Good thing I bought a Kel-Tec I guess.  Of course, it would be nice if I could actually shoot my P-3AT at some point.  Why can’t Glock make a pocket rocket?
Calling Dan Cooper
Quote of the Day
From Tam, who is thinking of creating her own training method:
That way I make money, and they get to take home a certificate and tell their friends that they’re “trained”. And since the odds of them being in a shootout in suburbia are slim to frickin’ none, we’re all happy. It’ll be awesome. I just need to think up a name for my technique and order some shirts with epaulettes.
The Day After
Screwdriver Violence
Apparently one of the Writers on the HuffPo stabbed her former lover to death with an assault screwdriver (i.e. phillips head, or double vodka, depending on context). Two hundred and twenty two times! She then shot herself. I anxiously await her colleague at the HuffPo, Paul Helmke, to condemn this senseless act of screwdriver violence.
World Champions
Eat that suckas. To celebrate, Bitter and I got milkshakes from Wawa. In what the Obama campaign surely would classify as racism, Bitter got Vanilla. A long time coming is right. I barely remember the last World Series win in 1980. I remember 1983, where they went and lost, and 1993, where the same thing happened.
Update on Cooper Firearms Issue
It looks like they are asking Dan Cooper to resign:
The employees, shareholders and board of directors of Cooper Firearms of Montana do not share the personal political views of Dan Cooper.
Although we all believe everyone has a right to vote and donate as they see fit, it has become apparent that the fallout may affect more than just Mr. Cooper. It may also affect the employees and the shareholders of Cooper Firearms.
The board of directors has asked Mr. Cooper to resign as President of Cooper Firearms of Montana, Inc.
Daily operations will continue with the competent staff currently in place in Stevensville, MT producing the finest, most accurate rifles money can buy.
Dan Cooper has spent all of his working life producing the highest quality rifles built here in the USA. He started with nothing but the American Dream and built that into firearms company anyone would be proud of. We firmly believe Dan stands by the 2nd amendment.
We wish him all of the best in his future pursuits.
So Dan has been asked by the board to resign from the company he himself founded. It’s sad that it has to come to things like this, but he’s supporting a candidate who would disarm us all if he could find a way. I might buy the notion that Dan Cooper believes in the Second Amendment, I just don’t think it’s very important to him. It can’t be if you’re voting for a candidate who spent much of his public life trying to destroy it. Cooper Firearms is doing the right thing here. If Dan Cooper does indeed step down, I think we should consider that a satisfactory resolution to this situation.
Bryan Miller Jumps In
I should have figured this kind of thing would be something Bryan Miller would jump in to. No tragedy too horrible that Bryan Miller won’t exploit to smear gun owners as a whole. I don’t think it’s possible to have a reasonable discussion on guns with Bryan Miller. He’s shown himself to be hysterical, and not interested in rational discussion. Certainly not with those who understand what machine guns are, and what their inherent dangers are and aren’t. He’d probably be shocked to find out that I agree that someone was dangerously irresponsible in creating the conditions that lead to this accident. But he can’t have that discussion without bringing the rest of his vile baggage to the table.
UPDATE: I couldn’t resist a comment:
[…] Machine guns are not more inherently dangerous than any other firearm. With proper supervision and a bit of training on use, they are safe to shoot. The reason this accident happened, is because someone supervising had a tragic lapse in judgment. It would be like if pop had handed over the wheel to his high-powered speed boat, and the kid ran it into the pier. Would we condemn speed boating? No. Speed boaters? No. Would we argue that pop has some issues with judgment? Absolutely.
There are about 12 million registered recreational boats in the United States, which caused about 34 accidental deaths of children under the age of 13 in 2005. There are 200 million guns in the United States, which cause 65 accidental deaths per year of children under 13. Given there is more than an order of magnitude more firearms, this is a remarkable safety record. For comparison, the number of cycling deaths in that age group is 94.  Source here.
Delaware Gun Shennanigans
SayUncle was on top of it while I was busy digging up Dan Cooper’s campaign donating records. I guess the Pennsylvania State Police are giving free lessons on operating illegal gun databases to neighboring states.
You know, when the “crazy” folks said all this instant check stuff was really a conspiracy to register all gun sales, only to have people tell them “you’re crazy, there are built-in legal protections to make sure that doesn’t happen” — it’s usually not very helpful to make their worst paranoid delusions actually come true. That destroys credibility, and makes it harder for us pragmatic persons, or “prags” as we are often called, to argue that the political process is a worthwhile outlet to redress their grievances.
Responsibility in Organized Shoots
There are hundreds of machine gun shoots that happen across the country without incident every year. It’s a great way for a curious public to come and learn about automatic firearms, and try them out, in a controlled and safe environment. I’ve never seen someone shoot an automatic weapon that didn’t come away from the shooting line with a big shit-eating-grin on their face. Done right, I think machine gun shoots are actually a great public relations tool. But the key to doing it right is “controlled” and “safe”, and pretty clearly what happened in Westfield fell down on both those counts.
Every accident that happens at organized and public shooting events is going to be examined under the microscope of public scrutiny. All it takes is one tragedy to lose the perception among the public that this is a safe activity. All it takes is one accident for hysterics and anger to get directed back at the shooting community as a whole. Other sports get a break. We don’t. And on top of all that, there’s a tangled web of legal issues involved, especially when you bring machine guns into the picture.
There is no universe where an eight-year-old kid with little prior firearms experience should be handed a fully loaded machine pistol and told to go to town. I don’t care if his dad said he had fired guns before. I don’t care how excited the kid is to try to shoot one. Machine pistols legitimately are more dangerous in untrained hands than other ordinary firearms. Most other shoulder fired or mounted automatics are heavy enough that even a novice user can retain control. Machine pistols are another story. I once had my friend’s M11, which is similar in size and weight to the Micro Uzi, get away from me while firing it on full automatic. No rounds were sent in an unsafe direction, but the baffling and armor plating on the range took a hit as a pulled the last round high. It was embarrassing. That wasn’t the first time I had ever fired a machine pistol either. I never fired that gun on automatic again unless I had a death grip on it. Anyone who’s familiar enough with a machine pistol to instruct with one ought to know that you must use extreme caution in teaching beginners. There is no way I would let an eight year old handle a machine pistol.
This is a tragedy on multiple fronts. It’s a tragedy because a child died. It’s also a tragedy because a family has been ruined. It’s a tragedy for the father, who is going to have to live with this for the rest of his life. Finally, it’s a tragedy because there are probably going to be good people, who pose no danger to society, going to prison over this. There is no way for Justice to prevail here. There is no wrong that can be righted. But a child died in a gun accident in Massachusetts, and you can bet that someone is going to be made to pay. It might not be justice, but it is the law.