2009 – Page 189 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Home Improvement: The Pour

Yesterday, the concrete guy came by to check on the status of water in the piling holes.Â They were pretty full, so he knew he had to bring a pump today to get them emptied in order to pour the concrete.

This morning, we woke to the sounds of them working on the frame and prepping for the concrete to go in around 7 or 7:30 (the clock is on Sebastian’s side, so I’m guessing here).Â Right before Sebastian left, the concrete truck arrived.Â That was exciting.Â Even more exciting was watching them work.Â The concrete truck waited in the alley while Norm’s two assistants brought it over one wheelbarrow-full at a time.Â Norm mixed it up to to fill in all the important areas, and then one of the other guys took over smoothing it down for hours.Â He left shortly before 3pm.Â That was a long day of smoothing out concrete.

I have to admit, I was most shocked when they started putting in lines where there were none before.Â And this is why we’re reminded why it’s better to hire pros for some projects.Â The simple lines and the pattern that they added to the newly created border transformed that patio.Â This home is clearly a starter home, so you can never get too fancy with any decor.Â But, because of that, details have the chance to stand out.Â And this, when I look outside, really stands out in a good way.

I have to say that this was a fantastic investment.Â We got a great deal with the contractor, and I would not be shocked that even in a down market, that Sebastian would see every dime from this project back – and more.Â It’s that big of a difference.

Rampaging Killers

Dr. Helen offers some insight into the minds of a lot of these rampage killers, and suggests ways that these people can be detected and helped before they kill.Â PDB, who is a native of North Carolina, offers some other commentary on the situation.Â I would add that I think the media has a lot to do with these rampage shooters as well, as Uncle points out, they always seem to come in threes.

Those Lairds of Fairfax

This AP article talks about the influence NRA wields in Washington:

The result showed the strong sway the NRA has even over a Congress dominated by liberal Democrats who mostly disagree with the organization’s positions. The Senate voted overwhelmingly to add the gun-rights proposal. House Democratic leaders, fearing a tough vote on the issue, swiftly scrapped plans to consider the D.C. voting legislation.

The bill hasn’t resurfaced because Democrats cannot figure out how to keep it from splitting their ranks. Moderates and conservatives don’t want to buck the NRA. Liberals are reluctant to be blackmailed into loosening gun laws.

This statement from Paul Helmke is the icing on the cake though.Â When he uttered this, it no doubt subtly altered the earth’s rotational axis from the amount of spin:

Gun control activists say they are baffled by the sway the gun lobby has over Congress. They argue the NRA no longer dictates election outcomes and that the group inflates its own importance.

“They operate on the principle of fear. They’re trying to hold some mythical power from the early ’90s over the heads of leadership that I think is totally irrelevant to what’s going on today, but still has some long legs,” said Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Helmke said NRA’s recent efforts to demonstrate its clout are partly “a sign of desperation. They realize this is probably their last gasp in terms of trying to be the force that they used to be.”

Yes Paul, this is the same line you guys sold Congress on in 1994, and look what happened.Â Who do you think is buying all these guns and ammo?Â My biggest fear for NRA is that success will breed complacence.Â But I’d much rather be in NRA’s shoes than Bradys shoes.Â Without any real grass roots passion for gun control, it’s very difficult to have a voice in new media.Â When the old media can no longer control information, the old deceptions will be quickly exposed.

The Bradys wonder why anyone pays attention to NRA, but I would ask what Brady has to offer politicians for support?Â Where are all the pro-gun control blogs?Â Where are all the gun control forums?Â Tapping those resources we can flood the House and Senate switchboards with phone calls.Â What’s your GOTV strategy?Â Where’s your grassroots political machine?Â Brady has none of those things.Â All they have is the media, and it’s dying.Â The Brady Campaign is rapidly losing its ability to control information and frame the debate, and that’s the death of an issue that’s traditionally relied on ignorance, deception, and yes, fear, to get its way.

TSRA Mid-Range Championship

Blackfork has some photos of the event, as well as the winners of the NRA regional match, who are sporting rifles we’re repeatedly told have no sporting purpose.

UK Home Secretary on Airguns

It looks like, for now at least, air gun shooters in the UK are safe:

â€œThe home secretary is not persuaded by any further change in firearm legislation at the moment and that is something we disagree with,â€ he added.

â€œWe have to tackle the scourge of air weapons and, frankly, existing legislation is out of date and too confusing. Our position is: We do not care who does it, whether it is done in London or Scotland, but done it must be.â€

As part of the campaign launched yesterday, adverts, posters and leaflets highlighting the consequences of using the weapons will be used across the country.

It is supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, Crimestoppers, Gun Control Network, Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Scottish Target Shooting Federation.

I wouldn’t count on this position of the Home Secretary to last if the groups mentioned can exert any significant political pressure for more restrictions.Â This is a useful lesson for American shooters, about letting the camel’s nose under the tent.Â There is one US state that requires licensing to purchase and possess air guns, and that is New Jersey.Â Some airsoft pistols and rifles could be considered assault firearms under New Jersey’s law as well.Â So much for Action Airgun, a version of IPSC competition that uses air guns instead of powder guns.Â In New Jersey you’re just as regulated as the powder gun shooters.

There’s no gun that will be safe once you let them start restricting any gun.

Rebuked Again

This time the White House is beating down Hillary’s suggestion that we need to renew the ban.

After meeting with Mexican President Felipe CalderÃ³n, Clinton said that reinstating the U.S. ban on assault weaponsâ€”which was passed in 1994 and expired in 2004â€”is one step this country could take to curb the flow of guns to Mexico’s drug cartels. “These military-style weapons don’t belong on anybody’s street,” Clinton told NBC. Within hours, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that he was unaware of “any plans” to push for such a banâ€”even though Obama had backed one during last year’s campaign.

I think the problem the Democrats are facing is that they’ve been used to being able to sing platitudes about banning assault weapons with little or no consequence.Â Now every time someone well placed in the Administration opens their yap about assault weapons, Bushmaster gets another couple of months of backorder, and NRA no doubt signs up a lot of new members.Â That has to scare the hell out of the White House.

Because of efforts in Congress, it’s unlikely a ban is going to end up passed this Congress, but we still have a lot of work.Â We need to work on two fronts.Â One on the political front, to ensure that in 2010, we cut the Democrats numbers, and two, on the shooting front, that all these people buying AR-15s, and many of them will be new buyers, get it out to the range to shoot it.Â It would be great if we could turn the surge in sales into hundreds of new high-power shooters.

California Looking to Ban TVs

New energy regulations in California could end up banning 25% of the TVs on the market because they aren’t energy efficient enough.Â I think it won’t be long before California is not habitable by any form of homo sapien that doesn’t include granola as a major part of its diet.

Cat and Dogs Living Together

The local, normally rabidly anti-gun news station, did a story on a local gun dealer and gun sales, and didn’t smear him, or the shooting community.Â It’s always a risk when dealers talk to the media, but he seems to have hit on all the right points.Â I’ve transferred a few guns through this guy.Â He’s a retired Philly cop.

Smoke ’em & Hope

Mr. Completely’s e-postal match this month was a bear.Â Difficult to shoot with a rimfire pistol, and even harder to shoot with a 1911.Â If you take the size of Mr. C’s stop plate, and project it out to the 42 feet it would be for the Steel Challenge course, it would only be two inches wide, as opposed to ten inches for the standard stop plate for the course.Â Â But hey, it has to be a downloadable target, and if it was easy, it wouldn’t be fun.

Scored 53 with rimfire scoped, and 83 with centerfire open sights.

Initially, when I started practicing rimfire, I was going in a sort of reverse Z motion. After scattering my shots all over the right side on the lower right target, I decided an upside down U was a better strategy, then going for the stop plate.Â Tended to overshoot the stop plate though.

For center fire pistol, I had a bugger of a time with the third target. In addition, I had to raise my point of aim, because as my speed increased, my point of impact dropped. It goes back to Todd Jarrett’s advice of “Aim 3/4s high” But I hit almost nothing of the third plate in the U. A different pattern might be better with the .45, but it’s too expensive to experiment.

UPDATE: Another trick with the smallbore gun, is I was holding it taco.Â Mr. Completely also uses this technique in Steel Challenge and pin shooting.Â Normally, it’s a silhouette hold, but it seems to work pretty well for action shooting too.

My Results for Winter Match

There’s still some daylight left in some parts of the country if you want to shoot the Winter rifle match.Â The last time I shot the AK-74 was at the Langhorne Practical Match in December.Â I have, over time, come to dislike the AK platform for shooting more and more.Â The biggest thing I struggle with is the sights.Â The Kalashnikov’s reputation for inaccuracy is overstated, but it’s not entirely undeserved.Â I’ve seen people who are well practiced with them shoot very well.

Offhand Slow – 69/100 0X
Sitting Rapid – 56/100 0X
Prone Rapid – 67/100 0X

Total of 192/300 0X.Â Bah.

My sitting shots were all over.Â Prone were grouped decently, just not over the bullseye.Â Because it’s a winter match, I didn’t stay out to do any reshoots.Â I got what I got.Â For our spring match, I’m thinking of doing a 500 shot point service rifle match.Â Nothing fancy.

For now, I need to get to the range to shoot Mr. Completely’s e-postal match “Smoke ’em & Hope” so I can submit scores for that.Â I’ll be shooting my Para LDA 1911 .45 and Ruger Mk.III Hunter for this one.