I’ve been wondering how Ceasefire PA got the money to produce and run an ad against Tom Corbett on the whole Florida Loophole nonsense. Now we have our answer. Rich a***oles seem to be our number one opponents now.
Month: October 2010
NRA Amends its Complaint in Texas
Looks like they are adding themselves as an organization and another over eighteen but under twenty one plaintiff to the case where they are challenging restrictions on people 18-20 purchasing handguns.
New Blogs I’ve Been Reading
There is an entire aviation blogging community out there, much like we are in the gun blogging community here. Well, except they don’t have quite the circle-the-wagons mentality we have here in the gun blogging community. That’s probably because the FAA doesn’t do felony busts because a pilot put the wrong kind of carburetor in his Lycoming. You’re not likely to do ten in the pen because you lent your Cessna to a friend to take to Maine for a weekend. Hysterical people who’s loved ones died in plane crashes don’t protest the evils of aviation, and try to stamp out flying. Aviation is certainly very regulated, but the penalties typically involve suspensions of licenses and civil penalties, rather than five to ten in federal prison. When it comes to transportation, we always seem to have a better sense of perspective, even when, such as the case with general aviation, it can also be for recreation and hobby.
Anyway, some good aviation blogs. Flight Level 390 is a blog by an airline captain. Very well written and one I really enjoy reading. You want to have a good idea what’s going on behind closed doors at the front of the plane, this is the blog for you. Another one is a flight attendant’s blog, called The Flying Pinto. Take this post, for instance, on flying with children, where she seems to take the position that she’s willing to tolerate crying kids, if the parents would please refrain from changing their kids on the tray tables other people have to eat on. Think about that your next in-flight meal! You’re welcome. Also recommended, but not really an aviation blog strictly, is the blog of the guy that writes the rendering engine for X-Plane. He hasn’t been prolific as recently, due to the tight schedule for shipping X-Plane v.10, but it’s an interesting look into the aviation gaming world.
One thing blogging quickly does is change the way you read blogs. You stop reading blogs because you like them and read them because you’re looking for material for you own. This means you read faster and with less attention to details because of the sheer volume of material you need to get through. Lately I’ve wanted to read blogs for fun again, and since I don’t blog on aviation topics, I figure I wouldn’t be tempted to move through those at breakneck speed, looking for link material. But I wanted to highlight some here, just in case anyone else might share the interest.
A Submachine Gun Lunch
My friend Jason and I got tired of the same old same old, so we took a lunch break this afternoon and went down to the range to shoot some of the new uppers he got for his M11 submachine gun. One upper is from Calico, which uses their helical magazine to give it a 100 round capacity. That’s quite a bit of fun, let me tell you. The other upper slows the M11s famously high rate of fire, making the gun considerably more manageable firing full-auto. When you’re throwing lead downrange 100 round magazine at a time, your target backer looks pretty sad when it’s all finished.
I was also happy I got some Glock and Kel-Tec time in drawing from the holster, which is something I can’t do at my club, but which you can do at Classic Pistol. Out of holster I’m averaging about 2.1 seconds from leather to a reasonably well placed shot on target at 10 yards. That’s slower than the last time I got to do draw from holster, and way slower than the Jeff Cooper standard of 1.5 seconds and from leather to two shots. This is from concealment, but I was only 0.1 second faster with concealment removed. Shooting from pocket I’m about 3.5 seconds with the Kel-Tec. Â That wouldn’t worry me too much if my pocket holster didn’t come out still on the gun a few times. Definitely time for a new one of those.
Because of my club’s rules, I don’t get to practice real world practical shooting very much, and it’s showing. I’ve said self-defense and practical shooters need to get involved with local clubs, and become advocates. There’s a whole world of shooting out there many clubs are afraid to try, and they won’t as long as people who do this kind of shooting stay away from them.
Understatement of the Year
From a writer to the Allentown Morning Call: “Callahan, Dent differ on gun control laws.” I’m glad someone is getting the word out about this race. PA-15 is one I’ve been keeping a nervous eye on, because Callahan is the first MAIG mayor to run for Congress, as far as I know, and he hasn’t left the group or denounced it. Fortunately, Dent is leading Callahan, and I couldn’t be any happier about that. Still, the poll next Tuesday is the only one that matters, and this race isn’t one to take for granted. Callahan has been the first serious challenger Dent has faced for a while. Here’s hoping Callahan has to go back to being a MAIG mayor instead of an anti-gun Congressman.
Sport Utility Rifles, MSR, Blah
Back before Sugarmann sold his epiphany on assault weapons to the gun control movement, we used to just call them rifles. Caleb points to a rant about just calling an AR and AR. I’ll add my two cents to the cause too. The need to do PC re-branding is a reaction to our opponents taking semi-automatic rifles and calling them assault weapons. Let’s just go back calling them rifles and be done with it.
New Campaign Tactic
Dave Adams is pointing to a tactic similar to the one I inadvertently stumbled upon earlier in the week. It seems that the DCCC and Democrats across the country, are busily attacking third party candidates in their races as dangerous tea party conservatives. This obviously raises the profile of the third party candidate, and, if the plan works out, draws enough die-hards over to the candidate to split the vote sufficiently to allow the Democrat to come out on top.
I’d put this in the category of a dirty trick, but if it works, I can promise you’ll see more of it, on both sides.
NSSF Backs Microstamping Study as Well
More Stomping Video
Thanks to a commenter who pointed to this Redstate video that reveals the moments leading up to the “stomping” incident:
So this pretty much confirms my view that Valle was no passive protester. She was actively out to make trouble. This tends to make me more forgiving of the guy that tried to restrain her, since he could have legitimately believed she was a threat to the candidate. The guy that stomped her shoulder when she was down on the ground though is still an ass. You don’t get forgiven just because the person you were stomping on is a bigger ass.
Also, is anyone creeped out by people chanting a candidate’s name at the top of their lungs? I would have thought libertarianish type people would be more immune to the whole cult of personality attraction, but I think the Ron Paul campaign, and now the Rand Paul campaign has disabused me of that notion.
Beware the libertarian fascists! They want to take over the country and leave you alone!
Hysterics from VPC Over the Bushmaster ACR
Josh Sugarmann is wetting his pants because Bushmaster is recalling the ACR. Based on the fact that Bushmaster describes this problem as dangerous, I’m going to guess something like a hammer follow. Unfortunately for Josh, all semi-automatic firearms can malfunction in this way, not just evil assault weapons. The venerable M1 Garand (that’s still not an assault weapon right? Oh wait, no, it is) can certainly do it as well.
But Sugarmann seems to think this is some kind of gotcha “See! See! Assault weapons really are machine guns!”