Guns – Page 812 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Take What You Can Get

It looks like Open Carry is off the agenda for this year in Texas.Â Over time I have not become the biggest advocate of open carry as a form of activism, but I will always support it being legal, and for people being able to do it, if they so choose, without being harassed by the authorities.Â I am also not a fan of all or nothing approaches when it comes to legislation:

State Rep. Debbie Riddle, whom the open carry folks tagged months ago as the bills presumptive sponsor, had the legislation drafted but never introduced it. Her chief of staff explained to open carry members in an email that such legislation was unlikely to pass and that talks of an open carry proposal have already caused difficulties for other Second Amendments bills.

If it’s any consolation, Riddle, R-Houston, did file legislation earlier this week that would allow a disabled person with a concealed carry license to openly carry a firearm if their disability prevents them from otherwise concealing it.

“That’s not exactly what we were going for,” McCarthy said.

The situation is that you have a friendly legislator on the matter, who was willing to draft legislation, and who says the votes aren’t there, and offers a compromise that will pass.Â She offered to make a bill that would cover disabled people who can’t easily conceal.Â Why not run with that, if the votes aren’t there for full open carry?Â I don’t see much of a reason to hold off.Â It’s not what you really want, but it helps get you somewhere.Â Is it that Texas open carry advocates still want to be able to use that issue?Â Well, once they offer to deal with that for you, it’s not really a bargaining chip anymore.Â If your legislator is offering to run that bill for you, for God’s sake, take it!

The article goes on to describe how the TSRA and NRA did not get behind the legislation.Â This will further fuel the rumor tha NRA is against open carry, but this is not really true.Â It is true that it’s not been a high priority for them, but I believe they will support a bill when the right political opportunity presents itself.

Saul Cornell Responds to Hardy

As Dave Hardy mentioned over on his blog, Saul Cornell published a law review in response to Dave’s earlier review article on the lecture notes of St. George Tucker.Â I’m not sure what’s more amusing, the degree Cornell is willing to go to ignore or downplay Tucker’s blatant reference to self-defense in regard to the Second Amendment, or the fact that we now have liberal scholars lecturing conservatives on not being good originalists!

Air Gun Silhouette Tomorrow

Outdoor air rifle and air pistol silhouette begins tomorrow.Â Got in a bit of practice today.Â It’s good be shooting outside again.Â Speaking of shooting outside, the gun blogger winter match for our rifle league ends next weekend.Â In addition to that, Mr. Completely has started up the next season of E-Postal matches.Â There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a rifle or pistol shooter.

UPDATE: 20 and 24, which is a AA and AAA score respectively.Â Would have been nice to have two AAA scores, but the temperature dropped from when I sighted in yesterday, so I bombed the first bank of chickens.Â CO2 guns are, unfortunately, rather sensitive to temperature.

Busy Beavers

It’s always amazed me that somewhere locked up in the Beaver’s little rodent brain is all the information necessary to engineer dams.Â Blackfork managed to get some shots of beaver dam building here, here and here.

Fascinating creatures.Â It’s a shame they make such good coats and hats.

DoD Destroying Brass

This isn’t good news for reloaders.Â Check out this article from Maine Hunting Today.

Recently it has been determined that fired munitions of all calibers, shapes and sizes have been designated to be Demil code B. As a result and in conjunction with DLAâ€™s current Demil code B policy, this notice will serve as official notification which requires Scrap Venture (SV) to implement mutilation as a condition of sale for all sales of fired munitions effective immediately. This notice also requires SV to immediately cease delivery of any fired munitions that have been recently sold or on active term contracts, unless the material has been mutilated prior to sale or SV personnel can attest to the mutilation after delivery. A certificate of destruction is required in either case.

It’s bad enough Clinton screwed us out of surplus ammo.Â Now it appears Obama will screw us out of even the components.Â Brass is already scarce enough without this.Â See the whole thing.

Gun Nutty Mailbox

I don’t know if I’m enough of a gun nut to display it this publicly, but I have to admit it’s pretty cool.

How You Know We’re Winning?

The New York Times does a positive story on the increasing popularity of biathlon, even though they get something wrong:

The biggest challenge of the sport is the abrupt switch between disciplines: going all out on skis, and then stopping, catching oneâ€™s breath and calming oneâ€™s nerves for the precision of using a rifle for target shooting. Itâ€™s believed to have its origins in hunting, which, in snowy Northern European climes, required just that switch from fast skiing to steady shooting.

They are right about the challenge, but biathlon has nothing to do with hunting.Â It’s actually, at root, a practical shooting discipline that has its origins with the Norwegian military.Â The rifles have evolved well beyond that, but being able to go from skiing to shooting is a soldier’s game, not a hunter’s.

Smith & Wesson Beats the Street

They earned three cents more per share than analyists were expecting.

“While our hunting business continues to suffer in the current economic environment, the market for hunting rifles in a healthy economy is a sizeable one,” said Michael F. Golden, president and chief executive. “In addition, this portion of our business produces barrels for our tactical rifles, products that are clearly in very high demand right now.”

I think Mike Golden owes the White House a fruit basket for being such an effective gun salesman.

Hunting on the Rise in Pennsylvania

It appears that sport shooters, collecters, and self-defense whackos (according to AHSA) aren’t the only ones spending more money on their hobby right now.Â Hunting license sales are also on the rise here in Pennsylvania, turning around after years of losses.Â In fact, archery, muzzleloader, furtaker, bear, and migratory bird licenses are also on the rise.

Shootoff Next Week

Just got the results for last night’s Indoor Silhouette match, and I’ve ended up in a shootoff with one of our better pistol shooters for the top spot for the pistol scoped class, which I guess means I must be doing something right.Â I’ve been shooting into the high 20s and low 30s (out of 40) with pistol lately, which is a lot better than a few months ago.Â We’ll have to see how the shootoff goes next week.Â My competition is pretty tough.

Someone mentioned in the comments the other day about not having the money to get into competition, which I don’t think should really be a problem.Â I shoot our indoor smallbore pistol matches, and IHMSA smallbore with a Ruger Mk.III Hunter 22/45 topped with an inexpensive BSA red dot scope that I bought from SayUncle for a few measly bucks.Â My only nod to the exquisite is the Volquartsen trigger kit I put in, because the Ruger factory trigger is kind of awful.Â When I shoot air pistol matches I shoot a Crossman 2300S.Â I replaced the grips and added a peep sight to the rear, but the whole rig was under 350 dollars.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get started competing.Â In fact, you should probably start with cheap equipment, and only upgrade when you feel like the equipment is holding you back.Â You’re far better off spending the money on ammunition and shooting more, than spending the money on expensive equipment you won’t be good enough for starting out.Â If money for ammunition is really a concern, shoot air guns.Â Not only are air guns cheap, but the ammunition is too, and if you have a basement, you can practice in it.Â The skills you learn will transfer to other shooting disciplines.Â Competition is a lot of fun, and good at helping you develop your shooting skills.Â Money doesn’t have to be an object.