We got a media contact today from a reporter at the LA Times’ Seattle bureau, who was looking for a blogger to interview. Unfortunately for me, she wanted someone to go on record with a real name, so I referred her to Joe Huffman, who is quoted in the article. Joe was the person who originally came up with the idea of a Starbucks Appreciation Day, or Buycott two years ago, and I thought he’d make a better subject for an interview anyway.and despite the claim in the article that it started with Dave Workman, it had gone viral by the time he reported it. The genesis of the idea was with Joe. All I did was revive his idea when I heard they were planning another boycott. The rest the power of the Internets did, and I don’t think anyone can rightly claim credit for the success of the Buycott yesterday.
Year: 2012
Bonding Over the Second Amendment
With all the fun had yesterday getting caffeinated via Starbucks, I’m reminded of what a good time we gun owners typically have when we’re advancing our cause.
Reader Adam Z. recently pointed out the other day that the Philadelphia Friends of NRA dinner is coming up in March. Are there any Philly-area readers interested in coming out to have a good time again? If so, would you guys be interested in a table or two for gun blog readers?
It’s scheduled for March 27 at Cannstatter’s with doors open at 5pm and, assuming the typical schedule, that will mean dinner around 7pm. The Philly dinner is pretty well established, so they have some great games with far more prizes and games than the typical Friends dinner. Signal your interest with a comment that includes how many tickets you’re buying, and I’ll let you know when we hit the number for a table.
Remember, the Friends program is about the direct outreach side of NRA. These events provide funds for new shooter events, youth competitive shooting programs, and firearms training for women. Another thing that the Friends dinner funds are local Civil Rights Defense Fund cases. The local challenges to gun laws, whether by NRA directly or by people who have been unfairly prosecuted, are often eligible for funding or other assistance by the Civil Rights Defense Fund.
P.S. The much lower attended Bucks County dinner will be in the fall. I’ll be bugging you all before that one, too. If you want to minimize your chances of a fight over the NRA waffle iron, I suggest attending both dinners so you have a chance at both of them.
UPDATE: Reader Ed reminds us of another Eastern PA event on April 24 where doors open at 5:30pm. Anyone in the Bethlehem area interested?
How to CNC an AR-15 Lower from Delrin
UPDATE (From Sebastian): If you choose to make a lower from Delrin, you’re safest using Food Grade Delrin, which is highly x-ray detectable. While I believe ordinary Delrin should be dense enough to be detectable by the modern equipment used for airport screening, it is unlawful to make a firearm, the major component (which includes the receiver) does not show its true shape on the types of x-ray equipment commonly used for airport screening. Be careful about the types of plastic you choose. Jason did not mention this in the original post, but I am updating now as a warning. You are responsible for compliance with federal law.
After finishing the aluminum bolt together lower, I went back to trying to make a single piece lower out of Delrin.
The process described below is my third attempt. In the first two I had alignment problems which made the right and left sides not quite match up and gave an egg shape to some of the holes.
I also switched from PyCAM to Deskproto. While the people working on PyCAM have done a nice job so far, it needs more work. For the kind of things I do its just barely useable. Deskproto has all the things that drive me nuts in PyCAM fixed, and while its commercial, the cost, especially for a hobby license, is quite reasonable (less than an AR-15 parts kit) and it doesn’t use any nasty DRM, so after you’ve purchased it you don’t have to get permission from the mother ship to reinstall it or install it on a different computer.
In Deskproto, I added support bridges to the model that run through the buffer tube hole and magazine well.
Update: The 3d model of the lower is originally from www.cncguns.com.
I used an inexpensive Chinese import band saw to cut the block of Delrin down to an appropriate size….
Rick Santorum, Virginian
The last time he ran for office in Pennsylvania, questions arose about where Rick Santorum really lived – in Pennsylvania or Virginia. It’s not uncommon for members of Congress to rent or purchase second homes in or new the District of Columbia because of the fact that they are there so often during the week and year. However, most return home for long weekends and breaks in the Congressional calendar, even if their families have also joined them closer to DC. It seems there were questions about whether Santorum even did that considering the house he claimed as his residence wasn’t even furnished.
While running for President, it appears as though he isn’t even pretending to be from Pennsylvania anymore.
Big Spenders
Yesterday was a pretty eventful day, and I’d like to recognize two big spenders in the Starbucks Appreciation Buycott. The first is Barron Barnett, who spent $72 dollars sending some coffee over to our troops. The second is Joe Huffman, who spent 132 bucks yesterday. [UPDATE: From Barron in the Comments “That wasn’t me, that was LC Scotty that dropped $75. I’ll be dropping about $90 on Via today at Safeway or online getting 3 of the 50 pack bulk boxes.”]
Lots of other bloggers participated, and if you leave a comment with a link to your post about it, I’ll update this post with your link. Since we had all that excitement yesterday, I need to get caught up on some work today, so I’ll be leaving you, otherwise, in Bitter and Jason’s hands until I manage to get caught up, hopefully later today. I’ll start off with the folks I have in open tabs. Didn’t get much blog reading in yesterday because I was too busy enjoying the sweet sweet tears of freedom haters who utterly failed yesterday.
No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money
Days of Our Trailers
When The Balloon Goes Up
Den of the Wolfman
Merlin’s Musings
Whipped Cream Difficulties
The Embedded Theologian
The Responsible Carrier
N.U.G.U.N.
The Eclectic Dragonfly
R. Lee Ermey “Retires”
You may think that gun owners are pretty much universally registered to vote. If you think that, it’s just about as funny as The Gunny in this ad. It’s actually pretty disturbing when you talk to a lot of gun owners and realize that a significant number haven’t ever bothered to register.
Because I know all of the wonderful readers here have registered at some point in their lives, I’ll just remind you to make sure yours is up-to-date. If you’ve moved or anything, you’ll need to re-register. It’s a good time to remind folks since the primaries are coming up here in the Keystone State. The deadline for candidates to file was actually yesterday, and some of our pro-gun Congressmen are going to need the help.
Starbucks and the Opposition
Thirdpower’s Starbucks Appreciation today was paid for by a surprising source. And he still had some money left over for some ammo. I have verified the check is authentic. I’ve known Thirdpower is a trustworthy source, but the idea that they’d actually cut him a check was so ridiculous, I just had a hard time believing it. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t an off color joke. It’s not a joke.
This has me thinking that the proprietor of National Gun Victims Action Council is crazier than a shithouse rat. I really do kind of feel bad for the guy. It’s difficult for a parent to get over losing their kid.
UPDATE: It is my understanding that I was mistaken about the incident described previously. His son was murdered in San Diego by a mentally deranged man.
Brady Denying the Boycotters?
It’s a shame Peter Hamm is no longer with the Brady folks, because I could totally make a great joke here, but several people have informed me of the fact that the Brady folks are denying the boycott. This is perhaps an indication that Dan Gross is bringing some semblance of sensibility back to the Brady organization. Brady would now, at least, seem to know a lost cause when they see one.
In the mean time, the Brady discontents who have spun off into NGVAC are sadly reduced to begging celebrities for a retweet, and failing that even begging their own friends for some Twitter love, only to encounter crickets.
If they weren’t attempting to shred the Bill of Rights, I’d really feel sorry for them. I honestly question the mental stability of the proprietor of NGVAC, given the behavior today. I know when I’ve been beaten, and hope in that instance I’d have more grace and dignity than has been displayed today by some of our opponents.
For those not keeping track of Facebook, the event has passed 24,000 and is closing on 25,000. If you haven’t been to Starbucks today, it’s not too late!
UPDATE: When will the Coffee lobby come clean about their sales figures!
The Justification For Toys
There are a few toys that are on my “maybe I should get, but can’t quite justify the cost” list. The first is the graphic attached to this post. It’s a 1 watt laser that can do cool shit like light fires and cut through plastic. I could perhaps justify it as an important survival implement, since after all, being able to start fires is an important survival skill. Plus, it can double as a pretty good signal beacon. But the real justification? “A 1W handheld laser that can start fires? I just need to have it!”
In that same space, I’ve been watching my friend Jason run off a couple of un-papered firearms on his CNC mill (more posts to come there later tonight or tomorrow) and I’m thinking I could stand to have a few of these myself. I can’t exactly get him to run one off for me, because you get questionably legal when you’re not just making them for yourself, and I also would like the machining experience. So I’m looking at mills like this one. A hefty price tag for a toy, and I don’t really have the space for one in this house. I’d have to get my dad to play along and let me use his basement to house the mill. Fortunately, my dad moved back Pennsylvania, which conveniently eliminates one legal obstacle to being able to mill myself an AR lower in his basement.
Alas, I can’t justify spending that kind of money for a couple of guns. I’d have to have some other use for it. Jason uses his mill for other things. Maybe I need to follow Mr. C’s lead and come up with some kind of nifty gun accessory to turn out on a mill to justify the cost of buying and maintaining one of these things.
Interesting Fact from the Lucky Gunner Shoot
I had no idea that we had a TV star among us at last May’s Lucky Gunner machine gun shoot. That’s probably because I vaguely recognize that “The Bachelor” is some kind of TV show, and even if they had told me that the girl over there was “Kacie B,” my response would have been “Oh… Well, Kacie is a nice name.” I guess if you’re a TV celebrity, hanging around geeks like me is probably the safest way to escape your celebrity status. This is what I get for not having Cable, I guess, or even a good antenna.
UPDATE: I am informed that Kacie B. is a current and active contestant on “The Bachelor.” Goes to show you how much attention I pay to TV :)