends events are a hidden secret. The NRA limited edition Kimber Custom II 1911 went for 690 dollars. The Smith & Wesson .38 Small Cheif’s special NRA edition revolver went for like 320 bucks. This is a bit cheaper than you’ll get them on the open market, and all the proceeds are going to a good cause. The manufacturers donate these guns to the NRA Foundation to be auctioned.
The Garand and CMP match this morning were rained out. Drat. I spent several hours last night loading up .223 to shoot my AR in the CMP match, and got up at 7:15 to make the match. Oh well, some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. I’ll try again next month.
Bitter and I are attending a Friends of the NRA event tonight. Since Friends is a program to raise money for the NRA Foundation, I can’t do any EVC electioneering outreach there. But I can introduce myself, handing out my business cards, and hoping later I might get a few people signing up to my e-mail list. Outreach is going more slowly than I would like. One problem is the people who have time to do this tend to be older, and tend to not have computers and e-mail. It’s hard communicating with these people and getting information to them. I kind of feel like I’m in the wrong generation for trying to get people involved in local efforts. We can bring a lot of new ideas, and new methods of organizing to the gun rights issue, but that doesn’t do us much good if the people I’m trying to reach don’t have the means to integrate with it.
