I think the amusing thing about the Brady reaction to Skoien is that they seem to be most happy that they believe this has taken the jam out of our donut, so to speak. I also notice that Dennis can’t bear to say gun rights without the delegitimizing quotes.
The truth is that we’re going to have setbacks, and looking at things, it would seem the 7th Circuit may fight to the Supreme Court on guns. It’s guaranteed that sister circuits may rule differently. To me the question is how strong the Heller majority is. The 7th circuit may be closed to us, but other circuits are sure to be more obedient, and take the right more seriously. It’s not time for the Brady’s to be giving us the raspberry quite yet.
My friend Jason’s dad has a plane, and since I’ve been scooting around in X-Plane for a few months now, he said any time I wanted to go up, his dad would be happy to take me. So today I took him up on it. While the physical model on a flight simulator might be the same or very similar to a real plane, the experience is completely different.
For one, while I’m confident enough in a simulator, even with fairly large jets, to think clearly and keep my shit together. I was scared timid in a real plane. In fact, my fingers were a little numb because of the death grip I had on the control yoke. We were up for about an hour. Jason’s dad handled takeoff and the final touchdown on the plane, and worked the throttle and prop pitch. I got to handle the controls most of the way. Took off from Trenton, NJ and flew down to the shore, I think around the Asbury Park down toward Avon area. Got a little nervous around there because I started noticing more air traffic.
Takeoff
Waiting for Takeoff
Instrumentation
Cockpit Door
Piper Twin Comanche
I didn’t get any pictures after takeoff because I was too busy enjoying the experience. It’s making me think I ought to get a pilot’s license, but I’m going to have to figure out a way to overcome motion sickness. I did not get sick on the flight, but afterwards felt like I had been playing a first person shooter too long… that sort of mildly ill feeling you get. I’m fine as long as I am looking out of the cockpit, but I can feel sickness coming on when looking at instruments. Small planes seem to get kicked around in the weather a bit more than commercial planes, so you can feel it when you stare down. I’d be fine for VFR flying, but I think learning how to fly IFR would make me sick. But as with most motion sickness, habituation makes you more resistant to it.
But definitely a lot of fun, and gives me an idea of what real flying feels like. Many thanks to Jason’s dad John for taking me up.
NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Foundation are suing to overturn California ammunition regulations on Second Amendment grounds. The risk here is there’s dicta in Heller that would prejudice a court toward upholding what could be argued is a “commercial qualification” on the right to keep and bear arms. That’s not to say this can’t be done, but it’ll be interesting to see whether the lower Courts will take the Supreme Court’s strong hint about the nature of the Second Amendment right. The recent 7th Circuit ruling in Skoien doesn’t give me much room for optimism that the lower courts are willing to take the Second Amendment seriously. In that case the hope is that the Heller Five is strong enough to rule for a broad right.
Steve at the Firearms Blog writes about lower power or no power scope. I wouldn’t shoot silhouette with anything else. Why? Because I find magnification makes me more unstable. Magnification amplifies movement, and for me that just makes me move all over the place. Normally I shoot with a red dot when I shoot any sight class. Most of the time I actually prefer open sights. I don’t shoot any better with a scoped gun than I do with open sight anyway.
Over at opposing views. The beatings will continue until Gun Owners of America decides its better to help move the ball forward rather than building itself up by tearing down others.
This can’t be anything but good. Whether Tara realized it or not when she auditioned for the show, she’s now the face of the shooting sports for Chicago residents. Hopefully a lot of them watch, and become interested, because hopefully not too long from now their rights are going to be restored.
