I turned my collection of videos of the Lucky Gunner Blogger Shoot a few weekends ago, taken on my early generation iPhone 3G, to Bitter. Unfortunately she didn’t feel like she could do much with them, since it was pretty shaky. She decided to take the best of them and make a trailer. I think it turned out pretty well!
Month: June 2011
Wisconsin CC Passes Senate
Now it’s onto the Assembly. Hopefully this can happen soon, and be off to the Governor.
Fast & Furious Updates
None of the higher ups knew about it? That’s funny since this morning, the House Oversight and Government Committee uploaded this video that highlights how ATF’s Acting Director was briefed on the program to knowingly run guns into Mexico weekly last year. Rep. Darrell Issa says that the ATF leadership was actually “excited” by the program to the point that they sat around watching these sales happen on video.
Castle Doctrine Alert
There will be a Second Consideration on Castle Doctrine today, according to PAFOA:
We have received word that HB40 is to be scheduled for a Second Consideration vote on Wednesday, June 15. This vote can take place at any point during the day’s session, and it’s also during Second Consideration when anti-gun initiatives can be amended to the bill. It’s imperative that everyone contact their senators and ask them to vote YES on HB40, and vote NO on any and all amendments.
You know what to do. Apparently among the proposed Amendments is Florida Loophole, and a mandatory minimum of 5 years for any gun crimes.
Castle Doctrine Passes Senate Committee
This is great news. The Senate Committee was most hostile. I’ve been unplugged enough I forgot to update everyone that there was going to be a vote. It passed 13-1 out of committee.
More importantly, there’s no Florida Loophole fix attached to the bill, for those who were insistent that the deal was in the works to do that.
Now it’s onto the Senate floor where hopefully this will gain quick passage and be off to Governor Corbett.
Repeal the Second Amendment
There’s a candidate running in California with this as a major platform. To be honest, these folks don’t annoy me that much because they at least recognize the Second Amendment as an obstacle. They are at least honest in what needs to be done. Suggesting we need to repeal the Second Amendment is at least taking the Constitution and the Bill of Rights seriously, even if I might believe repealing the Second Amendment would disparage the document.
On Guns & the Presidential Race
We cut the cable at the beginning of the year and happened to be doing internet upgrades, so I didn’t catch last night’s debate. From what I read on Twitter, I didn’t miss much. But then, Paul Erhardt added this commentary on the role of guns – or lack thereof – in the debate:
Not a single question on guns in tonight’s CNN debate despite the fact that New Hampshire is home to 4 major gun/accessory manufacturers that employee 2K+ people. In the Granite State, the classic ‘red meat’ GOP issue is also a mainstream jobs issue. Not to mention two of those companies, HK and Sig Sauer, make guns for the Navy SEALs.
Meanwhile, Jim Geraghty gives us a clue about the really important issues in 2012: “Ah, CNN found the one New Hampshire Republican furious about the U.S. military presence in Germany and South Korea.”
To be clear, I don’t think that guns will be a huge issue in the next presidential race. But considering what an economic boost the gun industry and related outdoor industries provide on top of the civil rights debate surrounding the regulations on ownership and use, it’s probably something that people find a tad more relevant to the next presidential race than the military presence in Germany and South Korea.
End of an Era
Today I decommissioned and removed the last piece of functioning IT equipment at my employer’s now nearly evacuated building. I have rather ambivalent feelings about all this. I first started with this company in its inception back in June of 2001, when it was still in the basement of another company that was incubating it. I built up the IT infrastructure in this company before there were even walls in the building I’m in the process of emptying now. I still remember those early days like they just happened.
But at the same time I also remember the management imposed on us which departed greatly from the original vision, and proceeded to destroy what were trying to build. I remember the imposition of a working environment that was thoroughly miserable and degrading. I remember the valiant efforts of later management, who were good people, to try to salvage what turned out to be a hopelessly wounded animal.
We did not fail because our idea failed. We failed because our investors flushed an A idea down the toilet bowl of a D- management team. We lost a lot of very good talent due to that. In the past two years things got much better, and particularly the past year we’ve been much more focused, but the wounds we were bearing still impeded progress. I am not really sad to execute the closing of this chapter, but I’m very keen on what happens next. I’m looking forward to it.
AR-15 Fired with Black Magic
Only Cemetery would be crazy enough to work up a load for the AR-15 in black powder. Just keep scrolling. Looks like the black doesn’t quite have the energy to cycle the action, but I just think it’s great to try it at all.
UPDATE: Looking at this a bit further, it looks to me like the black powder isn’t even providing the recoil system with enough gas to unlock the bolt. I’m wondering if a heavier bullet would help force more gas back into the gas system? I don’t know much about the characteristics of black powder, so I’d be reluctant to make suggestions, but to me it looks like there’s just not enough gas pressure in the system. If you were getting enough gas pressure in the system to unlock the bolt, you’d just get a short cycle, so I don’t think the buffer spring is really an issue here. The issue here is that you need a bolt that takes less force to unlock, and that’s an inherent design characteristic. Could be the black just doesn’t have the energy to work an AR-15 gas system.
Weaponomics
Steve at the Firearms Blog describes why the price of small arms in Libya is skyrocketing. IANSA should be welcoming this. Can’t have those rebels hurting anyone, now, can we? The problem in the world has never been that there are too many small arms and light weapons out there, it’s that there are too many small arms and light weapons out there in the wrong hands.
The real question is who’s hands are the right hands? That’s a more difficult question. This country has had, and indeed is founded on, a strong respect for individual liberty and individual worth. There are plenty of oppressed people who, given the power, will become oppressors themselves. In fact, the world probably has a lot more experience with that kind of revolution than it does with something like ours, which was rather unique. Just seeing how hard it is to maintain some semblance of freedom left in this country, I’m not all that comfortable saying freedom is a universal human value. I think there are a great many thing humans value more than freedom.
That said, I believe the kind of massacre happening in Syria and Libya right now is so horrible I’d be willing to roll the dice, and suggest dropping crates of small arms into the parts of the country the rebels control would not be a terrible idea. Every human being, I don’t care what your ideology, has the basic human right to defend themselves against that kind of tyranny and horror, and as free people we ought to be willing to lend a hand.