Guns – Page 1068 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Careful You Don’t Step in It

“Now what you have here is a sawed-off, 12-gauge shotgun,” he said, snapping the weapon’s foldable stock into place. “A very good street sweeper. You can conceal this gun and take out a room full of people with one shot.”

Follow the link and see the picture. ~~Does it look sawed off to you? Me neither.~~Â I thought it was what was on the table, but it looks like he is holding some type of zip gun in his hand.Â Either way, sawed off shotguns don’t spread their pattern quite wide enough to take out an entire room with one shot.

Nice Lamp

This is either really tacky, or the coolest lamp ever:

Perhaps something Italian is more your style.

Shotguns of Summer

I like the Berretta 1201FP on the fold up chair.Â Â Nice touch.

Citori Report

I finally got the Citori out to the trap field.Â I am very happy with how it feels and how it shoots.Â Single trap I managed 24 out of 25.Â Double trap I managed 19 out of 24.

I bet Bitter on the last shot of the box that I’d buy her dinner if I missed.Â I actually missed!Â I think deep inside I feel sorry that she has had to come up here so much that I must have subsonsciously gotten behind the clay too much and missed.Â Yeah… that’s the ticket.

I need more work on double, but I’m happy enough with the single score.Â It’s a lot more work on the arms operating the brake action than it is operating the pump on my Mossberg.Â But overall, I like the break action O/U better in terms of being able to hit.Â I still want to improve my double score, but it’s better than I was doing with my pump.

Rife With Innacuracies

I’m glad to see Jeff Soyer calling out this worthless AP article too. It’s very similar to the stories the media was pushing leading up to the 1994 federal assault weapons ban. No doubt that the media would love to see another one. Even the lies are the same:

“In the early ’80s to ’90s, it was more common to have a handgun in your waistband and the bigger the caliber, the more powerful you were,” Baixauli said. “Now it’s escalated to the assault weapons.”

Gee, that’s what they said about the ’70s and ’80s, when they were trying to pass assault weapons bans in the ’90s.

Another issue potentially at play is the 2004 expiration of the federal assault weapons ban, 10 years after its passage. The legislation outlawed 19 types of guns, including the semiautomatic AK-47.

Funny, I bought my semiautomatic AK-47 during the ban.

The guns are readily available on streets, [ATF agent Carlos] Baixauli said, or can be ordered by mail for under $200.

I would hope ATF agents would be aware that it is unlawful for someone to mail order a firearm. Only federal firearms licensees are permitted to ship firearms through common carriers. Ordinary citizens may do it only in very limited circumstances, such as sending a gun in for warranty service.Â Â Does the ATF not teach federal gun laws to their agents?Â I’m betting they do, but a new assault weapons ban would be a very good thing for the ATF.Â It would mean more agents and resources getting involved in enforcing it.Â Â I guess it’s OK to lie, if it’s for a good cause, isn’t it?

Shootings involving assault weapons were among the reasons U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta set up an anti-gang task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officials this year. He assigned 15 federal prosecutors, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Greenberg, to the effort.

“These bullets are very powerful: they go through walls, they go through cars, and if you just spray the general vicinity you’re going to get innocent bystanders,” Acosta said. “A shooting that might have been an injury previously is now a death.”

Here we go with the spraying again.Â How exactly does a semi-automatic firearm “spray” bullets? Â Any center fire rifle cartridge shares these properties.Â The press just eats this stuff up.Â No tough questions, no research, no bothering to seek out alternate opinions, or verifying anything they’ve been told.Â And they wonder why newspaper circulation is way down.

Guns In Schools: Inherently Dangerous?

One has to wonder whether the Brady Campaign is of the opinion that armed security guards in school are an inherent risk, considering their latest blog post:

I urge everyone, regardless of your point of view on the subject, to watch this short video.

The video clip shows a Federal law enforcement agent, doubtless fully trained in firearm safety, shooting himself in the foot in front of a stunned classroom full of people.

This reinforces the point that guns in school are inherently dangerous. Even trained law enforcement officers can have potentially serious accidents.

Paul Helmke is correct to point out that being in possession of a badge doesn’t automatically make you a safe gun handler. But one wonders why he then goes onto say “any guns [in schools] should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officers.” What magical properties does having a badge imbue its possessor with?Â Studies have shown that gun owners are far less likely to mistakenly kill someone than police officers.^CITE

In my training, I was told that my pistol should never leave its holster unless I’m actively defending myself, engaging in draw and fire practice at a range designed to handle that safely, or removing and unloading it for safe storage.Â Clearly someone either never bothered to tell the DEA agent that basic rule, or he chose to ignore it.Â Perhaps he believed his wonderful training would prevent an accident while carelessly handling a firearm in front of a group of students.

My solution to these problems is to reinforce, over and over again, the rules of safe gun handling, for both people licensed to carry guns, and for police officers. Â The more you reinforce the rules, the less the likelihood of poor judgment leading to careless mistakes will be, for all classes of gun carriers.

I’m not honestly sure I understand the Brady position, which seems to be that even trained police officers can exercise poor judgment and have gun accidents, which is why only trained police officers should be allowed to carry guns in schools.Â Does that make sense to you? Â Me neither.

Getting Caught Up

I will have to get caught up with what’s been happening on all your blogs over the weekend.Â I was essentially out of the loop for three days, unfortunately.Â Normal blogging will resume shortly.

Schmoozing With the Triangle of Death

I had a productive second day.Â Bloggers are being treated very well, and very seriously by NRA.Â The Public Policy meeting spent a lot of time in executive committee, so I spent a lot of time outside.Â I talked a bit with Amy Lovato, who is Jeff Cooper’s granddaughter, while we were locked out of the meeting.Â Also got to talk a bit with a new NRA member that Sandy Froman invited along as a guest; hopefully soon to be Professor Lee.Â He seemed to have some interest in reaching out to the Asian community, and starting a campus shooting club when he ended up getting hired as a professor.Â Â People who are that enthusiastic about the issue are always an asset, as are people who wear Springfield XDs under their suit jacket :)

Lunch table today was Congressman Bob Barr, who was seated away from me, unfortunatly, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to him much.Â I also managed to speak with Timothy Pawol, who is one of the Pennsylvania board members.Â You really can’t get two Pennsylvania gun guys together without the subject of Ed Rendell being a shit come up, and for good reason. Â We talked about the recent PICS shutdown, which is making me more convinced I need to look into that issue in greater depth. Â It was a good contact to make.

I would encourage any NRA member who doubts the organization’s commitment to the cause, or thinks they are selling us out to come to an annual meeting, or a board meeting, and sit in, and talk to some of the people who do this stuff.Â The NRA is not perfect.Â They are a large organization that can’t be turned on a dime, and there’s no such things as perfection in politics.Â But the people in the NRA, both board and staff, give up a lot of their time and money for the cause.Â I don’t think anyone would do this if they weren’t committed.

Day Two

I’m continuing my attendance of the NRA board meeting into the afternoon, at which time I pick up Bitter, then drive back to Pennsylvania.Â I’ll comment more later.Â Â Sorry for the sparse posting, but I do think it’s important for bloggers to have a voice within NRA, and for NRA to be able to communicate with us and our community.

Just so you know, board member committee meetings are open to all NRA members.Â Anyone can come listen in.Â Executive committee or executive sessions are restricted only to the board, but the majority of the stuff going on here is accessible by any NRA member.Â Anyone who wants to come see how the organization works should plan to attend one.

Interesting Day

So today I attended the legislative committee session. Much of what was talked about was in regards to HR2640, and some matters that are appearing in the states like the “victimized twice” laws, forcing the reporting of stolen firearms. I was also quite pleased that the NRA is realizing that they need to have a better presence in the new media, and want to work more closely with bloggers.

At lunch, I found myself sitting next to Congressman Harold Volkmer. Yes, that Congressman Volkmer. Nice guy, and considering I regularly take advantage of the law he spearheaded, which consists of allowing gun shows, and safe transport provisions, it was quite a thrill to talk to him over lunch.

We joined up with Dave Kopel, Dave Hardy, and a few other folks for drinks afterward. Nice time. I got to meet Legal Bitch, the newest bitch girl. She’s very smart, and very cute, so be sure to check over there regularly for her posts.

I also met up with Tom King, of the NYSRPA.Â Tom is a good guy, and I feel bad for being kind of hard on him as a new blogger.Â Apparently our friend Jadegold sent him a rather horrid e-mail.Â While I have no plans to ban Jadegold, as long as he’s reasonable here, I understand now why Tom did it.