The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Well, the old bench of evil turned out to be too small, too unstable, and I hated the fact that the only way I could mount the press was on the side. I decided to go to Sam’s Club and get myself a new bench of evil, where I could mount the press the right way.  Now every time I decap and resize a piece of brass, it’s like I’m playing a slot machine, only with this slot machine, I win every time!
Now I’m thinking about upping the ante toward a progressive press.
It’s been something I’ve been wondering, but I think Palin’s addition to the ticket might change things. I still lean toward the idea that McCain is not worthy of an endorsement, but then I think how much is on the line this election. McCain is far from perfect, but I think it should be considered in the following light:
I’m not saying NRA should endorse McCain, but I’m not going to freak out if they do. In terms of previous Republican presidents, McCain is really no worse, and may even be better. I have no idea which way NRA is leaning in terms of an endorsement, but I’m willing to accept either course of action. An endorsement has serious political consequences for how people on the ground may help his campaign. While I wish McCain would repudiate his stance on private sales, gun owners have been able to make progress with a very imperfect endorsed presidential candidates from the 1980s to now. I worry that ceding the White House to Barack Obama will cause us to lose everything we’ve worked on for the past decade.
Dustin has more on the law abiding gun owner and concealed carry permit holder that managed to defend his life at a Wal-Mart. His includes video.
Todd Jarrett has made me a better Silhouette shooter. Tonight was our thursday airgun match. I started out on chickens, doing about what I normally do, got into pigs, and then noticed I was moving the gun when I pulled the trigger. I then remembered Todd saying “You have to increase your grip strength by 20%, at least.” so I tightened up on the grip until the gun started shaking. I backed it off a bit until the excessive movement stopped, and holding a much firmer grip than I was used to, starting knocking down animal after animal. I kept my game up until my hand got tired, and I started trailing off on the rams. But damn, I shot a AAA score of 37. That’s ten whole friggin animals better than I had shot at any previous Thursday airgun matches, and better than I shot at states. It’s amazing such a simple thing can make such a difference. Wow!
Bernard Bell is the associate dean at Rutgers Law School, and thinks that there should be strict liability for gun owners:
A move toward absolute liability would ideally be accompanied by private insurers’ willingness to insure gun owners against such liability. Such insurance should be separate from standard homeowners’ insurance, so that homeowners who do not own guns are not required to subsidize those who do.
The cost of insurance would reflect the expected cost of compensating gun injuries to innocent people. Individuals would then have the incentive to weigh the cost of injuries to others in deciding whether to purchase or keep firearms.
And insurance companies might well offer incentives, in the form of lower rates, to gun owners who engage in practices that decrease the likelihood of accidental injuries, such as trigger locks, safe storage and regular courses in maintenance and use of handguns.
Gun control people everywhere are thinking up ways to get around Heller, in order to discourage people from owning guns, and especially discouraging people from using them in self-defense. Sadly, most of this stuff is probably not going to get the scrutiny they deserve from the courts, which is why the political fight is still paramount.
I wonder if Professor Bell is open to the idea that these liability issues should be applied equally to the police and military?
New Jersey Assemblywoman Joan Quigley asked the question:
I introduced that bill in the spring of 2006. If it had actually become law on the day it was introduced, Mr. Braico would have been able to accumulate 33 handguns between then and now. I fail to see how that’s an unreasonable restriction on his civil rights. And I do wonder what he might have done with all those deadly weapons.
An intrepid gun owner in The Garden State provides her with an answer:
When I first bought my XD-40 handgun, it was quite a large caliber, and so expensive to use for target practice. As my self-defense instructor told me, a large caliber is necessary for “stopping power” in self-defense situations. However, I immediately bought a smaller, inexpensive weapon – a .22-caliber Browning Buckmark – for target practice, just to save money. There, already, were two guns in one month.
However, both of those guns were too large for my wife to operate, so we bought a Lady Smith revolver, which is specially designed for the smaller hands of a woman. At that time, we discovered that the XD-40 jams quite a lot (a design flaw, I believe, but certainly a problem in a self-defense situation), so we bought a large Ruger six-shooter as a more reliable alternative to the XD-40.
The point is we bought more than one per month, for good reason.
I would say if the XD-40 jams a lot, it’s either a specific problem with the gun, or his wife is limp wristing it. The XD line are generally pretty reliable from what I’ve heard. But it’s a great way to point out why the one gun a month issue is a problem. The burden should be on the people advocating it to prove it reduces crime, of which there is currently no evidence whatsoever.
Hat Tip to Cemetery’s Weblog
I’ve had a bit to say about why we don’t dominate the Olympics here, but Kim has some more, and I think he’s right about this:
The problem is that outside the Army Marksmanship Unit, there are no professional Olympic shooters in America—no sponsorships, no funding from any source—so therefore people cannot afford to train for 8-10 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, which is what’s required to win the Olympics, in any sport (ask Michael Phelps about the training required to win Olympic Gold).
So when we say that we “should†be winning Olympic gold medals in the shooting sports, because we are by golly the Land of the Second Amendment and the Nation of Riflemen, we forget that winning Olympic medals is not just raw talent, but dedication—and dedication not just from the participants, but from We The People.
If there is no public support for Olympic shooting, though, then we have no right to complain when our amateur shooters can’t compete against the professionals of other countries.
If we want to be winners, money has to flow into these sports, and right now, not enough is.
A concealed carry permit holder foils an armed robbery in Pennsylvania.
A Pennsylvania man gets busted for having a loaded gun in his car. He has an LTCF in Pennsylvania, but not for New Jersey. My bet is he forgot he had the gun in the car. I do not normally keep loaded guns in my car, but I do often keep my range bag in the car. You don’t know how often I’ve had to turn around because I suddenly realized I had hollow tip .22LR rounds in my vehicle, which is a serious crime in New Jersey. Gun owners would be wise, before entering New Jersey, to do a complete vehicle search of their cars to ensure there is no hollow point ammunition floating around in it. Definitely check to make sure you don’t have a firearm in the vehicle.
New Jersey laws are designed to do one thing: put firearms owners and shooters in jail. Keep that in mind when traveling over the river where the second amendment does not apply.
More anti-gun folks who can’t control their rage. And yet they think they are qualified to control us?