Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 1415 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Inky Article on SCCC

An article from the Philadelphia Inquirer on Students for Concealed Carry.Â It’s contains a pretty good contrast between how both sides try to frame the debate.Â First, the Inky’s statement:

Â The idea of loaded guns in beer-soaked frat houses isn’t as farfetched as it seems. At least 13 states are considering some form of legislation allowing concealed-carry on campus, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.

No bias there, no sir.Â But what do they mention earlier in the article?

Along with books, laptop and cell phone, there is something else that Jeremy Clark thinks is essential to bring to class: his gun.

The Villanova University law student said the sickening spate of campus shootings, from Virginia Tech to Northern Illinois University, left him feeling vulnerable without his Glock 9mm semiautomatic handgun.

“If I’m in a classroom where a shooting is taking place, I’d like a chance to be able to defend myself,” said the 29-year-old Army veteran from Bethlehem, Pa., who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Call me crazy here, but I’m willing to go out on a limb here and make an a few assumptions.

A 29 year old veteran knows how to handle a firearm safety
Knows how to shoot straight
Isn’t the type of guy who’s going to be attending drunken frat boozers while armed
Is probably pretty typical among students who have concealed carry licenses.

A lot of the activism in this particular issue seems to be coming from veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.Â And why not?Â The army trusted them to lug a fully automatic M4 assault rifle around, why do people in civilian life insist on treating them like irresponsible children?

Wisconsin Motion in Heller

Just noticed the following update on the Heller case:

Feb 28 2008 Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Wisconsin. (Distributed)

This Wisconsin Attorney General had to seek permission from the Wisconsin legislature to join the amicus brief for state Attorneys General.Â Needless to say this took time, and the Wisconsin legislature didn’t get around to acting until it was past the deadline.Â Here’s hoping the Supreme Court grants the motion, and we can get Wisconsin on board.

NRA Election Endorsements

Bitter has her endorsements up over at her site.Â They are also my endorsements as well, so go read.Â Â I would note we have two Pennsylvania guys on the ballot, but I can’t say I know either one well enough to offer an endorsement.Â I do feel that Pennsylvania is underrepresented on NRA’s Board of Directors, but I’m looking for the right kind of board representation.Â Being from Pennsylvania will not automatically get my endorsement.

I’ve heard that Tim Powol is a good guy, I talked to him very briefly at the September board meeting, and I think Pennsylvania NRA members can feel good about casting a ballot for him.Â Let’s keep him on the board.

Leo Holt, from Newtown, PA is the other Pennsylvanian on the ballot.Â I know nothing about him.Â Given that he’s a member of my club, which recently had an attempted revolt by anti-NRA factions within it, that seems rather surprising to me.Â That’s not to say that I know everyone involved in gun rights in this area, far from that.Â Bitter is really the one who is the social networker, but she’s never heard of him either.

Dave Hardy also has a list of endorsements.Â Dave is no stranger to NRA board meetings, so I’d give some weight to his choices as well.

Action Alert

We must prevent the anti-gunners from creating a time paradox.

Great Headline

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

IHMSA Silhouette Day

Today marks the beginning of International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association season at my club.Â I think this is quite likely one of the most challenging shooting sports out there.Â I shot in three classes.Â First was field pistol, with my Smith & Wesson 629 Classic loaded up with .44 Special, open sights, standing unsupported off handed, two hands.Â Field pistol is half size animals, with chickens at 25 yards, pigs at 50, turkeys at 75, and rams at 100.Â I was disappointed to only score 11, but the guys who have been doing this for a while said 11 isn’t too bad for starting out.Â Â Went on to smallbore pistol with the Mk.III, with 3/8th scale animals, and did 12 on that.Â Finished up on big bore, which are full sized animals at 40 meters (chickens), 100 meters (pigs), 150 meters (turkey), and 200 meters (rams).Â My whopping score of 6 is to be feared!Â Needless to say, I need more practice.

Neat thing about hitting the full sized rams at 200 meters (I only hit one) is you have enough time to be disappointed you didn’t hit the thing before you realize you did.Â It takes even more time for the *ping* and the sound of the ram falling over to get back to the shooter.

It’s an interesting sport, and hitting things at 100 yards with a pistol is quite a challenge.Â Even harder at 200 yards.Â I think my one ram was merely luck.Â I think I will keep doing this though, and hopefully it’ll make me a better pistol shooter.

New York Times “Gun Crazy”

Fortunately Jacob has already fisked this fit for wrapping fish article from the New York Times.

CZ-82 Report

Looks like Sailorcurt has joined the CZ-82 club.Â I have to say, it’s the best pistol I’ve ever paid less than 250 dollars for.Â Mine also came with some finish wear, especially that annoying chipping on the slide from the importation stamp.Â I fixed that problem with some Birchwood Casey Super Black, which is basically like a magic marker, only it marks with paint instead of marker.Â You basically dab it on, let it dry, then polish it up with some cloth.Â It does tend to wear off after a while, so I’m not sure it would be useful on a grip, or something else that gets rubbed on, but it made the slide chipping a lot less noticable.

More Bob Ricker

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but Bitter’s blog was featured in yesterday’s NRA Outrage of the Week:

But when NRA-ILA puts the word out that AHSA is an anti-gun front group, these “sportsmen” get a little sensitive, calling ILA staff “right-wing attack dogs” and calling gun owners who support the right to own firearms to defend themselves “self-defense whackos.” (To see the comments Ricker made on a popular pro-gun blog, please click here.)Â But the truth is, AHSA and its anti-gun leadership have supported anti-gun lawsuits and gun bans, and its leaders have given money to the Brady Campaign and to anti-gun politicians like John Kerry, Al Gore, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, and Ted Kennedy.

Bitter has a post that devastates Riker’s assertion in her comments here:

At AHSA, we value quality over mere quantity and let me asure you there are plenty of very wealthy â€œprogressiveâ€ gunowners out there who understand AHSAâ€™s mission. You know, NRA in over 100 years has only signed up about 4 million of the 70 million gun ownres out there and itâ€™s not like the other 66 million gun owners have not heard from the NRA- clearly a huge majority of gun owners have rejected NRAâ€™s message. That leaves a huge market for a group like AHSA that has a more reasoned and rational approach.

Basically about 33 million people think they are members of NRA, but aren’t paying dues, which is what counts for membership numbers.Â That leaves Bob’s pool of “progressive”gunowners much smaller than he thinks.Â There’s never been a group that’s been able to seriously capitalize on disconcent with NRA.Â As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, capitalizing on discontent from the right of NRA, GOA’s income from membership dues puts their numers at about 30,000.Â I highly doubt AHSA will do any better, but maybe they can dupe enough folks that they can afford some digs that are a bit more swanky than a post office box in Fredrick, Maryland.

Gunman Drill in North Carolina

This is pretty crazy.Â Elizabeth City State University decides to hold a mock gunman drill:

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported in Wednesday’s editions that an armed man burst into a classroom Friday, threatening to kill students. The drill came eight days after a gunman killed five people and himself in a classroom at Northern Illinois University.

Anthony Brown, vice chancellor of student affairs, said ECSU was testing its response to such shootings. E-mail and text messages were sent five days before the drill, notifying students, staff and faculty, he said.

“The intent was not to frighten them but to test our system and also to test the response of the security that was on campus and the people that were notified,” Brown said.

But not everyone got the word, including assistant professor Jingbin Wang, whose American foreign policy class was held hostage.

“I was prepared to die at that moment,” Wang said Tuesday of the moment the gunman entered the room.

What would you do in that situation?Â The report says it was a “red” plastic model gun. I’m guessing the type that officers use for training.Â Breda notes, relaying a story about a mouse she found in her garage:

A campus police officer posing as a gunman burst into a classroom, where he proceeded to hold the students hostage and terrorize them with a fake gun for 10 minutes. Not one of the students fought back. Not one thought to pick up a chair or a desk, or even a book, to defend themselves. They all lined up against a wall and passively waited for death.

One of the students said, “I was prepared to die at that moment.” Several students say they considered leaping from a window.

My mouse had more courage than this. Against insurmountable odds, it growled at me and prepared to fight, even to its death. The college students who meekly bared their throats to those who wanted to rip them out are dead already – they just don’t know it.
The will to live is life.

Even with an obviously fake gun, I would at least challenge the “attacker”.Â Hell, he might even get drawn on if he’s acting really erratic.Â I sincerely hope that most of the students knew this was the drill, and decided to play along.