Dave Hardy has some interesting information on active shooters. Turns out they fold rather quickly when confronted with an armed opponent.
Year: 2009
Transportation of Guns on Amtrak
Senator Wicker is looking to change Amtrak’s rule on firearms in checked baggage, so that they will have comity with airlines. I’d rather wean them off the federal teat, but if we’re going to have pseudo-socialized passenger rail, it might as well allow people to travel with firearms, as the airlines do.
How Old Is This Ammo?
I think sometimes guys at my club still have ammo in their closets that they stockpiled from the Nixon Administration. Last week when I was at the range, snooping in the brass bucket for goodies, I found 9mm brass with S&W head stamp on it. At first I thought they were .40 S&W, and was ready to leave them, but then I saw they did indeed say 9mm on them. But wait, I’ve never heard of Smith & Wesson ammo. Then I found this box in the trash:
This box lacks all the lead warning labels of modern ammunition. Also no warning about children. Clearly this box heralds from a bygone era when lead was considered an essential component of healthy nutrition, and no one would dream of suing the ammo maker if Junior found grandpa’s war bring back in the closet, and wasn’t careful enough with his muzzle and trigger discipline.
The question is, would this ammo have been worth anything to a collector? I wonder how much money this guy blew by shooting this ammo.
UPDATE: Someone pointed out the box says Keep away from children. Somehow I didn’t see that.
What’s in Your Range Bag?
I had a reader ask about a range bag he was looking at. It’s actually the exact range bag I use. He also asked, as a competitive shooter, what kind of stuff I kept in my bag. I can tell you the most important thing that should be in your range bag is the item that you won’t realize isn’t in your range bag until you get ready to shoot a match and realize you don’t have it. The thing I chronically like to forget is magazines. But here’s what’s in mine.
- A brick of .22LR, because I shoot it so much it never leaves, and is replaced when I exhaust it.
- 4.5mm Pellets for air gun shooting.
- CO2 cartridges for air gun shooting.
- Peep sight aperture for the air pistol.
- Hearing Protection. Two sets. In case something happens to one, or someone forgets their own. If you’re competing, it’s great to have electronic muffs so you can hear range commands and talk to people without having to shout.
- Spare set of eye protection in case someone on the range needs some. I wear glasses with polycarbonate lenses.
- Pencils to write down scores and various other things.
- Clipboard for keeping your scorecard in place when it’s windy, and to have a hard writing surface. Some matches provide these, but not all.
- Scorebooks for NRA and IHMSA
- IHMSA rulebook.
- Spare money. Nothing sucks worse than showing up for a match and having to run to an ATM machine before you register.
- Staple gun to hang targets.
- Masking tape to tape targets up and for patching bullet holes in targets.
- Tacks for hanging targets if staples or tape run out.
- Spare batteries for red dot optics.
- Kalashnikov front sight adjustment tool. Not much cause to use this regularly, but I use the AK for cheap practice, since ammo for it is still cheap, relatively.
- AR-15 front sight adjustment tool.
- Multitool for fixing various thing. Has bits for allen nuts, and various other things.
- Magnetic tool for picking up silhouette animals without having to bend over.
- Zip lock bags for collecting spent brass.
- Various smaller targets that can fit in the bag, just so I always have something to shoot at on me.
- Chamber flags.
That’s about it. I don’t keep oil in my range bag, because it can ruin a bag and its contents if it leaks, and it always seems to leak. Other items are transitory, like ammo, and magazines for whatever gun I happen to be shooting. I always take guns in separate cases. In my car I usually will keep a few targets, my shooting mat, my spotting scope, and a tripod for the spotting scope.
Contradictions
Thirdpower points out something that’s been bothering me too. The right wing machine is spinning these paranoid tales of Obama and Congress passing gun bans, so clearly we need to respond to these delusional lunatics by actually passing guns bans!
Sad Day for My Alma Mater
Drexel’s President has died.  This isn’t a good day for the school. Papadakis took over when I was a Junior, and in the intervening years turned the school from a regional engineering school into a nationally recognized university. Drexel added a medical school and law school under his watch. What he did with the school was incredible, and I suspect he’s irreplaceable.
Norton Caves on Gun Issue
I think the path is clearing for DC Voting rights to pass along with DC gun rights. If Elanor Norton is giving in, I don’t know what’s left stopping it:
Still, Norton has so far railed against keeping the amendment. But on Friday, she said the bill must pass — even if it means keeping a provision that, among other things, would allow residents to carry AK-47s without any registration.
So let’s pass this thing then.
Economically Sighting In
I guess when you collect safari guns, that run you 4 to 6 dollars per trigger pull, you learn a thing or two about how to sight in without going through a pile of ammunition.
More on the Mexican Gun Canard
The Firearms Blog takes a look at some of the hardware that’s ending up in Mexico. Looks like he’s been reading a lot of Mexican government web sites. It’s very thorough, and is quality blogging.
Post-Gazette Promoting a Double Standard
The Pittsburg Post-Gazette can’t seem to resist:
The person accused of the crimes, [redacted], appears to be another archetype loser who was all about rights but not responsibilities and whose mind had been poisoned by drinking deep of irrational anti-government conspiracies and gospels of hate.
His mind was poisoned, you see. He can’t be made to take any responsibility for his own actions. Someone else planted the seed of murder in his head, even though staunch gun rights supporters think murdering police officers is wrong, and won’t shed a tear for this guy when the state sticks a needle in his arm.
But I suppose I could buy the Post-Gazette’s assertion that it’s an “irrational anti-government conspiracy”, you know, about taking our firearms, if it weren’t for later in the article:
But there will be time enough to consider how lunatic it is that an AK-47 assault rifle can find its way into the hands of a seething fool, to weigh the culpability of politicians who resist sensible limits on guns and to take to task the radio talk show hosts who foment evil by banging drums of hatred.
Are they so blind that they don’t see the contradiction in what they just pointed out? You argue it’s an irrational conspiracy, and then go argue exactly the position that cause us to speak out in favor of our Second Amendment rights.
If the Post is going to argue that we, the gun rights community, are responsible for feeding the delusions of maniacs when we decry gun control, they also have to accept their responsibility by feeding the same delusions when they exploit a tragedy to make public proclamations in favor of it. If any of us are responsible, we’re both responsible. To argue otherwise is to say we are not free to advocate for our position, while the Post-Gazette is free to advocate for theirs. That’s not what free speech is about.