Freedom is arguing with a nameless, faceless government bureaucrat, who has knows little or nothing about your job, that you need a basic tool of self-protection.
Daley Giving Up?
There’s speculation that he’s considering it, but I he’s playing games too:
Chicagoans with guns in their homes might be required to have insurance to protect taxpayers from frivolous lawsuits, he said.
“We’re talking about putting first-responders in a very, very delicate position of people being armed without being notified how many guns they have in their homes,” Daley said. “We have to be able to fashion a law that truly protects first-responders and protects the citizens.”
Requiring gun owners to have some ridiculous amount of insurance is not a new tactic. But expect it, and others like it, to get dragged out of the basement and dusted off as politicians and gun control advocates look for new/old ways to discourage gun ownership.
New Shooter
I had the pleasure of introducing a newbie to the joys of shooting today. My former girlfriends’ younger brother was only 9 or so when I first met him, but he recently graduated from high school, and was out visiting his sister. He wanted to go shooting, so I decided to take him to the club’s plinking range.
I still stand by the AR-15 as a great rifle for the introduction of enthusiastic beginners. For people more timid about shooting, the .22LR is a better choice. I loaded up 50 rounds for Jason, and we went through all of them. We went through 30 more rounds with the AK-74, and a few rounds with my Mk.II and Glock.
His mom is going to want to kill me, because I know she doesn’t like guns, and now he wants to buy a rifle. Hopefully he can find a range or club in Iowa that can help him get started.
Quote of the Day
From Glenn Reynolds on the 2008 Bejing Olympics:
I won’t be going, and I don’t plan to watch. The Olympics are a fount of corruption and chicanery anyway, upholding no ideals and promoting no good ends anyway. Plus, they’re boring.
I won’t be watching either. Even the shooting events. What the Chinese government is doing is a disgrace. The only thing more disgraceful is the IOC’s capitulation. China should not be permitted to host another Olympics until it cleans up its human rights record. What’s next? Havana Olympics?
Update in Chicago Case
Dave Hardy provides a few links to the motion for summary judgment in the Chicago handgun case. A few things pop out at me:
- They offer the possibility of using the privileges and immunities clause, which was gutted in the Slaughterhouse Cases. If the court bites, we’d be re-blazing a trail long ago scorched by the Supreme Court.
- It appears Mr. Gura is attempting to chip away a bit at registration. While they are not challenging Chicago’s registration requirements per se, they are challenging a few aspects of it. Here’s an exerpt:
Whatever the value of registration, the requirement that guns be constantly re-registered burdens gun ownership but serves no useful purpose. The city already mandates that registrants immediately notify police of any changes in their registration information, including loss or disposition of a gun or registration certificate. Chicago Mun. Code § 8-20-140. Moreover, “[a] state may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the Federal Constitution.†Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105 (1943). The penalty for lapsed or improper registration rendering the subject firearm “unregisterable†is likewise unconstitutional.
One bite off the apple at a time is how we’ll win this.
H.R.6691
The bill is now in Thomas, if you care to search for it. Interestingly, Congressman Patrick Murphy has signed on as a cosponsor. Makes you wonder why he was unwilling to sign on to the congressional amicus brief to help overturn DC’s law at the Supreme Court. Sorry, but if Congressman Murphy is only going to be a friend of gun owners close to election time, and spend the rest of the session screwing us, that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, does it?
I am willing to accept that perhaps the Congressman has realized he has erred in his position on second amendment rights, and has now seen the light. If it’s a true turnaround, I welcome it. But color me skeptical.
Blogger Offline
Looks like Google locked a bunch of blogs reportedly for being spam blogs. I think if you enjoy blogging, and you’re good at it, it’s very much worth the investment to get your own domain, and get some hosting. It helps with your google-fu too, because Google ranks people higher if they have their own domain, where blogspot.com gets reduced google-fu.
Match Time
Our monthly IHMSA match is this weekend, which means it’s reloading time for me. Bitter and I are also taking two new shooters, possibly more, to the range this weekend for some fun. That means I’ll be a reloading fool.
Last time I did IHMSA, I used a 44 special load for shooting field pistol. Basically 9 grains of Unique capped off with a 180gr semi-jacketed hollow point. I think that load was a bit too hot for my tastes. It headed out about 1100 feet per second. You just need enough on the bullet to knock the rams over, and I think 900 feet per second would be just fine. I think I will reduce the load to 8 grains of Unique this time around.
For the AR-15, I’ve tried and like using Lake City brass with 21gr of IMR-4198 capped off with a 55gr FMJ boat tail round. Heads down range fired from my 20″ barrel AR at about 3150 feet per second, with a variance between the max and min only about 19 feet per second. Next powder I’m going to try will be Varget, once I use up all the IMR-4198.
Been thinking about a load for reloading the M2 ball I have. Seems to be that 50 grains of IMR-4895 with a .308 150gr FMJ boat tail round is reasonable for firing in an M1 Garand. Decapping and resizing 30-06 is rough on the arm though. Takes a lot more force than .223 or 6.8 SPC brass.
Blue Trail Range Reopening on Hold
Looks like Blue Trail Range was ready to reopen, but the state decided they needed more time. They’ve had some ballistic expert help, it looks like:
“Vargas concludes, based on his study of the elevations and theoretical bullet trajectories over the mountain, that it is beyond improbable — and actually implausible — that bullets that have hit residences on the eastern side of Tri-Mountain originate from Blue Trail Range,†she said.
…
State police ballistics experts have also been involved in the investigation of the origin of bullets found in the park as well as shots that have hit homes in Durham that are almost 1.5 miles from the range. The range is on the western side of Fowler Mountain, while the homes that were struck by bullets are on the eastern side.
Clark Vargas, president of C. Vargas & Associates, said the only way that a bullet fired from Blue Trail could have hit homes in Durham were if someone used a specialized shooting technique known as plunging angle fire.
I did my own analysis here, which concluded that fire from the 200 yard range could hit houses on the other side, but I am not an expert, nor did I visit the site. I’ll take the word of the experts on this one.
UPDATE: Looks like the actual house, that was allegedly hit, is marked now in Google Earth. Rerunning my ballistic calculations, I agree that there’s almost no chance that a bullet fired from that range managed to impact that house. It’s well within the ballistic shadow of the mountain.
UPDATE: They are holding a sporting clays fundraiser this Sunday to help save the range.
Judge is Bitter About Decision
Greg Rotz gives up an update to his story that suggests the judge in his case, who ordered his License to Carry Firearms returned, isn’t happy with the decision. I will say, though, I have great admiration for a judge who, putting his personal feelings about carrying in polling places aside, is still willing to rule based on what the law says. That’s more than I can say about four out of nine justices on the Supreme Court.