Attempted Murder or DGU?

Gwen is freaking out about due process.  Her link is dead but I found the original story from a local outlet rather than the Outside media network she chose.

Turns out a woman shot her husband a few times in the face with a .22.  She called the police herself.  She's been charged with Misconduct Involving Weapons IV (she was drunk) and attempted murder.

Gwen of course sees this as a heinous crime.  I am more cautious and reserve judgement.  The woman was given a protective order earlier in the month and the hearing for a long term divorce was supposed to occur in a few days after the incident.  I can't find the criminal record of the husband for sure but this may be the guy based on an interwebs search; if it is, then he has a fair number of crimes including some assault and domestic violence on his rap sheet.

I generally don't have a problem with women using force, including deadly force, if necessary, against violent male abusers.  Let's postulate for a minute that the shooter was justified in using deadly force at the outset of the encounter.  Even if so there's issues with this shoot.  Let's look at the classic triad of ability, opportunity, jeopardy.

• Ability.  Generally the average man can be presumed to have the ability to inflict death or serious bodily injury on an average woman.  Satisfied.
• Opportunity.  The article says that the man was backing away slowly and was 20 feet away when she shot.  20 feet is right at the boundary for where you can meet the Tueller drill criteria for opportunity of an opponent to employ an melee weapon (or fists!) before you can get a shot on target from the holster; from a "ready" long gun the timeline should be faster and thus the assailant can be closer.  Maybe satisfied but probably not.
• Jeopardy/Intent.  Our Castle Doctrine removes the duty to retreat in the home but does not create a presumption against unlawful entry, so the shooter would have to deal with the issue that a man backing away slowly likely poses no immediate hostile intent.  I don't know how the restraining order influences things (i.e., does violating a restraining order create a presumption that you intend to inflict death or serious bodily injury on the defender?).  It is possible.

That's why this is an attempted murder charge -- the shooter may not have met the required elements of self defense.  That is also why we have due process.  The justice system will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that her use of force was unjustifiable.  This also illustrates the importance of the protective order.  I suspect that a good defense attorney will be able to use that to create enough doubt about the intent piece to tempt the prosecutor into a deal.  Attempted manslaughter may be a likely outcome.

All in all this case looks like a mess, and potentially a tragic mess all around.  However, Gwen forgets that there are women out there who have been victimized and who chose to no longer be targeted by males who tend to be larger, stronger, and sometimes more numerous.  For those women, a firearm is the best (and sometimes only) way to even the odds.  Based on her past comments, I suspect that Gwen would prefer to just declare any woman who owns a gun to be a criminal and put them in jail, no discussion, no due process.

Memorial Day Post

What he said:

I guess the standard thing to do is to write some post about sacrifice and duty and all of that stuff. I  don't have any desire to do that. My life has enough of that stuff that on the other 360 some odd days of the year. Quite frankly I find the whole thing depressing. I have lost people and don't feel like dwelling on it over a nice sunny long weekend. 

I don't have the same degree of direct combat experience that I think Ryan does but, yeah.

It was a beautiful weekend here in Our Town.  We made the 8 hour round trip drive up to pick up this fearsome beast who has now invaded Our House and is starting to terrorize the cat (only because we're not letting her get swat back by the cat...  yet...  she's too little and might get hurt).

Yes, she's that cute.  Our weekend has been busy getting her all settled in.

Kodiak Gear Review: MSR Dragonfly Stove

Time for another review from the gear we used on our Kodiak hunt!

On our fall caribou hunt a few years ago, we used a propane canister style backpacking stove.  Those work great under temperate conditions but the propane is not very efficient in cold weather.  This led to excessive fuel consumption and long waits to heat water.  Plus, it was hard to find the cylinders for the older-model stove we had.  So, we knew it was time for a new stove.

For our awesome winter snowshoe trip I knew we needed white gas, so I got a Coleman exponent.  Regrettably, the Exponent has taken a bit of a nosedive since I last used it as a Boy Scout many years ago.  The quality is worse and it is difficult to use.  More than once we had a small white gas fire all over our cabin table due to leakage.

Heather did the research and decided on a new stove for us:  the MSR Dragonfly.

Overall, we were very pleased with the Dragonfly's performance on Kodiak.  I fed it with standard Coleman camping gas.

PROS

The stove was really easy to use for white gas.  Many white gas stoves are a bit tricky.  We both found the Whisperlite to be simple to operate.  There's no need for fire paste and I'd say we got it lit on the first time more than nine times out of ten.

Max heat was good and we could boil a liter or two of water quickly.  Also of note was the ability of the Whisperlite to simmer.  It actually works pretty well at lower heat settings although I think it consumes more fuel.  We had no issues at colder temperatures.

Fuel consumption was about as I calculated.  A small 11 oz bottle lasted for three days of generous usage (about 6 qts of water per day) and still had another day or two left over.  We used a larger 20 oz bottle for nearly a week straight and had fuel left over as well.

The stove is a bit heavier than a bare bones propane model but it is definitely backpackable.  We rucked it up to spike camp and then from there actually carried it up to our spotting knob some days.  Its nice having the ability to make a cup of tea near dusk on a cold evening and helps you stay out glassing.

The legs are very stable and so is the cooking surface.  We had no issues using the stove on a variety of less-than-optimal surfaces.

CONS

The wind screen provided is a bit flimsy.  It worked but I don't know how long it will hold up.

OVERALL

I have no real complaints about the Dragonfly.  It worked like a champ as expected.  The price is even quite reasonable, especially when you figure in that a gallon of white gas is only $10 (even on Kodiak) compared to expensive proprietary propane-butane cylinders.

Memorial Day Weekend Gun Show

Our Town had a gun show this weekend so we went to visit and check it out.

Frankly I was unimpressed.  There were plenty of ARs, standard capacity magazines, and military surplus gear (web belts and the like) for moderately inflated prices.  For example, stripped AR lowers for $120 and up (plus sales tax).   There were a handful of surplus GI AR mags for $6/each but I passed -- one of the weak points of the AR platform can be the mags and it just isn't worth it for me to save $3 per mag and get questionable quality.  They had Thermold 20 round AR mags 3/$25...  Not a bargain when I consider I got them 6/$25 at Sportsman's Warehouse (and they're kind of marginal in quality).  There were infinite quantities of cheap shoddy nylon floppy holsters for $20 each.  A lot of "deals" like that.

The used gun selection was not great either.  A lot of very to moderately inflated prices.  For example, there were some Enfields in 303 with tags that read above $350 on them.  That's a fair price for an Enfield in good condition but some of these were beat to heck in fair condition at best, or sporterized (some might unfairly say "bubba-ized").

There were some precious metals dealers there.  With silver at just under $30/oz I thought there might be some buying opportunities but I saw a lot of silver rounds starting at $40 on up...  Which is excessive for standard old American Eagles without any numismatic value.

I did find two decent deals.  First was ammo.  There's a regional company that makes decent ammo I've used before for a fair price.  They had cans of 500 pistol rounds for about $165 (including an ammo can).  As a quick check Ammoman is selling a similar quantity of US new manufacture for $199 without the can.  I'm doing pretty good on ammo right now though so I passed.

The second was ammo cans.  I found nice, quality, cleaned up and pressure washed 50 cal cans with nice designs stenciled on the sides for $12 each.  A few of those made their way home with me; you can never have enough ammo cans.

Overall kind of a disappointing gun show.  We were hoping to find a decent deal on some side by sides, but alas, it was not to be.

Drunken Murder Suicide, Prohibited Persons, and Booze

Gwen pointed out a murder-suicide in Wasilla where the perp used a handgun instead of, say, a baseball bat (in which case she wouldn't care).  Of course, her commentary is non-sensical.  A gun was not used to "kill everyone" at a drunken party, because the cops were interviewing multiple witnesses.  A gun was used to kill one guy, and then the shooter turned the weapon on himself.  I question whether she actually reads these articles for the details or just goes into fits when she sees the headlines.  How can you pretend to do any sort of analysis or try to get facts out of the articles if you don't even pretend to read them?

Anyways, I went to the ADN story about the crime and then researched the attacker and victim in TrialView.  The shooter (only 26) has a string of alcohol-related offenses including DUIs.  The shoot-ee was a prohibited person with a pair of domestic violence charges and restraining orders.  It was illegal for either of them to touch a firearm while intoxicated.

As is often the case, Alaska is a small place and there are some alleged comments from friends and family on the ADN article which are heartbreaking.  Still, nothing changes the fact that it was both criminal and terrible judgement for the shooter to touch a gun.  It is Misconduct Involving Weapons IV (a class A misdemeanor, the highest you get before entering felony-land) to possess a weapon while drunk in Alaska.  There's no exception for being inside your own home.

Gwen blames all gun owners for this incident and cites it as evidence that there's more gun crime than defensive gun uses.  That doesn't match reality, at least according to sources as varied as Clinton Administration funded researchers,  the National Academy of Sciences, and pro-self defense groups.  Furthermore, I must have missed the lesson in NRA safety courses and Alaska hunter's ed about getting into drunken brawls while armed.  As I recall, the course specifically states that you shouldn't handle a gun while intoxicated.  Then again, when do facts get in the way for someone who either has a disability or is an incorrigible bigot?

There is actually some room for common ground here.  One of the criteria for being a prohibited person is being "an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance."  Some states consider DUIs and other alcohol-related crimes for use in managing concealed weapons permits.  Given the issues with alcohol abuse in Alaska even a stringent pro-rights advocate like me might be persuaded to support some sort of additional legislation which restricts access of habitual drunkards to firearms if there is evidence showing such legislation is actually effective at improving firearms safety.  For example, I would be curious to know the effect of a law that states something to the effect of, "an individual shall be presumed to be a habitual user and addicted to alcohol which shall be considered a controlled substance for purposes of this chapter if...  (a) they have been convicted of two or more DUIs in the past 24 months or (b) they have been convicted of three or more DUIs in the past five years or (c) they have been convicted of two or more alcohol-related crimes (provide list here) and have been committed to a rehabilitation facility within the past 24 months."

Of course, I'm a pessimist.  I generally feel that stupid raging alcoholics will do stupid things regardless of the laws surrounding them.  Look at DUI, for example.  In Alaska they take away your car for DUI and it is still a huge problem...  Certainly a bigger problem than homicide by firearm or even gun accidents.  So I doubt that creating such a legal presumption against habitual drunkards would actually be effective, and if its not effective then I would oppose it.  Moreoever, the antis have poisoned the well.  I would be deeply suspicious of anything they actually support because while my goal is to reduce accidental deaths and purposeful crime, their goal is to restrict the civil and natural rights of all Americans.

I suspect it is far more effective to support the education efforts of groups like the NRA or AK DNR's hunter's ed program than to waste any more words on pie in the sky legislation.

Home Invasion Tape from Colorado

Drunk student wanders into private residence.  Residents feel threatened based on the presence of an unidentified home invader who appears to be on drugs (turns out she had a 0.2% BAC) and who may have brought friends.  Homeowners retreat to bedroom and issue multiple verbal warnings.  Intruder breaks into master bedroom and gets shot with a glock.

The 911 tape is pretty informative to listen too.  I took a few things from the incident.

• The #1 piece of information to convey is your address.  It took 20 seconds on this call to make that happen.  My personal plan if I ever have to call 911 is to start with my address.  With digital 911 this should happen automatically but I like a belt and suspenders approach.  Plus with cell phones (at least those old ones like we have without GPS) you want them to get the location first.
• The perp was not stopped with one hit.  She remained conscious and functional enough to get her cell phone out and make a call.  Had she chosen to continue the fight or draw a weapon instead she would have been capable of doing so.  Who knows what type of glock or ammunition was used but 
• The homeowner did not gain compliance prior to securing his weapon in a drawer.  If you're holding someone at gun point and they are not compliant with your commands, don't put the gun away.
• The goal of a defensive gun use is not to shoot someone.  It is to gain compliance.  So think about what you want.  Personally with a perp I plan on ordering them to...
  (1) "STOP RIGHT THERE!"
  (2) "SLOWLY SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!"
  (3) "Put your hands on top of your head!"
  (4) "Slowly turn away from the sound of my voice!"
  (5) "Kneel!"
  (6) "Lie down!"
  Sound extreme?  Maybe, but you need a plan for what to do once the perp gives up the fight, even if a shot is never fired.  If they don't obey orders then at a minimum they get some verbal orders and if threatening I go back up the continuum of force (see above re keeping the gun out).  I want the individual in a compliant posture where I can increase my control over the situation until the cops arrive.
• The homeowner's wife was on the phone with the 911 operator a lot but didn't convey the most important info.  IMHO the most important thing to convey is (1) my address and (2) descriptions of the good guys and bad guys so the cops don't shoot me.  Instead she talked lots and lots about all sorts of things from the perp's condition and injuries to how she felt.  First, all of this is tactically irrelevant chatter.  In a home invasion scenario if there's a lull in the action I will be fixing my weapon (tactical reload/press check), getting a long gun into the fight on my side, getting armored up, getting a second phone like a cell phone handy to keep the lifeline to 911 open, keeping a light on the perp to gain and verify compliance, and watching for the perp's buddies (not necessarily in that order).  Talking about my feelings with 911 is pretty low on the priority list.  Second, this is all being recorded and can be used as evidence against you later on.

Its always easy to "Monday Morning Quarterback" but it is worth thinking about how to do things better.  I guess its better than listening to the antis rave about castle doctrine.

What did you do to prepare this week?

This is the latest installment of my hopefully weekly series on emergency preparedness.  It was a busy week for me at work, Heather was sick, and we had a bunch of errands to run including more Kodiak packing but still managed to get some stuff done this week.

PEOPLE - FITNESS

I earned 696 points on Fitocracy over the course of three workouts this week.  Heather logged 0 points due to lingering plague as well as craziness at work.  I would have liked to do more.  So would Heather.

INFORMATION - NSTR

ACTIVITIES & TRAINING

We put in some good work in the gardens and our efforts are literally bearing fruit.  I have a baby watermelon and have been nibbling fresh strawberries.  Heather has a bunch of tomatoes starting to grow and some other yummy looking veggies in the formative stages.

We also picked up the puppy!

STUFF

• Ammo.  I picked up two .50 cal ammo cans in great shape at the local gun show.  Never hurts to have more ammo cans, right?
• Anti-Storm Plan.  With the onset of the summer we're more concerned about severe weather and flooding. So I picked up a few tarps on a routine trip to the hardware store.  These will augment the sandbags I already have.  You can use a layer of sandbags lined with tarps to protect doors, garage doors, and low-lying windows in the event of something like a hurricane or tropical storm.  They're also very useful if a storm blows out a window.

COMMUNICATIONS - NSTR

Welcome

To Kodiak, the newest member of the Arma Borealis family!  Kodi is absolutely adorable, but she's had a stressful day, having to leave all of her brothers and sisters and everything she's ever known.  She's also given us a crash course in puppy, as I had to four times clean her travel crate of pee, poo and vomit on the way home, but now she's sacked out in her crate and looking adorable.  Our cat isn't quite sure what to make of this!

Apologies and Open Carry

Caleb Giddings, who I still think is a great role model in the shooting sports, posted a comment on the Open Carry thread.  I wanted to make sure it got full visibility.

@Chris, I actually avoided adding my own editorial voice to that video I posted on Gun Nuts. Since my position on open carry is readily discovered by a simple google search http://gunnuts.net/2011/03/02/i-support-open-carry-in-florida/ (read the last paragraph), I assumed that folks would realize that I'm just presenting Rob and James' video. Not endorsing or decrying one way or the other.

While I certainly could have added a line to the post with the video saying "these are not the opinions of Team Gun Nuts", I just didn't think it was necessary.

-Caleb


I felt like Caleb's original post was an endorsement of Rob Pincus' position, especially as he called out a "money quote."  His linked post above clarifies his position.  I wanted to apologize for misrepresenting Caleb's views as an "endorsement" of Rob Pincus' position.

I like unlicensed open carry for a bunch of reasons.
1)  It provides a way for people who need a defensive tool in a hurry to get access to one without jumping through time consuming CWP hoops.  I refer to this as the "DV victim whose ex gets out of jail next week" test.
2)  It provides a way for travelers who don't have a permit with reciprocity to carry.  This was the case when I visited Cali last year.
3)  It provides a way for people to carry without a permission slip from the state.
4)  Obviously issues of personal comfort.
5)  It desensitives the public.  Normal dude or dudette + "jeans and polo" look + family + good holster + sidearm = normal.

The problem is that in some jurisdictions carrying a firearm is inherently political, and if it is open carried you are very likely get attention of the unpleasant sort from authorities.  For example, in Las Vegas, where I spent some time, there are still ordnances on the books which forbid transporting a deadly weapon in your car, period dot, regardless of permit status.  These ordinances violate state pre-emption and are not technically enforceable but that does not stop the cops from hassling people and the courts refuse to throw it out.  I open carried very rarely there, maybe once or twice immediately after hitting the range when I wanted to stop for ice cream or something on the way back.

Furthermore, just before I arrived in Vegas the whole Erik Scott shooting went down.  For those not in the know on this event, Erik Scott was a CWP holder who ended up being killed by the cops after a MWAG call by Costco.  It was ruled justifiable by a non-adversarial coroner's inquest (i.e. the cops present their side, and that's it), but in a spate of strange coincidences, the Costco security camera footage was not available after a forensic analysis by the cops and all of the dash cams were broken or not useful in the incident.  This is just one in a string of questionable "justifiable homicides" and incidents of excessive police force against many types of citizens by metro police.  The LVRJ did a series on it a year or two ago even.

I did not spend much time in Cali but I imagine the situation there was similar from a harassment perspective and even worse as Cali (A) has no reciprocity with any other state and (B) has may-issue.

Sebastian wrote, "If trouble finds you, that’s one thing, but when you find yourself putting in a dash cam and audio recorder, it’s time to re-examine your life."  I disagree.  In such a jurisdiction you NEED to take "unreasonable" or "political" actions like carrying a recording device and having a buddy.  Regardless of why you are personally carrying it will be perceived in a political light and you will get unpleasant attention.  In such jurisdictions there is little public pressure on the police to ensure that things like dash cams and surveillance tapes work or don't "go missing."  If you want a tape made you need to make it yourself.

I'm not suggesting that all cops are bad people.  I'm just saying that in some jurisdictions, the citizenry has no inclination or ability to check abuses of authority by a few bad apples in the criminal justice system including overzealous police officers, city attorneys who buck pre-emption, judges who allow unlawful ordinances to continue to be used to harass the law abiding and so on.  In such places the reasonable citizen who wants to carry a firearm needs to be smart about it.  I didn't carry to make a point in Cali or Las Vegas.  I did so because (1) I always do so when legally allowed and (2) because Las Vegas is a fairly violent city and I actually had a few run-ins in the course of doing normal middle class person things where being armed was or would have been comforting.

Paying TSA More to Do... What?

Oh right, nothing.

Senate Appropriations Committee moves forward on increasing "airline passenger security fees," because apparently having people sitting around doing nothing but groping and hassling American citizens is not a lucrative business opportunity - at least, when the government is involved.  My solution to the TSA budget shortfall is really easy.  I bet you can even guess what it is.

I also take particular exception to a certain line from the article:

"Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said the $315 million in funding would otherwise come from taxpayers and argued it is better to stick passengers who rely on TSA with the bill."


Senator Landrieu, what on God's green earth gives you the idea that I rely on TSA?  Really?  You're going to force me to be groped and harassed over strawberry jelly and then claim that I rely on these services and therefore ought to pay more?  You've got to be kidding me.

Gun Nuts Media on Open Carry

Caleb Giddings over at Gun Nuts Media, who is a great role model in the shooting world, just endorsed a video made by a guy who blames open carriers for restricting gun rights in California.

I'd say that blaming Open Carry for restrictive gun rights in Cali is like blaming a battered woman who dares to call the cops for domestic violence.  I mean, seriously.  What were people in a restrictive may-issue state like Cali supposed to do?  Not carry?

Talk about blaming the victim!

What did you do to prepare this week?

This is the latest installment of my hopefully weekly series on emergency preparedness.  It was a busy week for me at work, Heather was sick, and we had a bunch of errands to run including more Kodiak packing but still managed to get some stuff done this week.

PEOPLE - FITNESS

I earned 1112 points on Fitocracy over the course of four workouts this week which included mowing two decent size lawns by hand with a push mower.  Heather logged 231 points over one workout but claims the plague slowed her down.  I would have liked to do more, but still, it was a >1000 point week.  I weighed myself at the gym and was happy to see I've lost about 5 lbs.  I am now technically in the very high end of the "healthy" weight for my height but I still think I'm a bit heavy for my frame size and want to lose more weight and gain more strength.


INFORMATION - NSTR

ACTIVITIES & TRAINING - NSTR

STUFF

• Shelter in Place. I put together 1.5 shelter in place kits.  I say 1.5 because it is really one good kit and one marginal kit which would probably work better as a set of extra stuff for the main box of goodies.  I'll have to post more on the contents later.
• Ammo.  I went through the garage and sorted out all of our ammo supplies.  Things were kind of getting disorganized out there, so I dumped out most of the ammo cans/boxes/containers and started repacking from scratch.  Everything is much more organized now which means it takes up less space and is easier to find.
• Food. We had a few meals of storage food.  One was just pulling out "ready rice" to supplement other meals.  We usually cook up a big pot of our storage rice then freeze it in single-meal sized baggies to make it easy to use.  We also broke into the canned soup and made soup over instant potatoes supplemented with veggies.  Eat what you store, store what you eat.

COMMUNICATIONS - NSTR

Girls, Guns, and Turkey

No, not that kind of turkey.

Here's an NPR article entitled In Turkey, Debating A Woman's Right to Bear Arms.

Interesting read.  Of course there are a lot of societal and mental issues to be addressed as regards this issue.  Take this quote for instance:

"The proposal to arm battered women has its critics, including domestic violence survivor Yagmur Askin. She can't imagine living in a household where the husband is violent and the woman is armed.

"The child will see her father beating her mother and she's going to wonder, 'Is Mom going to kill Dad tonight?' " she says."

 Really, the concern is wondering whether mom is going to kill dad?  But wondering whether dad is going to kill mom is okay?  Still, the article isn't bad, especially given its source.

Traveling with Guns

On my recent hunting trip I had the chance to travel and fly with firearms.  Here's the quick run down.  I flew out of Atlanta, Kodiak, and Anchorage on Alaska Airlines.

First up, Georgia.  I took advantage of recent legislative changes that now permit open carry and OC'd through Georgia.  I hopped out of my car for gas and lunch (Chik Fil A, yum!) with a holstered GP-100 4" bbl stainless revolver.  I'm ashamed to admit that it was in a cheap Uncle Mike's holster but I did have a retention device and a good belt so it carried ok.  I'm just spoiled by nice beautiful Dragon Leatherworks holsters or utilitarian polymer ones so Uncle Mike's felt...  tawdry.  No issues, a few folks noticed (the stainless revolver is pretty high profile) including the store manager but no problems at all.

Flying out of Atlanta was fairly painless.  First off, I did my reading ahead of time and had everything packed properly.  Next, Alaska Airlines is awesome and their check in agents deal with this all the time.  Atlanta has a separate screening point for oversized baggage including firearms.  TSA originally just wanted me to drop off my rifle case and luggage with pistol inside but I opted to stick around until they screened it.  So, they sat around for a few minutes in a silly battle of wills then sighed and got around to doing their jobs.

They didn't even need to open the cases, just did a quick swab for explosives which turned up negative.  They then wanted me to be on my way again, but I again opted to wait until the bags were on the belt and into the bowels of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

In Kodiak, Alaska Airlines held onto the highly obvious pelican case full of rifles and made me show my baggage ticket and ID to claim it rather than tossing it out on the baggage area with the other items.  Excellent, I appreciated the security.  It was also unloaded really quickly -- Alaska Airlines actually guarantees to have your checked bags out in 20 minutes.  By the time I had my rental car the bags were ready.

When departing Kodiak, again, the process was painless.  No issues.  Alaska Airlines was helpful and non-plussed.  They actually let us check our bags a few hours early when there was no rush then we just went to get lunch.

In Anchorage the process was also straightforward.  We were technically on a different airline but Alaska was servicing the route so we used their agents to check in.  Similar to Atlanta there was a centralized check-in for baggage but this time TSA was much faster and more professional than in Atlanta.  They cut my zip tie to get at my handgun case inside a larger piece of luggage but replaced it.

Arriving on the other end, I was upset to see that the rifle case got dropped off with all the other oversize luggage (coolers and golf clubs and such).  No supervision, no ID check, nada.  Luckily we were waiting to pounce on it immediately once it came out (it was a bit slow, too).  I cannot get upset at Alaska though as this leg was serviced by American Airlines, who I will dime out as having inferior baggage handling.

So, overall pretty painless.  Alaska Airlines is one of the best airlines I've flown with as far as firearms go.  I've flown for business and pleasure with weapons on other airlines and some of the agents just totally freak out or are unfamiliar with the procedures.  Not so with Alaska, where I've consistently found the agents to be knowledgeable and professional, and I've also noticed they have great awareness of baggage security.  TSA was obnoxious as always -- especially in Atlanta -- but got the job done without having to open everything up which was nice.

But I thought the war on drugs was over

Ohio police departments rake in free assault patrol rifles, thousands of vests, and APCs/zodiacs/helicoptors.  Areas with greatest anti-drug needs get priority.

If the war on drugs is over then maybe we should, you know, at least repaint the APCs in something other than OD green and maybe take the full auto sears out of the M16s before handing all the stuff over to civilian law enforcement, right?

Kodiak

I've been sick this week.  With that, plus the final weeks of the school year and all the craziness that goes with that, I have been slacking off on blogging, particularly given the massive numbers of Kodiak photos I am currently sitting on.  Chris was on the phone with Dennis though, and I heard him promise to get some pictures up and figured I ought to handle that.  So, here we go - these aren't even up on my photo blog yet! The above is sunset our first night on Ugiak Bay.

 Overlooking the beach and our base camp.  We were dropped off on the beach and hauled our full set of gear (about 300lbs) a little ways into the trees to protect the camp.  It worked quite well.

 Rocky beaches and shrimp pots.  There were a great big pile of pots, some of which were clearly damaged but most looked fine to my untrained eye.

Sitka deer eating kelp on the beach.  It was a hard winter for them - we counted almost three dozen winter kills.  Spring is here though, and they should have a better time of it now.

The harbor seals were pretty funny.  Within minutes of your arrival on the beach there would be 2-7 seals following you up and down the beach, staring constantly.  I felt like I was on some sort of seal reality tv or something!  It was pretty creepy, but I missed them later on the trip when we'd only get one or two.

We couldn't see much of anything from base camp so we took backpacking gear and bushwhacked up a nearby hill that overlooked the creek drainage and set up a spike camp.  We stayed there much of the trip, heading back to base camp once to resupply with more food.

Sunset at spike camp, which, of course, comes rather late at night this time of year.  I've really missed the summer sun in Alaska - even if it meant I couldn't get a shot at star trails or aurora shots!

Dawn over Ugiak Bay from spike camp.

Hunting bears here requires 12-16 hours a day of glassing. The spotting scope is a necessity!

Yes, Kodiak has buffalo.  They look like bears from far away.  They also did not like us very much.

Buffalo tracks on the beach.

I did manage a little collection of sheds and other beach treasures, so we didn't come home empty handed!

Sounds like fun

An Anchorage oil company exec (who also sounds like an AF vet) plans on homesteading on a remote island in Price William Sound for a year with his dog and an e-reader.  Frankly, sounds like a pretty awesome adventure.

What Did you Do To Prepare This Week?

This is the latest installment of my hopefully weekly series on emergency preparedness, stolen from TSLRF. There's a bit of a gap as we went to Alaska for a few weeks so I'll just cover what I remember.

PEOPLE - FITNESS

I earned 1117 points on Fitocracy over the course of three workouts this week, a good mix of strength and cardio.  Heather logged 135 points over one workout.  Both of us did probably dozens of miles of hiking and rucking on vacation too.  We both felt good on the field, including some hike with heavy rucks in rugged terrain so I think we are making progress towards our fitness goals.  We are looking into some 5Ks to train for.

INFORMATION - NSTR this week.

ACTIVITIES & TRAINING - We obviously tested our outdoors skills during a ~2 week trip to Kodiak, AK.  We had a comfortable, safe trip and really enjoyed ourselves.

STUFF

• Emergency Kits. The last few items our kits were missing arrived while we were gone.  So, we've stuffed the orange handkerchiefs and the can openers into the e-kits.
• Solar. The solar battery-USB charger I got for Kodiak actually worked pretty well.  Stand by for a complete review!
• Food. Our camping food was delicious.  I'll have to see if Heather will post some of her recipes.  We also took advantage of a sale on bulk groceries at our local grocery store to stock up--we got 2 person/weeks of canned foods which we will actually eat or can donate.  I also picked up four jars of peanut butter.  It is great for easy camping lunches (by itself if really watching pounds, or with some sort of bread and jelly for PB&J) and is both cheap and calorie dense.
• Reconstitution.  We need to unpack our camping stuff, clean it, and repack.  We've started with the most critical items (tents, clothes--stuff you don't want to get moldy) but it is slow going on the rest of the gear.

COMMUNICATIONS - Used the VHF marine band in Kodiak.  Also used a SATPHONE.  No problems with either.

Kodiak Review: Cabela's Outback Lodge Tent

As readers might surmise by our pick up in posting frequency, we've returned from our hunting trip in Kodiak.  I'll do up a post on that trip review afterwards but for now I am going to do a few shorter posts on the gear we used and how it worked out for us.  First up:  our tent!

Our primary base camp tent was the Cabela's Outback Lodge.  We have the 10x10 "six man" version.  We wanted a Kifaru Sawtooth but the Cabela's tent is about 1/5 to 1/10 the price depending on which accessories you add, which was a compelling argument for the Outback Lodge.

ADVANTAGES

On the plus side, we enjoyed the space afforded inside the ginormous 10x10 tent.  For two people it really was a luxurious amount of space.  We were able to move sleeping pads around inside to find the flattest spots, we had plenty of room to keep clothes and other extra gear out of the rain, and there was generally just lots of space.  I also appreciated having a tent which was tall enough to stand up.  That made sponge baths, changing, and packing much easier.  The ability to have hooks off the central pole was handy and we rigged up an LED lantern and clothes drying bags.

The tent handled well in the weather.  I don't have the weather reports from our trip but would estimate that we had a few days and nights with 20+ knot gusts.  Obviously not a gale but we felt fairly confident leaving the tent unattended for a few days while we headed off to a spike camp.

Ventilation was good.  There are vents on the top of the tent as well as below the windows.  The biggest downside is that the vents are not very adjustable.  The windows are very generous.

DOWNSIDES

There were a few downsides.  First and foremost, with a larger tent like this without a rain fly it does not warm up.  It just does not hold heat.  Our REI Arete (a 3+ season tent) will actually get pretty toasty and on a cool morning when the outside temperature is in the 20s the Arete will be well above freezing.  The Outback Lodge warmed up in the middle of sunny days but body heat overnight was not really enough to make much of a difference on cold mornings.  I was also sleeping cold and needed an extra pad or two as well as a woobie over my sleeping bag to stay warm, whereas in the Arete I felt like I was sleeping warmer.

Next, the tent is not freestanding.  The ground on Kodiak was frozen.  Stakes were marginally useful at best -- we could only get them in about 2", even with an entrenching tool and heavy duty steel stakes.  Luckily there were plenty of rocks, trees, and roots to secure the tent too.  If you are camping in an environment where you can't secure the lines out then you're not going to have good luck with the Outback Lodge.

The interior of the tent is dated and spartan.  I've gotten very used to modern REI tent designs which feature well-placed and generous mesh pockets, hooks for gear lofts/clothes, and other such nicely thoughout out amenities.  The Cabela's lodge has three small mesh pockets for glasses/lights, and you can get hooks which attach to the center pole.  That's about it.

Obviously the tent is heavy and bulky.  At around 20 lbs with ground cloth and extra stakes/lines, this is not a tent you want to backpack.  For our fly-in hunt, though, it was fine.

Finally, I missed having a vestibule.  Most modern tents have a covered space to stash raingear and boots at the least, if not do some cooking in extreme weather.  The outback lodge has no vestibule, and in fact, the main door will easily let in rain if you leave it open for even a few seconds.  A small vestibule extension above the front door (or at least some hooks to attach a tarp there) would have been a nice thought.

VERDICT

Overall I am pleased with the Outback Lodge.  It offers lots of space, good performance in rain and wind, and good ventilation for a competitive price.  Still, I would like to see some relatively minor improvements.  Addition of some gear loft hooks and mesh along with a rethought entry would go a long ways towards modernizing the design.  I'd suggest this tent to a friend, especially if you can wait for Cabela's to offer one of their inevitable sales.

FCC NOTE:  I am not affiliated with Cabelas and get nothing for this review.

Golite Sale

If anyone is interested, Golite is having a 50% off sale.

Now, I know Chris wouldn't let me spend $525 on the tent I want, but maybe he'll let me spend $262...

I don't know that I've mentioned it before on here, but I collect tents the way some women collect shoes.

Fox Hunting in UK

Fear not, fox hunters of Britain!  Despite your sport having been outlawed for the past eight years, hope has dawned anew!  That's right, for the equivalent of about $650, you can once more shoot a fox.

With a paintball gun.

And by fox, I mean some dude dressed up in a fox costume.

Grizzly Bears - Not for Cuddles

Most readers ought to be aware of why we do not like HSUS.

When in Kodiak, Chris bought me a book about bear attacks (I have a fascination for stories about people dying in Alaska and National Parks, it seems).  The book was largely a giant ad for carrying UDAP (which I always do anyway), but it did include one particular gem, having to do with this book.

Apparently, HSUS wanted to make people feel warm and fuzzy about grizzly bears.  They contacted Glacier National Park, wanting to base their children's book on a real bear.  Glacier suggested a bear known as Chocolate Legs.  HSUS rolled with it and the book "Chocolate, a Glacier Grizzly" was published in late 1997.

In May of 1998, Chocolate Legs and her two cubs hunted down and ate park employee Craig Dahl.

You can't make this stuff up.

TouchyTime with TSA

Obviously, I've been hanging out in airports a lot over the past two weeks.  This has resulted in some amusing (and irritating) stories.

I showed up for my first flight at a smallish airport.  Not small.  Just not Atlanta-sized or anything.  I showed up several hours early, as is my habit.  I was traveling with a fair amount of baggage and wanted plenty of time for both myself and my bags to make it through screening.  Unfortunately, TSA does not share my habit of showing up early.  In fact, they did not start up security until less than 90 minutes before the first flights of the day left.  I was not the only irritated person hanging around waiting to check my bags!

Finally, the TSA guy took my two checked bags.  I stayed around to make sure there wouldn't be any problems.  Sure enough, they go through the scanner and he points to the first one and says "What's the container in the top, filled with some substance?"  I'd been prepared for that one and promptly answered that it was a jar of salt.  He didn't bat an eye, just passed the bag on, no trouble.  Then he points to the second bag and demands to know what is in the "self contained object" in the middle of the bag.  Now, this bag is shoved full of "self contained objects," given that we're going camping - everything is in stuff sacks!  I have no idea what he's talking about at first and he decides that he has to inspect it... after running eight more bags through the scanner.  By then, of course, I've realized the dangerous object in question is none other than a jar of strawberry jelly, but I am forced to await his pleasure in unpacking the sack and inspecting the jelly for explosives.  Finally both of my bags are cleared and I am on to wait in the security line for my own person.

At first I am feeling good.  It's a bit late, but I'm in the non-Rapiscan line, so there shouldn't be any trouble.  Until they close down the regular detector and funnel us all through the Rapiscan where I, of course, opt out and am subject to a patdown.  I comment to the TSA person that I try to arrive at airports early just for this reason but they just open so late... that didn't go over well.  Nor did my quiet "okay" to the lady feeling me up as she instructed me to hold out my arms.  Seriously, I said "okay" and held out my arms and she very loudly, aggressively and with a lot of attitude says "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"  "...Uh, I said -okay.-"  She continues, no apology (also of interest, down here I am always called ma'am, by everyone.  Except TSA).  I endure her aggressive groping and make it onto the plane without time to get any breakfast.

When I arrive at Anchorage, my gate information directs me outside the secure area.  I'm a bit concerned by this, feeling that two TSA gropings in one day is about two too many, but there's nothing for it.  I head out and follow directions to my gate.  Whereupon I am ushered onto my Era flight with no security save a quick glance at my ID.  Oh Glorious Day!

Era apparently manages to keep their operation just small enough to avoid the TSA requirement.  It is particularly amusing when at Kodiak airport.  Only two airlines fly out - Era and Alaska.  When we were leaving, the Era flight had been delayed and was leaving at about the same time as our Alaska flight.  Both planes are nearly the same size, are leaving from the same place and going to the same place.  There are two doors.  If you are on the Era flight, you walk through door number one and right out to your plane, liquids and all.  Heck, I don't know if there's anything stopping you from carrying!  If you are on the Alaska flight, though, you walk through door number two and are forced to do the shoes-off routine of TSA appeasement, with all of your halibut carefully inspected.  Shockingly enough, no one blew up the Era flight, despite their lack of gropage.

Back in Anchorage, we had to go through security to access the rest of our flights.  Since our move, Anchorage has installed Rapiscans and once again I was forced to opt out.  Amusingly enough though, the lady responsible for my pat down was actually not interested in touching my genitalia.  Despite the fact that I had not been appropriately groped, no terrorist attack occurred.  Amazing!

Quick Update

We made it back late last night, safe and sound.  The trip was an absolute blast with gorgeous weather.  Unfortunately, no bear - but not our fault on that score.  We ended up with five groups (!) hunting the same drainage, including some ...less than intelligent folks who thought it'd be a great idea to tramp around through the hunting area every day, which is probably the best way to make sure no bears show up.  We did see two, about four miles down the coast during high tide, with both the distance, their speed and the tide making them inaccessible.  Despite that, an awesome trip.  I'll have pictures and more later.

Unrelated, this whole blog interface just changed and I'm so confused!