2009 – Page 223 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Permits Up, Business Booming

In Missouri, we have another standard “gun sales are up” piece, but the local gun shop managed to get a great profile out of the piece in the process.Â Based on the photos and the profile, it looks like Target Masters in Columbia is a great place to do business.

In Georgia, there are more reports on increased demand for carry licenses:

Across Georgia, thereâ€™s been a dramatic surge in applications for firearm permits, and no sign that the trend is slowing. Statewide, 121,219 applications were submitted in 2008, up 79.2 percent from 67,640 in 2007, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. …

In Cobb County, where Ely and Brown filed their applications, the increase in applications was even more dramatic than it was statewide. Records show permit applications were up in the county by 139.6 percent for 2008, from 3,660 to 8,770.

It caught the eye of Cobb County Probate Judge Keli Wolk on Jan. 2 of this year, her first day in office. By 2 p.m. that day, 71 people had submitted permit applications, Wolk said.

â€œThere are quite a few people in our license area filling out applications at most any time of the day,â€ she said.

Officials in other counties report a palpable rush. â€œWe literally sometimes have to get deputies to direct our lines,â€ said Lorraine Stafford, who processes permit applications in Gwinnett County.

Permit applications were up 85.7 percent in Gwinnett, from 3,952 in 2007 to 7,340 in 2008. In the first 15 days of January, another 500 applicants walked through the door, Stafford said.

Michael Steele

I should point out that it was not me that commented on Michael Steele, but Bitter, who turned her blog into a food blog. Â Up until an hour ago, she was guest posting here on gun and political topics. Â If people are going to attack my positions, they should probably check first to make sure it’s really my position. Â But it’s not to worry now, because Bitter has better things to do than dealing with nastiness on the blogosphere, which is why she’s food blogging now in the first place.

That said, I agree with her take on Steele. Â For those who were so quick to condemn me for what Bitter said, I was backingÂ Ken Blackwell, even though I wasn’t happy with some of the crap he was spewing. Â The job of the RNC chairman is to raise money for the party, administer its functions, and formulate plans for the party’s reconstruction. Â They do not set party policy. Â That is done by a platform committee. Â If Steele can help make up the massive fundraising deficit the Democrats have over the GOP, and get the GOP house in order, then he’s fine by me. I don’t really care what he does or doesn’t have in his closet, or what positions he took when he was running in a majority Democrat district in Maryland. Â RNC chair isn’t about that, and I agree with Bitter that he might bring some new thinking to the table that will help the GOP in 2010.

Outta Here…

So apparently the inability of some of you to read who authors posts means no more guest posting for me.Â No, this isn’t coming down as a request, but I’m appalled at how some of you are so ready to personally insult people that you can’t take the time to read an entire post in it’s context, including the author.Â So bye.

Screwed by H&K Damaged Brass

I spent some time at the three gun match Saturday scrounging brass off the range between relays. Â Got a whole crapload of .223 off the ground, but was happy to find someone was shooting .308, which I could use to make up a load so I could finally try the FAL I bought from TD. Â I was happy, until I saw what condition it was in:

I was puzzled by what kind of rifle would do this kind of damage to brass. Surely there was something wrong with this guy’s gun. Did the chamber actually have those stripes in it? In the name of John Moses Browning, what kid of crazy gun designer would create a rifle that tortures brass so?

After doing a bit of research, I discovered that this striping was likely caused by the fluted chamber of an HK91 rifle. Â The idea of fluting the chamber is to allow some gas to flow around the cartridge to ease in extraction. Â Apparently early versions of the G3 rifles were ripping the heads off the casing during extraction, so this was the solution to that problem. You can see that in a cutout of the G3 chamber here. Â The roller delayed blowback design of the G3 is just very hard on brass, from both the fluting, and violent extraction. Consensus on cases fired from G3s and its relatives seems to be that they shouldn’t be reloaded. Â The big dents definitely seals the deal. Into the scrap brass bucket they will go.

H&K — Because you suck, and we hate you, especially if you’re aÂ filthyÂ brass scrounging reloader.

On Blog Comment Cultures

Orin Kerr has an interesting post on how good comment cultures develop on blogs, based on a post here about comment sections at Concurring Opinions:

I’ve always believed that the comment sections of blog posts shouldn’t be wild west free speech zones. Ideally, the comments provide an interesting and thoughtful discussion, even where commenters strongly disagree with a post. Comments that are rude, off-topic, uncivil, and unnecessarily snarky or nasty don’t have much value in my opinion. It appears as though more and more bloggers are starting to get fed up with obnoxious comments. A few years ago, it seemed to me that the blogosphere had a much more permissive view toward comments than it does now.

I’ve noticed too that comment threads on blogs have gone downhill a good bit in the past few years as well. Â I think Professor Kerr is correct in his assessment of the reason:

I suspect the explanation rests largely on the different moderation practices at different blogs. If a blogger doesn’t moderate comment threads at all on a widely read blog, people who want to be shocking, mean, or just irrelevant realize they can do their thing and reach a decent-sized audience.Â

I’ve thought more often lately of moderating comments here, and deleting the really nasty, irrelevant or nutty stuff. Â When I say nutty, I mean incoherent more than extreme. Â I have no problem with extreme viewpoints, as long as people can make a case for them without devolving into nastiness (I should note I consider blatant racismÂ nastiness). Â But the real risk that I think you run with moderation is chilling discussion, because everyone is afraid of saying the wrong thing, or taking a strong stance for or against something.

I think moderating individual comments probably makes more sense than banning users from commenting. Â The worst a commenter need worry about is that his particular comment will get moderated. Â I think that probably has a far less chilling effect, and the lack of nastiness will probably encourage more thoughtful comments. Â If I do decide to implement moderation, I will do my best to post guidelines in the comment section, much like The Volokh Conspiracy does.

Three Gun Saturday

This month’s Practical Rifle match at Langhorne Rod and Gun Club was a three gun match. Â We had about 40 shooters. Match was cut up into 5 stages. Â First stage was at 50 yards. Â Three magazines loaded with 10 round each. Â Fire one standing, transition to kneeling and fire one, transition to prone and fire one, back to kneeling, and back to standing, repeating until you exhaust all your magazines. Â Doesn’t sound too bad, but it gets your pulse rate up. Â Lost 9 on the IDPA target — needed to aim higher and I would have only pulled one or two, but I was shooting lower than I would have figured. Â Next stage was 25 yards, to 15 yards, to 7. Â All done standing. Â Ten shots each with rifle, then transition to pistol at 7 yards and engage head of target. Â Got too punchy and pulled three of my shots low. Â Didn’t do too bad overall. Â Next stage was the car:

This stage stressed rapid targetÂ acquisition, and had one IDPA swinger, which was tough to hit. Â Started out with pistol, then transitioned to rifle.

Then onto the shotgun. I had to run home to get the shotgun and more 9mm over break, because they didn’t publish the match requirements on the web site like they say they do. Stage one was four shots on steel, but with one catch. Running the shotgun prone, you could only use one hand, and had to single load each round. I had a pump, so I completed the stage with some difficulty. Stage five was also a shotgun stage, which was essentially 7 propped up clays which had to be shot on the run at 21 feet.

I was happy that I got a whole nice bag of brass from scavenging the range after everyone was done shooting, but I’m also happy for this:

Third place! Shoot off was the same as the first stage at a pie plate at 50 yards. First one finished calls a cease fire. I didn’t shoot as well as I could have, so I figured I didn’t place, but we had to break the tie for second because we both had 10 hits, but he had more on the center portion than I did, so he got second, and I got third. Came two hits away from first. Maybe next time!

Christopher Jones Memorial Fund

For my readers in Bucks County and Southeastern Pennsylvania, or even those of you outside the area who would be interested in helping out a law enforcement family who lost their husband/father in the line of duty:

Christopher Jones Trust Fund
Police and Fire Credit Union
852 E. Street Road
Warminster, PA 18974

I will be sending some funds along, since they are in the neighborhood here.

That’s MiddletownÂ Township Fire Chief Frank Farry, who is also my new state representative. Â This is a tough time for Middletown.

ATF Inspecting C&R FFLs?

This is a rather odd report about ATFÂ inspectingÂ type ’03 FFLs. Â Odd because the ATF is not supposed to just show up at a Type 03 licensesÂ premisesÂ unannounced, they are supposed to make an appointment if they want to inspect your bound book. Â They are entitled to look at your A&D book, and inspect the guns you have in your inventory. Â This can be done at yourÂ premises, or at an ATF office. Â Type 03 premises are typically residences, and are not required by federal regulations to have normal business hours.

Inspections are conducted by ATF compliance regulators. Â They are not conducted by ATF agents. Â If you’re a C&R licensee, and an ATF agent shows up at your door, you should treat that agent as you would any law enforcement officer who takes an interest in you. Â Be polite, find out what his business is with you, but don’t say anything without talking to a lawyer. Â If he does not have a warrant, do not allow him into your home. Â If he does have a warrant, your next call needs to be to an attorney.

I hope this report doesn’t indicate that ATF is starting to harass C&Rs. Â Mine expires next year, and if that’s the case it won’t be getting renewed.

More on Steele

Anyone who lived in the DC television market probably remembers the Michael Steele ads from his Senate bid in 2006.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzDQivKq8Y[/youtube]

I have to say, I like that he’s different.Â He’s an out-of-the-box thinker, or at least willing to give those who have ideas for these non-traditional messages a go.Â No, I don’t agree with him on every policy point.Â In fact, I probably disagree with him more than I agree with him.Â But the role of RNC Chair isn’t about setting policy or casting votes on the House or Senate floors.Â He’s there to raise money, promote the brand, and run a great election shop. It will be interesting to see how Steele performs.

Steele Wins

And Michael Steele wins the race for the Chair of the RNC.