October 2010 – Page 8 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Four Rules: Kind of Like Religion

Alan over at Snarkybytes takes issue with the four rules. I tend to think of the rules as being a construct to help people understand safe gun handling, more than literal commandments that must be taken at their very word. In that sense it’s kind of like religion — if you get all fundamentalist with it, it loses its point.

We know that there is, of course, such a thing as an unloaded gun. Cooper’s point is more that we should not assume a gun is safe just because we’re certain it’s unloaded. More than a few people have been killed by guns that someone was certain wasn’t loaded. That’s the problem rule one is meant to solve. I’m not sure how concerned we should be about how we accomplish cleaning, dry firing, and smithingÂ conceptually within the framework of rule one, because that seems to be missing the forest for the trees. That ends up getting into debates that go something like, “Well, if you take the slide off, and remove the barrel, is it still really a gun you have to treat as loaded? I mean, if I’m staring down a barrel out of the firearm, how is it different than staring down a pluming pipe?” All reasonable technical observations, and interesting in an academic sort of way, but I’m not sure we need to argue about such things when thinking about promoting safe gun handling.

I tend to think the four rules are fine, but I think they have to be taken for what they are; a conceptual framework for safe gun handling. One could certainly make literal arguments for why they do or don’t apply in this situation or that situation, and where they fall apart if taken literally, but to me that’s in the realm of an academic exercise. I think in terms of promoting safe gun handling, they’ve suited the community just fine.

Little People May Lose their Representative

I’ll never forget the day I walked around the corner of a House office building and nearly had a man run into my chest. Now, I’ll grant you that the man really isn’t that short, but with my height and normal work heels, it would have made things a little awkward if we actually collided. That man was Dennis Kucinich.

So, imagine my surprise when the political folks on my Twitter feed start talking about how he’s polling surprisingly close to his GOP opponent. And now, according to FatWhiteMan, we find out the opponent is pro-gun.

Sorry to the little folks out there, but I’m going to back the man who will vote for gun rights instead. But, if it makes you feel any better, you still have Barbara Boxer who is so short that she has to stand on a box to be seen behind podiums. Although, Carly Fiorna may also take care of her this year – another candidate running on a pro-Second Amendment platform. Beyond those two, I’m not sure who the next shortest Representative/Senator is or will be next year. Carly still isn’t tall, based on what I’ve read she’s only 6 inches taller than Boxer, and that would put her at 5’5″.

This also begs the question: why are the smallest people in the House & Senate the most anti-gun? It would seem they should see value in having access to tools with which to defend themselves.

Meat is Wrong

Don’t worry, I haven’t turned vegetarian & crazy animal rights activist on you. Apparently, a pop star wore a “dress” made of meat to an awards show recently, and there’s now interest by young women who want to wear one for their Halloween costumes. The folks at NJ.com sent someone with a video camera around to various butchers so people would find out just why it’s a generally bad idea to wear a dress of raw meat.

Jersey butchers warn against wearing a Lady Gaga meat dress for Halloween

They found one woman willing to go on camera admitting to trying to recreate the look, but at least she came to her senses when she realized that if she covered herself in bacon, she could end up naked by the end of the night. (Of course, the way that most women’s Halloween costumes turn out, she’ll probably end up naked by the end of the night even if she doesn’t wear bacon.) (Link stolen from Jim Braaten.)

Just Like Floppy Disk Drives …

… floppy holsters suck. I can’t tell you how many holsters I went through before figuring out you get what you pay for. I only have two I use regularly, a leather pocket holster for a Kel-Tec P3AT, and a kydex Comp-TacÂ Infidel for a Glock 19.

I also own, and for two years carried a Sidearmor IWB holster. Both the Comp-Tac and Sidearmor are good holsters, and each have advantages and disadvantages. It really depends on the trade-offs you want to make. The Comp-Tac’s clip makes it easy to take off the gun in the holster at the end of the day, which is a much safer way to handle. My Glock only leaves the holster if it’s being shot, cleaned, or going into the safe for a while. Other than that, I leave it loaded, in the holster. The disadvantage of Comp-Tac’s easy to remove clip isÂ it’s also easy for the gun to work its way of the belt and dump onto the floor. I had this happen to me once, fortunately in a situation where it wasn’t a problem. With the Comp-Tac clip, I’ve found it’s very important to wear the correct size and girth of belt. If you pay attention to how well a belt secures and carries the gun, you shouldn’t have a problem. With the Comp-Tac, you need to select a belt around the holster, not the other way around.

The Sidearmor holster has more belt attachment options, for making the holster work with a wider variety of belts. Once worn, it provides a very stable fit, even on some thinner belts that could never hold Comp-Tac’s infidel line well. The downside is theirÂ belt attachment options make it impossible to take the gun off in the holster without removing your belt. Even the J-hook option is difficult to remove without at least undoing the belt and loosening. The attachment pieces will also break about once a year and will need to be replaced, in my experience. Overall it’s a solid platform, it just depends on what’s important to you.

Ultimately I’ve opted to favor ease of gun removal, lest Bitter think I’m getting frisky if I come in from a night out and start undoing my belt, when all I was doing was trying to remove the Glock.

Why We Win

Chicks dig the black magic.

Fun Toys

The Zel Custom .50 looks pretty sweet. Personally, I think every law professor should get some .50 caliber trigger time.

GOA Not too Cozy With Pink Pistols?

In an interview, GOA executive director isn’t feeling too lovey dovey with the Pink Pistols, a GLBT gun rights group:

Stallard told me that the â€œPink Pistols has good relations with national gun rights groups.â€ Â Larry Pratt did not think so. Â His views can be summarized thusly: they should not have any rights; but, they do not deserve to be stoned to death.

Pratt began the discussion of gays by stating that â€œhomosexuality is wrong. Â So is adultery.â€ Â He objected to gays pushing gun rights just as he would object to â€œAdulterers for Gun Rights.â€ Â But, Pratt stated that while he objected to Pink Pistols â€œpushing it in my face, they do have a right to be offensive.â€

In the man’s defense, down the page he at least states for certain he doesn’t believe gays should be stoned to death. Regardless of what Pratt may personally think about the Pink Pistols or homosexuality, it’s not really relevant to his organization’s mission, so why talk about it?

McCarthy Still Struggling

Jacob mentions she’s won an editorial board endorsement based on her record for gun control. He alsoÂ and points out her record even on this pet issue is practically non-existent, and completely non-existent on other issues. In addition, Democrats in her district are worried about turnout being low. I’m sincerely hoping the gig is going to be up for McCarthy in a few weeks. That victory would be so sweet it would rot my teeth.

UPDATE: Becker is running campaign ads trying to tie McCarthy to Nancy Pelosi:

It’s Official

The anti-gunners have officially endorsed Dan Onorato for governor in Pennsylvania. But remember, he’s not really anti-gun!

Sebastian says they would be fools not to endorse him. However, I disagree and believe that they are fools to do so. The other side has only dabbled in the endorsement game before, and this will be a huge loss to them. They won’t be able to turn out votes on the issue, and if the current polls that run near or over a double digit lead for his opponent hold true in a couple of weeks, it will just be an embarrassment for everyone who got on board.

Onorato has decided to run to the extremes on the issues in these last few days. He has officially said he would veto Castle Doctrine if elected, and he does not support any expansion of the right to defend your own life or that of your family on your own property.

Gun Control is For the Birds

Now it is literally. The Center for Biological Diversity is our latest gun control group. “For the children” didn’t work too well. Now we’ll see if “For the Birds” has any better luck. As we’ve said time and again, there are legal problems with replacing lead with other materials in ammunition, in that depending on the material and composition of the bullet, it will magically become “armor piercing,” and thus be illegal for civilian use.

(B) The term `armor piercing ammunition’ means-

(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or

(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.

(C) The term `armor piercing ammunition’ does not include shotgun shot required by Federal or State environmental or game regulations for hunting purposes, a frangible projectile designed for target shooting, a projectile which the Secretary finds is primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes, or any other projectile or projectile core which the Secretary finds is intended to be used for industrial purposes, including a charge used in an oil and gas well perforating device.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Jeff Miller gives a birds butt about the legal issues. If this guy gets his way, we’ll only be able to possess ammunition that’s frangible, or under exceptions granted by the feds, or calibers for which there is no handgun made (which is almost none of them). This is a huge can of worms, and Jeff Miller is delusional if he thinks we’re not going to fight him and his group of bird loving hippies every step of the way.

UPDATE: It should be pointed out that hunting in California has not been unharmed, as the CBD is claiming:

Last fall, in the first hunting season after California imposed a ban on lead ammunition in the stateâ€™s condor range, hunting license sales fell considerably after three years of steady gains. In the affected regions, the number of deer hunters dropped nearly 5 percent and hog hunters dropped 15 percentâ€”costing the California Department of Fish and Game more than $200,000 in lost tag fees alone, according to a March 13 story in theÂ San Bernadino Sun.

So Jeff Miller is either ignorant or a liar. You generally can’t win in this issue being honest.