Exurban Kevin reviews the door prize he won from one of our sponsors of the Blog Bash. The Insight M3X. I didn’t win anything at the Bash, but I never win things. Except at Friends of the NRA dinners. I figure that used up all my winning luck for a while.
Category: Guns
Note from the NRA Board Meeting
Dave Hardy notes some happenings. I could only stay for an hour and a half of it, because we had to catch our flight. John Sigler is no longer President of NRA, which is a shame, because I thought John was an outstanding President, especially for helping us deal with issues here in Pennsylvania. His law enforcement background was invaluable in blunting some of the other side’s arguments. NRA presidents only serve two year terms, and then it’s someone else’s turn. This is typical. Heston was an exception, but that’s true in a lot of ways.
For the next two years, it’ll be Ron Schmeitz, and I wish him all the luck in the world. These are challenging times, even if we’re in good shape, and it’ll take a strong leadership I hope Mr. Schmeitz can find.
Quote of the Day
From the New York Times, Barbara Boxer comments on the clout of the NRA:
“It is a shame,†said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California. “But you have to come to a realization around here that at this point in time, the N.R.A. gets the votes,†she said referring to the National Rifle Association.
“Either you are going to bring down the whole Senate and never do anything or you or going to swallow hard and say, ‘I will just vote my conscience on those amendments and speak out until people get a hold of their senses,’ †Mrs. Boxer said.
It must be painful for them. I would say I feel sorry for them, but I don’t really. What a pity your little plan to trash part of the Bill of Rights is falling on difficult times. It’s difficult times for everyone, right?
Friends You Can Meet at the NRA Convention
US Citizen of Traction Control, who is a super nice guy for those of you who’ve never met him in real life, goes up to this guy at the NRA Banquet reception, who turns out is an NRA board member, and just starts talking to him. It was Jim Gilmore, former Governor of Virginia. Before you know it, they were golfing buddies.
A Stop by The ParaUSA Booth
Para has pretty much completed their move to North Carolina by this point, so I wanted to stop by, and talk to Kerby Smith, who arranged the whole thing with Todd Jarrett at Blackwater for us last year, and see which of their products they were excited about this year. This year they are touting their PXT 1911 Gun Rights Edition:
The production version will come with an NRA inscription on the token on the grip instead of the standard token showing here, and they donate a portion of the sale to NRA-ILA.  They also make a high capacity version of this 1911:
That’s Kerby holding the gun. He might have a career in hand modeling if he gets bored with this whole public relations thing. Finally, they are offering a plain government model 1911 called the GI Expert:
Para touts this as an entry level 1911. This model is pretty much a vanilla 1911, without the Para Power Extractor, and with a GI guide rod. Kerby offered to send me some of these guns to try out, and write about them, and I might take him up on it at some point. I just have to figure out whether I know enough about 1911s to be able to say anything intelligent in regards to how it performs compared to other 1911s.
Phoenix Facts
I just posted some very random facts about the NRA Annual Meeting and Second Amendment Blog BashTM over at my blog. If you’re curious about exactly how many people attended, how much was raised, how many publishers participated, and more, then check it out.
I will follow up here with an in-depth report on how the NRA Board of Directors results came out. It was all very interesting, and I know that the endorsed candidates who did interviews here were very appreciative of the support and very excited to see the interest from Sebastian’s readers through the questions submitted.
More on the Ruger SR-556
The Ruger rep in the booth seemed to be pretty interested in telling me about their patented gas system. Here are some pictures showing here:
They described this as a two stage gas piston, meaning the first little nub there gets the gas piston starting to move back, but with less impulse than a normal gas piston AR. They claim this reduces felt recoil, since the gas rod accelerates more slowly rearward.
The Ruger rep was anxious to show me their gas regulator. It ships on setting two, which is good enough for most commercial ammunition. He said you could turn up the gas for lighter loads, or turn it down for higher loads. You could also turn it completely off for suppressor use.
HSUS Investigation
This is interesting:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta8GdABQPHA[/youtube]
Back Home
I’m back home in Philadelphia, after my TSA ordeal. I guess at some point early at the NRA Convention, I slipped my spare magazine into my laptop bag. Caught a cold Friday, and through the Benadryl, and being up early in the morning to pack, I didn’t remember I had the spare mag for the Kel-Tec with me.
Bitter packed all the luggage up, because she’s more systematic than I am, but I unloaded my guns, unloaded the magazines, and put them back in the locked container to be put in with the checked bag. Got to the airport, declared the unloaded firearms to the ticket agent, got my orange ticket, checked the bag, and sniffled my way to the security checkpoint.
Shoes off, bag on the belt, laptop out, the whole drill. For some reason, the belt stopped, and the x-ray person motioned for someone else, and I had to wait. The guy took me aside, and told me I could watch, but not touch the bag as it was searched. He ran the explosive residue test, so I figured maybe something in my charger, iPod or iPhone must have looked weird. I was unconcerned as he searched the bag until he pulled the loaded magazine out of one of the pouches in my laptop bag.
“Oh shit!” I seem to recall saying. I nearly shit myself. I apologized to the TSA guy for my forgetfulness, and he took me over, photographed it, asked me how many rounds were in the mag, and what caliber. Filled out a form, and called the Phoenix Police. At this point I thought I was in a lot of trouble. TSA guy said this kind of thing happens a lot, and it’s not really a big deal, which took the pucker factor down a bit. Phoenix PD showed up, asked me what I was doing with the magazine, I told him I was at the NRA Convention, have a license to carry a firearm, had checked the firearms in my luggage legally, and had simple forgotten I had a spare magazine on me.
The Phoenix PD ran me through their system, and I must have come up clean, because he then asks me “What do you want to do with the magazine?” and I recall saying something like “Don’t you have to keep it?” he said “It would be a shame for you to lose a magazine and your ammo. I can take you back outside and we can hook you up with an envelope, and you can mail it to yourself.”
At this point I’m wondering what foreign planet I have stepped foot on. In Philly, I think I would be getting fingerprinted right about now.  The cop says “This kind of thing happens all the time.  It’s been happening more often with the NRA in town.” The TSA guy says “At least you didn’t forget the gun, that we would have handled differently. It’s really not a big deal.”  He told me my name would go into a database, not the no fly list, but a database of people who have made my type of mistake, and if they never had a problem with me again, nothing would happen, but that they would likely prosecute on a second offense.
Taking me back out of the security checkpoint, and up to the information desk to mail back my magazine and ammo, I remembered that you can’t send ammo through the USPS, so I asked him if I could turn in the ammo, and just mail the magazine back, which is all I cared about anyway. TSA was fine with that. Phoenix PD also said it really wasn’t a big deal. After that I had to go through security again (passed this time) and was allowed to continue on my way.  TSA and Phoenix PD were courteous the entire time, and the reassurance that it wasn’t a big deal helped me from freaking out.
Truth be told, I’m still a little freaked out by it. But you can bet next time I’m ripping my carry on apart beforehand to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. So given my experience, I offer my readers who are flying with guns a bit of advice:
- Make a list of everything you brought with you, including how many rounds of ammunition, how many magazines, and keep it with the case.  When you go to pack back up, make sure that the numbers in the case are the same as what you brought.
- Go through all your carry on, every compartment, pouch, etc in the bag. Make sure nothing prohibited found its way in there. Check before you cross into the security zone again, just to be sure.
- Perhaps a pocket pistol isn’t the best gun to travel with. Had it been a fully loaded Glock magazine, the weight of the bag would have been heavier than I’m used to, and I might have noticed.
- Give yourself plenty of time. I arrived early for the flight, and didn’t end up missing it because I had plenty of time.
You can bet next time I fly with guns, which hopefully won’t be for a while, I will follow this procedure. I’m glad TSA is understanding and gives everyone one “Ooops!” but it still bothers me. I’m usually very careful about these things, but after three days of light sleep, jet lag, and a nasty cold, it’s easy to forget a detail.
Flying With Guns Advice
When flying with firearms, make sure to check your carry on bag before you fly. Definitely don’t forget a spare loaded P3AT magazine in your carry on. That might create some difficulty for you. More later.
UPDATE: In Houston waiting for connection to Philly. I have to say, Phoenix TSA and Phoenix Police Department are great. More later.