Arma Borealis

Carry While Jogging. Srsly.

2012-02-17T05:43:00.000-09:00

Today is a perfect example of why I am getting a rig to carry my gun while jogging. I don't have it yet, but we all know how awesome Dennis is and it will be here soon.

Anyway, today I went for my usual three mile run in the morning. I've done this three days a week since we moved in without any trouble. Today, though, I had THREE encounters with loose dogs. THREE. Now, while I have gotten over the fear of dogs I used to have from two unfortunate encounters as a small child, I have never forgotten them. I like dogs, we're getting a puppy very soon, but I also know exactly what dogs are capable of.

Now, as it turns out, none of my encounters today were dangerous. But they very easily could have been, particularly the first one.

The second and third dogs had clearly escaped from someone's control. They both had collars and leashes. I stopped to try to catch them up and return them to their owner, but they were having none of that. I couldn't just start running again, because they were watching me very closely, so I had to walk a fair distance until I was out of their line of sight.

The first dog was even less acceptable. As I'm jogging along, I see a man in the front yard with dog and kid. Okay, I think, no problem. I keep an eye on it though. As I get closer, dog tries to go for a run with me. Man calls dog back. Okay, great. I keep going. Moments later, there are dog paws tromping on my heels and a jerk on my shirt. I stop and wheel around and... I can't even remember this clearly, but it ended up with me getting the dog on its back while keeping all of my stuff out of its mouth. This dog didn't even have a collar on - if the owner hadn't been right there I have absolutely no idea what I would have done with it! He was right there, though, and I held the dog while he got the collar on, and then continued on my way.

Please, people. Control your dogs.

Oh, and I only lost five seconds off of my total run time. If it hadn't been for those dogs, I could have broken my own record!

Unpossible: Shootout at Work

2012-02-17T03:10:00.002-09:00

Employee shoots supervisor in workplace dispute.

Except it happened in California, which is supposed to be safer.

And the incident occurred in a Gun Free Zone.

And they were both law enforcement officers.

Still, I imagine we'll hear about how it is the fault of law abiding CCW permit holders, who are more abiding than the general population by several orders of magnitude, certainly more law abiding than gun control advocates, and possibly less likely to be questioned even than cops (it is hard to find statistics on LEO malfeasance, and in any event, the pool is relatively small so I imagine the statistics would swing wildly), and that more CCW permits equals more workplace violence.

Self Defense =/= Condoning Violence

2012-02-16T05:39:00.000-09:00

I don't know how common they are in other places, but in Anchorage there are a large number of coffee stands sprinkled along roads. Basically, they are little trailer-type, drive through coffee shops. No one has to get out of their car in the cold, all good! Of course, these coffee stands are usually run by one or two pretty girls - some of them wearing bikini tops to sell more coffee.

Two weeks ago, 18 year old Samantha Koenig was kidnapped from her job at one of these coffee stands. She remains missing, and we hope that she will be found alive and safe very soon.

The kidnapping has raised conversation about the idea of women working at these types of locations - remote and alone. Given that this is Alaska we are talking out, one of the more popular cries (alongside "ban the coffee stands") is "arm the baristas." Julia O'Malley, who writes for the ADN, is of the opinion that Arming the Baristas Won't Fix Alaska's Problem with Violence Against Women. Of particular interest is her final sentence:

"Women may quit their coffee jobs, or take jujitsu or make trips to the gun range, but that won’t make the change we need. Of course women can reduce their vulnerability, but first shouldn’t we ask why we expect men to hurt them?"

This sentence really, really bothers me because it implies that if I carry a gun, I do so because I expect a man to hurt me. This could not be further from the truth, Julia. If I expected anyone to hurt me when I went to work, I would stay home and call the police. Additionally, she seems to think that by suggesting women learn to defend themselves, we are tacitly approving of men trying to hurt them in the first place, which just boggles my mind.

Now, let's talk about what the end result we are working towards is. I think the end result is "people not getting hurt by anyone." Julia seems to think that the end result is "men don't hurt women."

Even if you ignore the gender thing, which is a whole issue in and of itself that I do not wish to get into, the problem with Julia's line of thinking is that it assumes that the way to address the issue is by controlling other people's actions: make the men stop hurting the women. However, as we all know, controlling someone else's actions is never reliable and often results in wide-spread impacts on those not even involved (gun control, anyone?). There is no realistic way to achieve that end. Now, this is not to say that it should be entirely ignored - but it should hardly be the focus of the discussion because it is ineffective. While you sit there trying to convince the kind of person who thinks it's okay to kidnap/rape/murder a person not to, how many other people are getting hurt?

On the other hand, empowering the targets of violence is something that can be done. I cannot control whether someone chooses to attack me, but I certainly can control my reaction. This applies to all forms of violence, man, woman, whatever. The fact of life is that there will always be insane, crazy, and evil people out there. But what other people might do to you doesn't not control what your response to them can be.

So, Julia. Go ahead and have your discussion on why men hurt women and keep trying to change the world into the fluffy-unicorn-rainbow-sprinkle world you dream of - I'm going out to the range and bringing others with me.

Read more here: http://community.adn.com/adn/node/159791#storylink=cpy"

Can I pay it in singles?

2012-02-13T13:32:00.003-09:00

New federal budget proposes upping the fee paid by passengers for air travel security screening.

I might be ok with it if I could pay it by tucking singles into the belts of TSA employees. Although, really, they should be tucking singles into my belt, right?

Food Storage

2012-02-10T18:44:00.000-09:00

As part of getting our preparations for an emergency squared away we looked at ways to stock our pantry. Our stash of camping food is good for a 72 hour type scenario. However, if a scenario lasts longer -- or even if we just want to have enough calories to feed neighbors, family, etc in a shorter emergency -- it is nice to have more food on hand.

It is also nice to cook with what you use.

With that in mind, we figured we'd try a cheap, easy way to stockpile some calories.

The best option we found was to order food from the Church of Latter Day Saints. I'm not Mormon, but they let anyone order. They have a starter kit which has approximately a month worth of calories (2000 calorie diet, one person -- about 60K calories total) for $31, delivered to your door. The food comes packaged in #10 cans with silica gel dessicants inside. I feel confident that it would last for years on the pantry. The #10 cans are a nice size because you can crack one open, transfer it to some glass mason jars in the pantry, and not have an obscene amount of food like you would if you were buying 20 pound sacks of rice or 5 gallon buckets full of wheat. They also provide a nice variety of foods in the starter kit. I don't really need six cans of wheat; I'd prefer to have a mix of wheat, beans, rice, and oats.

We also got a hand grinder from Amazon (link below). It seems to work great thus far. It is easy to just grind up a few cups of whole wheat as needed. I do it while I'm on the phone or watching TV or whatever. We are thinking about an attachment for the kitchen-aid if we need larger quantities but the hand mill works fine for now.

We are pretty optimistic about this setup. Heather already bakes her own bread and pasta from scratch so she can use the flour no problem. We also make a lot of use of basic staples like rice in weekly recipes. The key to food storage is to use what you store and store what you use so this solution works for us.

The calories are cheap and it is convenient to have them delivered to the door. The LDS food is about 2000 calories per dollar spent. In comparison, a 5 lb bag of flour (20 cups) is about 2000 calories and costs about three to five bucks (as well as my time and gas for the trip) at the local Wally World -- that's several times the price per calorie.

If you're wanting to get into storing food that will keep in quantity, you could do a lot worse than this route. For around a hundred bucks you can get the hand grinder as well as two cases of Mormon Starter Pack. That's 2-person-months of calories. Plus, if you use the staple food items on a regular basis you can cut your grocery bill and probably eat healthier because you're cooking from scratch instead of using processed food.

Zombies and Unicorns, oh my!

2012-02-10T10:56:00.000-09:00

Wonder what Joan would think of this: The OMG-AR15 Unicorn zombie gun

QOTD: Bill Murray is not Funny (and neither are zombies)

2012-02-09T03:25:00.003-09:00

Regarding paper targets that look like Zombies, a spoof on preparing for the rise of the undead:

I don't find it funny. Most normal people don't... If you can't admit that this is really weird and stupid then we can't have a reasonable discussion.
- Joan Peterson

Clearly Joan has not heard of pop culture movies like Zombieland. Zombieland starred Bill Murray (who is apparently not funny, as he dresses up like a zombie in the movie), got a 90% score of approval on RottenTomatoes, and grossed over a hundred million dollars at the box office (before counting DVD sales and so on). So is Joan saying that she can't have a reasonable discussion with anyone that likes Mill Murray classics like Ghost Busters, dresses up at Halloween, or uses zombies as a funny attention grabber?

As a note, I only found this quote as Sebastian linked to it. I've stopped reading Joan Peterson's word salad. It isn't worth the brain bytes.

Front Sight Practical Rifle

2012-02-03T16:54:00.000-09:00

It has been awhile since my last post on Front Sight and I wanted to follow up with more substantive information.

The first morning went pretty slowly. There was an emphasis on range commands, safety, and basic weapon manipulation. For example, they had us sling and unsling multiple times. They also gave instruction on how to load and make ready as well as how to dry fire.

At lunch time, they bring everyone back in to the main lecture hall for academics of some sort. The instructors claim that the lectures are mandatory for new students or people who haven't been to FS for awhile, but there's nobody taking attendance. Regardless, DW and I attended all of the lectures. Day 1 was use of deadly force. It was a decent lecture. I think I got better information from the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network, and I'm pretty well informed on the topic based on some of my reading, but none of the Front Sight info was wrong or bad.

In the afternoon we did a little bit of shooting and an emphasis on malfunction clearance and after action drills. It was a bit dry but not bad. They also introduce the "three secrets:" Sight alignment, sight picture, and trigger control. There may be other things also important for good shooting but I can't argue with their fundamentals. The range day ended with a review of dry fire safety practice.

There were further academics in the evening.

Day 2 we worked on zeroing, with an attendant focus on the fundamentals. The approach was to use extreme sight adjusts to initially overcorrect then dial in. For example, if the first group was 5" right, then they'd have you adjust 6-9" left then adjust a bit back to the right. I actually found it to be an efficient way to dial in sights quickly. I also learned about "natural point of aim," which is probably the #1 thing that has improved my rifle shooting out of the course.

The end of Day 2 also featured "M16 Canyon," a simulation walk through. The idea here was to ensure that the folks taking two day rifle courses could do the simulation course, which seemed good to me. I wrote about it earlier, but in a nutshell, there was a course with shoot/no-shoot targets scattered about. While they rotated folks through the course, the remainder worked on fundamentals on the line as well as shooting positions and malfunctions.

On Day 3, two new skills were introduced: Hostage Rescue and Shooting from Retention. Hostage rescue introduced the idea of compensated head shots at close range. Shooting from retention was used for close-contact type drills. These were done "by the numbers," slow, to maximize safety.

Lunch time's lecture was basic tactics. The lesson learned was Do Not Clear Your House unless you really, really have to. They did present some basic techniques for working corners and opening doors. You then get to practice going through a door with a rubber ducky gun. I did not get the impression that they were encouraging you to clear houses. On the contrary, I got the idea that clearing houses is really hard and that it should only be done in extremis. I think that is a reasonable approach; give people the basic survival skills but don't give them over confidence.

The lunch lecture was about weapons that work and don't work at Front Sight. There were really no surprises. The instructor didn't push the guns that Front Sight seems to have arrangements with (such as XDs). It was basically the "Chicken or Beef" suggestion (Mossberg or Remington for shotties; Polymer or 1911 for pistol; AR or AK or 30-30 lever for practical rifle). They emphasized training over equipment fixes. I couldn't really disagree with any of the info.

Day 4 was primarily practice for the skills test and executing the skills test. The test itself is pretty hard. It includes timed shooting from up close out to 200 yards. I found that there was enough time for a flash sight picture and shot at 25, a deliberate off-hand shot at 50, a nice lengthy off-hand shot or quick drop to kneeling/squatting at 75, time enough for sitting at 150, and time enough for prone at 200 (I may be off on one of the ranges, but that's the gist. Only one person in our class -- someone who had attended multiple times -- scored DG, a handgun were Grads, and the rest of us finished. I came within one shot of "graduating" but missed the mark -- still, I was happy with my performance.

Next review I'll look at some wrap up and final thoughts. I may have been off on some of the details here, as its been awhile since the course, but this was the general flow. I'm definitely happy to answer questions.

Open Carry

2012-02-02T19:08:00.000-09:00

The only media outlet that has been carrying word of the laughably ineffective upcoming 14 Feb Starbucks Boycott got some of the basic data wrong.

“Open Carry” policies in 49 states permit citizens to carry guns in holsters where they are visible to the public, while “concealed carry” policies also permit citizens to arm themselves in public, but only if the weapon is not visible to others.

Um, really? Because just off the top of my cranium, I can think of four states that ban open carry: Texas, South Carolina, Florida, and now, California.

These people don't even understand the laws they hope to change and/or toughen. I have no idea how anyone takes them seriously. Apparently even a passing understanding of the issue gained from a quick trip to OpenCarry.org was too much to ask.

Startbucks Protestors Encourage Fake Journalism

2012-01-31T16:01:00.000-09:00

Another gun grabber group (likely an octopus like arm of the Joyce Foundation, but hey, who's looking) is now encouraging their members to film fake interviews and post them on YouTube.

2) ASSERTIVE APPROACH: JOIN THE NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT ON FEBRUARY 14 by texting/e-mailing your/face booking your friends to meet you at your local Starbucks (perhaps invite the local media too). When you arrive have a few nice big lettered signs to hold outside in front of the Café’ ( Signs might read, “Boycott Starbucks/No Guns”, “Danger, Guns Allowed”, etc)

(b) a couple of you might want to write up a 45 second script that could involve your protesters in a video smart phone production done right there in front of that local Starbucks, then put on you tube.

“ Excuse me, but I thought I should tell you before you go in, that Starbucks lets people with guns inside. (crowd shouts –“They let people with guns in Starbucks? – We’re outta here!”) Yes, it’s true and we’re hoping people will boycott Starbucks until they do what other responsible businesses do and keep the guns out. (patron replies- “Thanks for letting me know. Guns in Starbucks is Nuts! I’ll come back when its safe and relaxing again.”) (crowd shouts- “ Us too! – No Guns , Boycott Starbucks!!”). “

YOU CAN DO IT! Then post your videos and share them on your social network, through e-mails and with family and friends.

It looks like the antis have realized that they can never draw a crowd to this things. However, even a husband and wife team can film fake interviews and make it look like regular people notice or care about Starbuck's non-policy policy of following local law on the issue of firearms on their property.

I wonder if this is a new tactic to mitigate the fact that they can't get turnout at their events.

You're Doing It Wrong

2012-01-31T12:22:00.000-09:00

As we all know, traditional print media has been struggling of late. Being an avid consumer of online information, one of the first things I do when I move to a new place is check out the local newspaper online. This has worked fine up until now. At our new digs, the local paper does have an online version, but you cannot view much more than headlines without buying a subscription. Okay, I figured I'd check to see how much they wanted, it couldn't be much, right? Hah. For 12 months of online only access, they want me to pay $144. Yeah, right. Sorry, I know it's becoming financially difficult to run a paper, but requiring me to pay $144 for local news is not a solution to that problem.

Latest Gun Grabbers and Authoritarianism

2012-01-30T18:35:00.005-09:00

The latest Gun Grabber group to show up on the radar, the so called "National Gun Victims Action Council" (itself a lifeboat for Brady Board Members), shares the authoritarianism that seems so common in other gun grabber groups.

I found myself at their site after following some links and found this page:
Rand Paul and Guns Stall Extension of the Patriot Act

Are you serious? Do they not realize that their core constituency is aging hippies who hate Israel, loathe corporations, and want to protest against the man?

Just try clicking on the profiles of some of the public supporters of the Starbucks Boycott and checking out their political views. This is not a neocon crowd here. Even Facebook knows this. When I linked to their facebook page (which, by the way, is overrun with pro-2A spam) I got an ad for what looks like something sold at the local hippie hemp store:

Talk about audience analysis fail. With the limited crowd of supporters that their facebook page seems to draw you think these gun control nuts would be making arguments about disarming people to further social justice and how Israelis carry firearms for personal protection and thus firearms are bad and so on, not agitating for a renewal of the civil-liberties crushing Patriot Act with mouth-frothing enthusiasm. I really have to question the professionalism and marketing acumen of the gun control lobby these days.

Prep Status

2012-01-28T18:22:00.003-09:00

Having finished our move, Heather and I started reassessing our emergency preparedness status. As usual, our goal is to be self-sufficient for about 72 hours on short notice.

I'm not getting ready for the apocalypse but we like being prepared for a reasonable regional type disaster that may lead to a disruption of services for a few weeks (for example, a severe storm, hurricane, earthquake type deal). Due to our jobs, we have pretty limited ability to be part of the horde picking the shelves at wal-mart clean or waiting in line at the gas station, so it is nice to have the essentials on hand.

Medical Kits: Trauma kits in each car. Good camping/backpacking kit with our camping gear. We have lots of first aid stuff around the house but could probably use to organize it better, as well as toss old meds that might be expired. We also both need more training. It's been years since I certified on first responder-level or wilderness first aid-style training. We could both rehack our basic CPR.

Water: I stocked up on quality 5 gallon jugs for water and we currently have about 50 gallons laid in, plus our water heater. Water is cheap and easy. No reason not to have it. We also have plenty of Polar Pure for purification and our camping hand pump for backpacking.

Fuel: I also stocked up on this and have about 30 gallons squirreled away, with a dollop of sta-bil in each container to preserve it. I figure that is enough to top off both cars, and then about one tank of refill for each. I'll rotate it through the cars in the fall and then get some more. We need to get some white gas for the camping stoves, though.

Personal Security: I feel pretty good here. We both have a decent level of training, high quality service-handguns, and armor. I am feeling comfortable with my AR platform. I do need to rig up my "oh no!" pants again (a set of pants with flashlight, cell phone, belt/holster, etc) again for beside the bed, but other than that we're good. We are still looking at getting a security system for the house and maybe some security lighting too.

Food: We currently have about 45 person-days of food on hand. This includes about 10 person-days of ready to go food like MREs, camping meals, etc. We are pretty good about using what we store as well. That sounds like a lot but even if it is just the two of us that's only a few weeks of stored food. If we have some relatives, neighbors, or friends joining us then 45 person-days of food is much more modest.

Identity and Documents: We have started storing some government issued ID in a seperate location so that if we lose our wallets we're not hosed. I really want to improve our preparation in this regard. For example, if the house burned down tomorrow, I'd want to have an encrypted thumb drive or disk with all of our key documents backed up on it stored at the bank, at work, in a car or with family or something. Having a check book, $300, and a credit/debit card off site would probably also be a good idea.

Finances: We have a solid emergency fund and are on good footing. Cash on hand in an emergency is really comforting. With cash you can get a hotel room or plane ticket.

Transport: Both cars have trailer hitches and we've got a cargo tray. I am thinking of getting a trailer. One of the lessons from "Listening to Katrina" is that you want to bring as much stuff as you can.

Shelter: Due to our camping hobby we have plenty of good tents, sleeping bags, and so on.

Training: Heather completed the CERT class and learned a lot of useful skills that can help the community. I've had similar disaster-response training.

Overall, I think for the next year, the primary focus is on getting our medical and identity preparations improved. I feel good about the basic logistics, which is nice.

We're Winning: NPR Edition

2012-01-24T09:27:00.000-09:00

How The Glock Became America's Weapon Of Choice

Honesty

2012-01-21T08:55:00.001-09:00

I've been successfully avoiding Joan's blog for a while now, but last night I just had to make a comment. The "terror loophole" came up again and since this is something that has affected our family personally, I felt I had to comment. So, I asked Joan:

"I have a family member who was put on the list. They were NOT able to get off of the list. They repeatedly have to jump through hoops when trying to fly. They have not been accused of, arrested, convicted, or committed a crime. Do you think it is okay for American citizens to be treated in this fashion?

This is a yes or no question. Either you think it is okay, or you do not.""

Her answer:

"I've said what I am going to say about the terror watch list. I have gone around about that with you folks before. My beliefs have not changed. I know you don't like them and that you disagree."

That sounds like a "yes" to me. There you have it, folks, her honest opinion on the matter.

Stop! I've got a light!

2012-01-21T06:44:00.000-09:00

New Jersey has built a fairly considerable surveillance state with a network of cameras to monitor the population. Apparently, the NJ cops are enabling a spotlight feature on the cameras that will highlight suspicious individuals with a reddish light.

Now, if they put Crimson Trace laser dots on there, then maybe perps might be intimidated. But otherwise, it seems like NJ is creating mood lighting for violent crime rather than actually doing something useful.

Not Addressing the Real Problem

2012-01-20T12:02:00.000-09:00

A Michigan teacher reportedly poured hot tea on two teenage boys (15 and 18) to stop them from fighting. The teacher was, of course, placed on administrative leave and no consequences are mentioned for either student.

Now what, I ask, was the teacher supposed to do? Let them duke it out? You'd probably get fired for that. Physically intervene? The latter might be possible for a male teacher, but not really an option for most female teachers (I, at least, tend to be out-massed by even sixth graders). Besides, if you do intervene physically as a teacher, you'll probably get sued by the parents. I'm not saying that dumping hot tea on them is necessarily the right choice, but we've come to a place where we are giving teachers no real options to deal with these situations.

Superintendent says “We are always very concerned for the safety of our students and staff." But apparently not concerned enough to give teachers a way to stop students from assaulting each other. I speak from experience when I say that this creates an unsafe atmosphere that inhibits both students abilities to learn and teachers abilities to teach.

Counting Down...

2012-01-20T06:41:00.000-09:00

We're getting closer and closer to our Kodiak trip and I am getting more and more excited every day. I need to get the garage cleaned up so that there is enough empty space to start laying things out to pack for the trip! And just to add to the excitement, our puppy ought to be ready to come home just after the Kodiak hunt. Can I just fast forward to April already?

Also, a bit of "you know you're in the South when..." I was at rehearsal last night and had to tell the director that I would not be able to make it to the May concert due to Kodiak. If I'd told anyone in the northeast that, they probably would have freaked out. Even some of the Alaska musicians I've played with would have given me a look. This guy? He said "Hey, I'll ditch the concert too and tag along!"

House Design Flaws

2012-01-17T12:00:00.005-09:00

Having just moved into a new place, we're getting a fresh view of "how not to design a house."

1. If you plan on renting your house, NO BUILT-INS. Seriously, we have our own furniture. It's nicer than your built-in.
1a. If you do have a built-in entertainment unit, make sure that the cord pass-throughs are big enough to pass a cord through. Just sayin'.
1b. If you must have built-ins, make sure they are built IN, not OUT. If it's built IN, I can at least put something better in front of it.
2. Light switches should be the closest switch to a doorway. Not the fan switch.
3. There should be a fire alarm in the kitchen. If there is not, there should at least be one closer than half the house away. I get as annoyed as the next person when the fire alarm goes off while I'm cooking dinner, but I get much more annoyed when my house burns down.
4. Think very hard about where you put such useful items as outlets, cable and phone hook-ups. Hint: hiding the cable jack inside the closet is not very useful.

Range Day!

2012-01-16T15:32:00.000-09:00

Yesterday, I finally got the chance to shoot the 30.06 I've had for about nine or ten months. Yes, it took that long.

I picked up the gun, a Savage left-handed bolt for cheap from a pawn shop in Eagle River. We'd just drawn our Kodiak tags and I needed more fire power. The gun needed a bit of work done, so I took it in to Wild West Guns for some repairs and to have the stock cut down. They also tossed in a recoil pad for next to nothing. The gun came back just a few days before the movers arrived to pack up our things. Chris was able to take it out to the range briefly but I was line coaching that day and so I didn't get a chance to shoot it before it was packed up and sent away to storage. I finally got it back last week.

So, out to the range! We started in with iron sights at 25 yards and my first three shots made a beautiful group, dead center and just a bit low. A little adjustment and my next two groups were centered vertically but a little right, which certainly could have been user error. So we moved out to 100 yards. Out that far, I was definitely right and spread out a bit. Still, they were all good enough shots to hit the vital area of a bear. Not bad with iron sights, and I figure Appleseed will help me out a bit with the user-error stuff. All this had been with recoil reduced loads, so we then pulled out the big stuff. Not quite the same stuff I'll be using on the Kodiak hunt, but pretty close. I lined up my first shot and... wow. I felt like I'd been kicked in the shoulder by a mule! The shot was good, though! I went through six rounds of the "good stuff" until I was too bruised to continue. It definitely hurt, but it was still a lot of fun - and it's not like I'm going to get a chance to get six rounds off at a bear this spring. I'm the backup shooter, so I'll consider myself lucky if I get two off. I left the rifle range feeling pretty good.

The handgun side was a different story. I was trying out two things today: my new Taurus TCP and the 9mm conversion kit for the M&P.

The Taurus was quite accurate and was actually pretty fun to shoot. I did have some trouble with failure to fires, particularly the first round of a mag. I'm hoping that this is something that will be fixed with a good cleaning and a couple hundred rounds through the gun. If not, it's a significant enough problem that I will be sending the gun back to Taurus.

The 9mm conversion kit was interesting. On the positive side, it was a really quick conversion, two minutes tops. I definitely had less muzzle flip when shooting the 9mm than I do when I shoot 40. I wasn't too pleased with my accuracy - not that it was bad, just not as good as it should have been - but that would, I suspect, be resolved with practice. I've put a lot of time into the 40 this year, after all. The big problem with the conversion kit was that there frequently wasn't enough energy left to properly chamber a round after ejecting the casing. This resulted in the occasional type two malfunction and type threes practically every shot. It got very frustrating! I think this problem is easily solved with a new spring, but it still put me in a bad mood. I want to get back out ASAP - I hate ending on a bad note!

Unpossible! Guns in Prisons

2012-01-15T05:45:00.002-09:00

One might think that a high security prison would be an ideal model for testing whether prohibitory measures to prevent contraband (weapons, drugs, whatever) can be effective. Prisoners have no fourth amendment rights, you can strip search them at will, and the environment is highly controlled.

In North Carolina a murder suspect allegedly smuggled a 38 caliber revolver into prison in his rectum.

Is this the logical end of gun control? This guy managed to evade a strip search by sticking a firearm in his rectum. Are we as a society really willing to go through a strip search, cavity probe ("sir/ma'am, we'll need you to bend over and cough?"), and then a Rapiscan Backscatter Bodyscanner every time we enter a public place or leave our homes? That's what it would take to ensure that there are "no guns in public places" as the Brady's want. And even that would likely be evaded -- we have that setup at our supermax prison facilities and still you hear about contraband making it inside.

Or, perhaps the gun control zealots merely want mala prohibitum laws put in place that prevent the law-abiding from carrying weapons in public places but do nothing to affect the criminal class.

I'm not sure what's worse: a vision that embraces an Orwellian security state, or a dream to enable a massive thugocracy where the lawless and strong rule the streets.

District Court Upholds Long Gun Registry

2012-01-14T06:49:00.000-09:00

A district court judge upheld ATF's questionable multiple-sales reporting requirement in the Southwest.

The decision is a quick read. The judge evaluated two major factors.

1) Did ATF exceed their statutory authority?

On one hand, the Attorney General (and thus ATF) has the authority to issue a demand letter for just about anything, anytime. On the other hand, congress has specifically forbid multiple times in several ways any creation of a nationwide registry.

The court looked at other cases where judges had ruled demand letters legit; the most extravagent of such targeted 450 FFLs (1% of the nation's total per the brief). This one targets 16%. The judge felt that was not a "significant" step towards a nationwide registry and thus ATF was not exceeding their authority.

My thought -- How would a judge rule, if, say, 16% of the states decided to ignore the Voting Rights Act and the Attorney General allowed it? I mean, its only the deep south, right? What could go wrong? I'd say that any new interpretation that affects nearly a fifth of the country is pretty significant, especially when specific enumerated rights are involved.

2) Did ATF act capriciously?

Here, the judge has to presume that the ATF is acting "with regularity" and determine only if the agency acted reasonably. Based on the brief I'd compare the standard of review to Rational Basis, which is a very low test.

Because ATF has stated that long guns are preferred by Mexican Cartels, their reporting requirement is logical and thus reasonable and not capriciously. The fact that a substantial percentage of the long guns were provided by the ATF (and State department!) is not mentioned in the judgement.

My thought -- This is a good reason why higher courts need to establish a standard of review for 2A cases. Heller implied that Intermediate or Strict Scrutiny was most appropriate. Rational Basis needs to be smacked down when this specific enumerated right is involved. This is why the composition of higher courts (especially the supremes) is so important. This is also why pursuing tactics that involve the executive and legislative branches are so important.

T-Rex Arms

2012-01-13T20:12:00.000-09:00

I did a crossfit workout this afternoon, and I now have t-rex arms. Raising my arms above chest height is not really a viable option at this moment.

It was a good workout though.

"Hi, I'd like a Gunrunner Combo"

2012-01-12T18:30:00.004-09:00

The Mexican magazine Emeequis published portions of documents that describe how Drug Enforcement Administration agents, a Colombian trafficker-turned-informant and Mexican federal police officers in 2007 infiltrated the Beltran Leyva drug cartel and a cell of money launderers for Colombia's Valle del Norte cartel in Mexico.

The group of officials conducted at least 15 wire transfers to banks in the United States, Canada and China and smuggled and laundered about $2.5 million in the United States. They lost track of much of that money.

Oops! So, do the cartels get a package deal discount when ordering these sorts of services from the US Government? "Hi, I'd like 2000 assault rifles, $2.5 million bucks laundered, and yeah, maybe a few semis of coke trucked across the border... Oh, there's a discount? Yeah, sure, I'll take the Gun Runner Combo... Yes, I'll need that order to go... Actually, let's supersize it."

I mean, really -- we're giving the cartels firearms, we're permitting them to run tons of coke into the country, and now we're processing what amounts to 10-20% of their annual laundered funds?

Looking for Something...

2012-01-12T10:58:00.000-09:00

I happen to be incredibly awful at finding what I'm looking for on the net. Seriously, Chris will ask me to look something up and I'll sit there ALL DAY searching, and he'll come home and within five minutes have found it. So the fact that I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for definitely doesn't mean it doesn't exist!

Now that we're 1) in a hot climate and 2) getting a dog, I need a solution to the "carry-while-jogging" issue. I will be getting a pocket .380, possibly as soon as this weekend, and have been looking into fanny-pack type holsters or anything else that will allow me to conceal the little thing while jogging (pocket holsters are out - my shorts either don't have pockets or have tiny little girl pockets). The problem is that every fanny-pack I've looked at just seems to have straps to hold the gun in. Some of them don't even look like they cover the trigger! While it might work perfectly well, I'm a little nervous about carrying in condition one while jogging in something that isn't well molded to my gun, trigger exposed, etc.

So, I am trying to find a fanny pack holster (or something along those lines) that will carry my .380 in a manner that I feel is both comfortable and safe. Any ideas?

On a related note, I'm fairly sure that I will be picking up the Taurus TCP for my .380. I was leaning fairly strongly towards the Taurus just from how it looked on paper, but I also got the chance to shoot one at the range the other day, thanks to a friendly stranger. The sights suck but it certainly seemed able to do what I need it to do.

Fudds at the Range and Safety Tradeoffs

2012-01-11T14:53:00.000-09:00

We just checked out one of our local public shooting ranges. The rules are kind of crazy. Here's a sampling.

No open carry holsters allowed on the range except by the Range Safety Officers. Heather had her CCW holster on, but took off her concealing garment. Of course, the holster was empty, and we were just using the shooting tables, in deference to the range rules. Still, this was apparently a no-no. I understand not allowing drawing from the holster to shoot as a safety thing; but just forbidding the wear of holsters altogether seems odd to me. I definitely got the vibe that the RSO's were really enjoying Displaying Their Authori-Tay to Open Carry (especially as Open Carry is not really an option for most people in this area), which is NOT a good reason to forbid others from having holsters.
No more than 10 rounds per magazine. At the rifle range, the RSO was definitely up in my chili when he saw my standard 30-round AR PMAGs come out of the bag. I was being a good camper and downloaded the mags entirely and was fastidiously reloading them with only 10 rounds, and he gosh darn supervised me to ensure that an extra round didn't sneak in there.
No Magazine Changes. This wasn't written down as a rule, but I got scolded for doing tactical and emergency reloads. It is kind of funny that they forbid more than 10 rounds per mag, which necessitates more frequent mag changes, but then also forbid mag changes.
No Extreme Rapid Fire, described as more than one shot per second. Double taps are definitely not kosher. Apparently double shots are not "family friendly" (neither are mag changes).
Only one weapon visible on the bench at a time. Heather was shooting her full size and compact M&P so had both out, clearly out there with actions open and unloaded. That was not allowed, but the RSO said it would be fine if she had one concealed in a range bag on the bench. So hang on... Instead of leaving firearms out in the open where the RSO can verify that they are safe, clear and locked open, you want those firearms stuffed into range bags where you have no idea what condition they're in? What could go wrong?

Meanwhile, there were some significant safety gaps, in my opinion.

The range required ear pro but did not require eye pro. I'd say about half of folks had some sort of shooting glasses but many did not.
There were some "fingers on trigger" that made me feel a bit edgy. I'm a bit of a nazi about FOT as it is a terrible safety habit to get into, even if the gun is pointed down range at all times.
Guns in and out of bags on the line is also a terrible idea--you have no idea what condition they are in, and unlike a holster, there is nothing controlling the trigger.
The RSO was also not verifying that all actions were open and guns unloaded before cease fires.
The RSO wasn't making positive contact with both ends of the line at the start and end of cease fires. I've always seen both sides of the line step back, flash thumbs up, and make eye contact on this sort of range. The RSO wasn't even making eye contact, and we got looked at funny for flashing a thumbs up when we were clear.
The RSO was shouting things like "CEASE FIRE!!!! In a few minutes..." In my opinion, the only time you should say the words "CEASE FIRE" are when you need all firing on the line to stop immediately. If you want to convey the thought that there will be a pause in firing soon, why not shout, "TWO MINUTES TO THE BREAK!" When you over-use "CEASE FIRE" or use an important command like that to mean things other than "STOP FIRING RIGHT NOW" then people get confused and start ignoring it.

The stupid fudd rules wouldn't bother me as much if the range was otherwise tight. However, there is a tradeoff to the fudd rules. If the RSO is busy watching me load magazines to ensure that I don't put 11 rounds in there, he is NOT watching people's fingers on triggers or checking to see if actions are clear and unloaded. The fudd rules do nothing to enhance safety in many cases -- they just take up time and attention that keeps the RSO from focusing on the really important things.

The place isn't the greatest range. However, it is close to home, and it is cheap. If nothing else it is a decent place to go do slow fire accuracy drills, zero rifles, and so on.

Cheaper than Dirt: "Bank Error in Your Favor!"

2012-01-10T14:45:00.000-09:00

I just ordered some rifle ammo from cheaper than dirt. To my surprise I opened the package and found a half dozen or so boxes of 10mm. I don't have any 10mm firearms. Luckily it looks like my card was not charged for the ammo. I've emailed CTD customer service and informed them of the mix-up, we'll see what happens.

Appleseed Bloggerparty

2012-01-09T12:13:00.001-09:00

Now that we are no longer in Alaska, we find ourselves in close proximity to a bunch of other gun bloggers. Obviously, this calls for a Bloggerparty!

The Setting: Ramseur, NC, the "Mecca" of Appleseed
The Dates: March 24th and 25th
The Adventure: Two days of learning traditional rifle marksmanship skills, plus a chance to hang out with some supercool gun bloggers

So far we have people from the following blogs attending:
Arma Borealis (of course!)
An NC Gun Blog
Arms Are the Mark of a Free Man
Bob-Owens.com
Newbie Shooter
A Girl and Her Gun
Knitebane Manor

And, of course, we're welcoming anyone else who wants to attend!

More information about Appleseed

Will a Candle Stop a Bullet?

2012-01-08T14:49:00.000-09:00

Thanks to Weer'd for the idea.

Candles to remember. Guns to prevent.

Other people have already been far more eloquent than I could be.

Our preferred methods of self defense: my M&P and Chris' AR.

Resolutions

2012-01-06T11:22:00.000-09:00

Last year Chris blogged about some resolutions we had. Looking back, I think we did pretty well. While I'm not necessarily eating a piece of fruit per day, I'm definitely eating healthier. Among other things, I've discovered the joy of roasted brussel sprouts and could eat them by the bowlful! We both finished hunters ed and took a defensive pistol class (I took two!). Chris got his CWP and I'm pretty sure he knocked out his masters credits. We didn't get as much snow-play in as we wanted to, thanks in part to low snow levels on the Kenai, but we did do some. And even though we didn't get a bear, we did do a bear hunt last spring.

Onto 2012!

1. Get a job. Having just moved multiple times for Chris' job, I haven't been gainfully employed for almost nine months now, which is driving me nuts. I have a few potentials already lined up, including some range jobs.
2. Teach at least one NRA class. I've got my certification, better use it!
3. Get certified in RSO, Refuse to Be a Victim, and Shotgun. Among other things, this will only help with numbers 1 and 2!
4. Pup. Not getting specific here, but I would like to be a good dog owner and trainer. This is a brand new thing for us! I've been speaking with the breeder and we should be getting a pup from the next litter which is anticipated in late spring. Going along with this, I definitely need to improve my shotgun skills!
5. Less-than-black-thumb. I'm trying my hand at gardening this year and will be content if I manage to not kill everything by simply looking at it. Bonus points if I actually get veggies out of it!

On the hunting front, we've got some awesome stuff lined up this year. We're planning to jump right in to this new scene with hogs in February and turkey in April, building up to our planned Kodiak hunt in the spring. We might not be living in Alaska at the moment, but I'm going to try to make the best of it.

You're Doing it Wrong: 1911 in Cali

2012-01-04T17:31:00.003-09:00

Cali law maker gets busted for trying to carry his 1911 onto an airplane.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks had a Colt .45 with four rounds in it inside his carry-on luggage at Ontario International Airport. He says another magazine with five rounds also was in Donnelly's carry-on bag.

I'm not a 1911 fanboy, but last time I checked, aren't you supposed to have 7+1 in a 1911? Who carries a half full mag in the gun and another half full mag as a backup? Also, unpossible, because California's strict gun control measures should prevent crimes like this, right?

GASG: Innkeeper Shooting

2012-01-03T12:58:00.000-09:00

Gwen has started up her antics again with a flood of posts for the holidays, oft verging on being offensive and bigoted.

In this post, she blames gun owners for violence and makes it clear that firearms ownership is, in her opinion, a bad decision. She links a story about an innkeep who got into a fight with three drunk patrons. After denying the trio a room, the dispute spilled out into the parking lot. The innkeep pulled a pistol after two men started beating on him.

At first, I'd say this may be a valid DGU. However, its worth remembering that the defensive shooter must be innocent and can't escalate the argument. There was probably no reason to follow the trio of people outside and continue the altercation in the parking lot.

Furthermore, the shooter has an extensive criminal record. I just looked at the offenses that are linked to the 1957 birthdate and found several disabling offenses, including violent felonies, domestic violence, and other records that would make him a prohibited person. His most recent parole violation occurred about a year ago.

I fail to understand why Gwen thinks that more gun control is the answer, when the gun control we have now was absolutely ineffective at preventing this crime. Maybe if we kept violent criminals who violate their parole in jail, then they couldn't cause this kind of mayhem.

Front Site: Admin, Logistics, and Facilities

2012-01-01T17:44:00.004-09:00

This post continues my thoughts about Front Site, a firearms training facility out in NV. I want to open up with a discussion of logistics and administrative issues as well as the physical facilities available out at Front Site.

Drive. The facility itself is about 20-30 minutes outside of Pahrump, NV and perhaps an hour from Vegas. These times vary depending on your driving habits, traffic, and weather. The roads are all paved until you get to the facility itself, where they are gravel, so a typical rental car/sedan should fare just fine. The gate doesn't open earlier than the advertised start time so there's no reason to show up crazy early.

Lodging. We chose to get a hotel room at the Saddle West hotel/casino. Saddle West offers a Front Site discount; be sure to ask for the "first family" rate if you're a lifetime member, but even if you're just attending a class they'll throw you a bone. They are semi firearms friendly; they'll have you sign a dry practice waiver and ask you not to carry in the public areas of the hotel. Front Site has camping but it looks pretty bare bones; I'm not even sure if they have water available.

Food. Saddle West has a good breakfast buffet that they threw in for us as a promo so that worked great. For lunch, you have a few options. First, Saddle West will do a box nasty for you. Next, Front Sight has an arrangement to get a box nasty delivered. Both box lunches are ok; nothing really to write home about, but filling and fairly reasonably priced. There's also a truck (like you'd see at a fair) with burgers, dogs, and so on.

Some folks "rolled their own" lunches from groceries at the store. We ate leftovers from dinner a few days; there's no fridge available for students but it was winter so it was fine to leave leftovers in the car during the day. For dinner, Front Site will give you a list of suggested restaurants where you can get a good discount. We tried the Italian place and were pleased. There's also all your standard small to mid-size town places available in Pahrump. As a note, Front Site makes coffee, tea, and water available; the coffee was pretty good (and I'm a snob), and they had premium Stash Tea, so this was nice.

Check In. Check in was smooth and efficient. You park in the large lot and go to a conex conspicuously marked with a "1" (one). Here they check your ID against a roster and verify what class you're enrolled for. You then go to station "2" for weapons inspection. They briefly check your weapon to ensure it is safe and run a magnet over your ammo. Like many ranges, they don't want steel core ammo that will damage their targets, and they don't want you using cheap steel cased ammo that might malfunction and create liability issues for them. There's then a quick admin brief in the main classroom building then off to your ranges!

Facilities. The center of the facility is a large classroom that can hold, say, a couple hundred folks. It is climate controlled and has a decent AV system. They also have a "comfort station" (washroom with flush toilets, sinks with hot running water, etc). The ranges themselves have port a johns so the comfort station is nice to have. The roads are generally covered in gravel, but they do have a water truck that wets it down to keep the dust down.

There's one nice, landscaped walkway with palm trees and nice facades on the walls. This is probably what you'll see in advertising copy. The rest of the place is more utilitarian. Still, don't let the conex boxes and rough landscaping turn you off. Heather and I concluded that the facility was pretty impressive overall.

Some of the facility highlights include "M16 Canyon" (a walking course for live-fire carbine engagement of steel and paper targets in a "popup" setting; they cleverly used a canyon to avoid building too many berms), a thousand yard precision rifle course set up on a scenic lookout point, a cool looking ropes course and zipline (again making use of a canyon for additional elevation), and a pair of "shoot houses" set up in conexes. There are numerous pistol ranges out to 25-50 yards and rifle ranges to 400 yards.

Conclusions. At first, Heather and I were kind of underwhelmed and didn't think that the place qualified as a "world class" shooting faciliy. Then, we realized that we were really spoiled with Birchwood up in Alaska. Many of the other folks at Front Site had not been to rifle ranges with areas longer than 100 yards to shoot, or pistol ranges with multiple bays. One visitor from the UK remarked about the horrid conditions of the few remaining ranges in his home country. So, ok, I guess in contrast the Pahrump facility is pretty good. The logistics are smooth and efficient and there are reasonable options for food and accommodations conveniently nearby.

Volcano Alert

2011-12-30T04:27:00.002-09:00

Luckily it is more remote than Redoubt... 940 miles from Anchorage.

Front Sight: Review Intro

2011-12-29T15:16:00.004-09:00

Earlier in December we blogged about attending a firearms training course. We were attending Front Sight out in Nevada. Heather was able to take the four day handgun course and I took four day rifle with my new AR-15; previously, Heather had taken the two day ropes class as well.

We will post our impressions and review the classes in the future here at Arma. We'll also talk about how we got into Front Sight and our thoughts on it.

Because I love to spoil surprises, I'll say right up front that we would rate this training as, say, a "6 or 7 out of 10." It is good, safe firearms training. It could be faster paced, it could be better, but we felt it was a good value and worth out time. I know we both learned quite a bit. I will also admit that the advertising for Front Sight looks like a used car salesman's pyramid scheme--still, I care most about the training received and the safety procedures in place, not the advertising copy.

Home Invaders Charged with Manslaughter

2011-12-23T18:08:00.000-09:00

You may remember that we recently discussed a home invasion in which four perps attacked a homeowner, and two perps were killed by defensive gunfire. Gwen, the anti-gun bigot over at GASG, called this a murder, except she mixed up the offender; she was blaming the homeowner, who has been declared "clearly within his rights" by the DA.

The two survivors have been charged with manslaughter:
Pico and Pfister are being prosecuted because they were part of the conspiracy that resulted in the killing of Johnson and Trantham, Fayette said. Their actions were reckless and the possibility that one or more of them could have been killed was "foreseeable," especially in Alaska, which has a large percentage of armed residents, Fayette said.

http://www.adn.com/2011/12/16/2221449/grand-jury-indicts-2-in-deaths.html

Interestingly, the homeowner had some pot plants in his house. That would technically be a federal firearms violation. It could also make the defensive use of the firearm a crime under Alaska law (you can't use a firearm to defend your drug stash). Because the DA and police were so supportive of the homeowner I'm thinking that the homeowner may have had a medical marijuana card or something.

The bottom line though is that this looks like it is being handled by the authorities as a legit DGU; even better for justice, they're holding the actual criminals accountable for getting their buddies shot and killed.

For some reason, Blogger is having trouble with Linkage...

Culture Wars

2011-12-22T16:50:00.000-09:00

After a day of driving through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, naturally the conversation turned to TV shows such as "Swamp People" and "Hillbilly Handfishin'," particularly after having recently read an NPR article (or, more relevantly, the comments) on the subject.

Me: "They should make TV shows about northern liberals doing stupid stuff."
Chris: "It's called MSNBC."

Rapiscan in Anchorage

2011-12-21T07:15:00.000-09:00

Good to see one of our local legislators backing a civil liberties issue.
http://www.adn.com/2011/12/19/2225221/anchorage-politician-feuds-with.html

Tuck said he always opts for a private pat-down whenever he is traveling and confronted with a body scanner. "The reason why I do the private pat-downs is because, as a political official, I don't want there to be a picture of me, because everybody has a phone and cameras, a picture of me with my arms up being frisked as if I'm a criminal," he said.

So do I. It also has the benefit of gumming up the works, slowing down the line, and inconveniencing TSA. While I'm sure many of them enjoy groping victims, I like to look them in the eye and ask uncomfortable personal questions while they feel me up.

Compliance with Criminals

2011-12-20T18:51:00.000-09:00

Sometimes, even when you comply with the demands of the bad guys, they still kill you.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/14/unc-student-fatally-shot-had-asked-captors-to-pray-before-death-according-to/?intcmp=obnetwork

The student body president at UNC Chapel Hill was abducted, sexually assaulted, and then robbed. She plead for her life, and also asked her captors to pray with her. They shot her four times with a handgun then shot her in the head with a shotgun.

Of course, the victim had no ability to defend herself. She wasn't 21 and thus couldn't legally purchase a handgun. She was a student in a victim disarmament zone (college campus). The criminals -- prohibited persons and multiple felons, but I'll let Sean provide the details -- ignored multiple laws in the course of their murderous spree. Our victim was left with few options, tried to comply, and still got killed.
http://ncguns.blogspot.com/

Yet somehow, gun control activists will spin this as something to use to score political points. In fact, North Carolinians Against Gun Violence already did a blood dance and discussed how they could exploit the Carson murder for political gain ("Chuck said it is a mistake not to take advantage of the high profile of the Eve Carson shooting.").
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCsQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fncgv.org%2Ffiles%2FMinutes_3-11-08_board_mtg.doc&ei=9AjwTtCjAaKLsgK089ikCQ&usg=AFQjCNFX7KdqSwAyaLYEvkAkkE5OIrkPsA

Interestingly, they decided that writing to the paper was not effective:
"We will no longer write letters to the N&O in response to a shooting. This does not work. Roxane had a conversation with Winston-Salem member, Ann Robinson whose husband works with a newspaper. She found that for every letter we write there are several more from the other side. Sue said her minister was devastated about Eve Carson’s shooting and did not want to hear about anything on our issue. "

They did discuss, "getting a packet of information to every university safety officer to offer our help." What kind of help is a gun control group going to offer to a campus cop? Can NCGV call upon the combined powers of the VPC and Brady Campaign to fix the flux capacitor in the gun-free zone's magic anti-gun forcefield? Apparently the device is malfunctioning if felons with multiple convictions can get onto campus with their firearms in order to commit armed mayhem.

Another columnist (possibly associated with the NCGV, I'm not sure) devolved into Markley's Law, making penis jokes:
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/one-nation-under-guns/Content?oid=1207774

Any you wonder why we can't have a discussion with the gun control people. They refuse to engage on a rational level and fail to provide any actionable solutions while insisting that law abiding people turn themselves into victims-in-waiting.

Maybe They're Onto Something...

2011-12-20T06:00:00.018-09:00

So this was the second place I have taken a handgun course. It is also the second place that has asked me to consider working for them. I really enjoyed line coaching up in Alaska, so I got my NRA credentials. This latest request has definitely firmed up my desire to pursue firearms instruction as a side job (or more, if I can't get a full-time position in my field after this move. Who knows?). The place did say that I could commute from across the country, two weeks on, two weeks off, but I don't know about that...

Constitution Free Zone

2011-12-19T18:32:00.007-09:00

We recently traveled through the American South West. During our drive I came across an elaborate checkpoint out in the middle of nowhere on a two-lane highway. A border patrol person started asking me where I was going and if I was a US citizen while his buddy started around the car with a dog.

Luckily, in this case, the agents were helpful and told us the road ahead was closed due to a winter storm.
http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2011/12/19/deadly-southwestern-snowstorm-brings-dangerous-conditions-halts-travel/?test=latestnews

We doubled back and took another highway that was open. We then ran into another checkpoint, where I had a quick chat with the border patrol guy. I used the TSA strategy of responding to questions with a vague answer and a question of my own. The guy was a nice guy, also happened to be a military guardsman or reservist (didn't stick around to figure out which). No issues.

This also identified some strange cameras we'd seen elsewhere on the highway. Earlier on the day in the median we'd noticed a plain white unmarked trailer with a bank of cameras pointing at the road. The checkpoint had an identical set of cameras. I wonder if they are just being monitored or if they have license plate tracking technology.

I did a bit of research and found that this sort of temporary detention and questioning is totally legit. No RAS or PC is required to send you to a secondary detention area for more questioning either. They are allowed within 100 aerial miles of the border.

It was definitely a weird, Kafka-esque moment to be stopped at a permanent checkpoint inside the country, though. I can't imagine what message this sends to Americans living south of the border: has the border patrol just given up on actually enforcing the real border? How does cracking down on legitimate traffic inside the US improve security on a porous border? Is the war on drugs really worth detaining Americans regularly at a police checkpoint? If you live to the South of the checkpoint I can imagine that you'd feel like the government has given up on you, just moving the border 100 miles north, and treating you with suspicion.

Even though this has nothing to do with TSA, I figured as it falls into the "desensitizing Americans to deal with searches/seizures/detentions/questioning without any PC or RAS" category much like TSA.

Rifles to 300 Yards

2011-12-14T08:03:00.001-09:00

We're in the middle of some multi-day shooting classes so this will be brief. Today I was working a scenario course with my AR during a rifle course. There were some "shoot" targets from 5-50 yards; no problem, double tapped them with solid rings on steel. There was a no-shoot target; I went above and beyond and did some verbal commands rather than just ignoring it, and also made good use of cover while dealing with it.

Then I saw a target that was about 300 yards away (range estimated using front sight post, so is rough). First I ignored it and dealt with another target that was closer. Then I went for cover and wormed my way up a berm to look at the distant target. I asked the instructor shadowing me if it was in the scenario, to which the answer was affirmative.

I then had a blinding realization: I'm holding a rifle, not a handgun.

This, I believe, is because the rifle is a tool of power. A good rifleman can bring kinetic power to bear upon his environment. He can reach out and cause things to happen decisively and selectively at a distance.

Cooper, Jeff (2010). Art Of The Rifle (p. 17). Paladin Press. Kindle Edition.

So I settled in (already prone), worked on sight alignment, sight picture, breath, and trigger (follow through/reset), and pinged the steel within a few seconds. Then did it again, because anything worth shooting once is probably worth shooting again.

I felt good about making the shots with iron sights in low light (it was twilight with the sun below the horizon) against black targets under a bit of time pressure from an improvised field position against a range-unknown target. It was definitely a "lightning bolt" moment for me: this is a rifle. My shooting of military-pattern "AR" style rifles has almost always been at 200 yards or less. Most of it has been at 25 yard indoor ranges shooting "simulated 300 yard" targets. There's a lot of difference between 300 yards in twilight and "sim 300 yards" at the end of a well lit indoor 25 yard range.

There's also a lot of difference between 300 yards in twilight with irons on a 14.5" AR and 300 yards with a 20+" bolt gun with a 3-9x optic in the daylight. I feel confident about being able to hit the vitals of a big game animal out to 300 yards with my X-Bolt but the AR is a bit of a different story.

Of course, a pop-up target at the very end of the course housed me: the thing was about 35 yards away and I blasted two shots into the dirt. I then knelt behind cover, and took another pair of effective shots once I remembered my fundamentals.

USPSA was definitely helpful, even on this "unknown" course that I couldn't map out ahead of time, even though I was using a totally different weapons system. The philosophy of either engaging, moving, or getting to cover (i.e., NOT standing still in befuddlement) is also helpful.

But the real big thing for me was realizing that I can really reach out there with a rifle on more dynamic scenarios. There is a huge difference from handguns.

"When considering the objectives of a shooting program, I have settled upon the premise that the object of the practical rifleman is the achievement of first-round hits, on appropriate targets, at unknown ranges, from improvised firing positions, against the clock."

Cooper, Jeff (2010). Art Of The Rifle (p. 21). Paladin Press. Kindle Edition.

I can't do that consistently with my AR yet throughout the ballistic envelope of the weapon but I'm starting to assemble the skills needed to do it. This is probably no great shakes for many of those reading this blog, but I'm pretty excited about increasing my confidence level on these shots.

Who knows, maybe I'll be ready for a Boomershot sometime in the near future!

Slow Going...

2011-12-12T19:28:00.002-09:00

Day one of a four day handgun class (rifle for Chris) in the middle of another giant move. Don't expect much out of us at the moment!

Rucksacks

2011-12-04T21:08:00.002-09:00

It has finally occurred: My Bugout Gear (brandname) ruck sack has reached the end of its useful service life, after about eight years of service. The bag has been my carryon for just about every air trip I've taken, been stuffed full of books as a college backpack, and used for some rough overseas trips in difficult conditions. Some of the seams have ripped out, creating large holes, as have the shoulder straps. The bag will make one more run as a backpack full of stuff for our car trip but I think this is the last hurrah for it.

I'm looking for a replacement. One obvious choice is just to get another Bugout Gear ruck, but for the price they run these days I might be able to upgrade to something nicer for not much more. Any ideas? A minimum requirement is that the ruck must be able to hold a ton of stuff including a full size laptop as well as fit into an airline overhead bin as a carryon.

Supertuck Velcro

2011-12-04T20:47:00.002-09:00

Recently Bob asked how the Supertuck velcro performs in some, ahem, non-standard situations.

How does the Velcro perform when your pants aren't buttoned?

One of the things I like about the clips is the support they provide to the holster against the belt when getting dressed or using the facilities.

I've been very impressed and pleased with my Supertuck for my Taurus PT145.
If the Velco is stable enough, it would be nice to have as another option.

The velcro provides a bit less support than the clips. With sturdy pants (I usually wear jeans or 5.11 casual pants, the ones with hidden pockets) the velcro works fairly well however. The holster is still secured at four points: two on the belt, two on the pants.

The bigger issue is tucking your shirt back in. It is a bit of a pain to get bloused out properly and to tuck in around the holster. It is also tough to verify that things look right without a mirror. So you might find yourself finishing your business, doing the best tuck you can, ducking out to check your look out in the washroom mirror, then having to subtly adjust out there (or duck back into a stall for more extensive adjustments).

Supertuck Problem and Update

2011-12-01T14:09:00.000-09:00

I've been very happy with my Supertuck IWB holster, however I'e been having a problem that needs to be reported. While carrying a S&W M&P compact, the magazine has come loose and does not remain securely seated.

The first time this happened, I chalked it up to coincidence. The second time was worrisome, and the third event was a disturbing pattern. I am not quite sure if this is an issue with the holster or the gun, however, this does not seem to be a common issue with the M&P and I have had no trouble with holsters of other makes (Bianchi, Fobus, serpa-retention style, etc). Neither has Heather, who also carries an M&P. That leads me to suspect the holster.

The best theory I've come up with is that the mag release is getting pushed in by the holster when I sit or wear it. The kydex portion of the holster does not cover the mag release. Moreover the leather near the mag release is scuffed slightly.

I am not giving up on the supertuck. As an immediate measure I've started checking the mag to make sure it is securely seated. I've also thought about the whole "tap rack bang" malfunction clearance issue. I'm going to change where I carry the supertuck and see if changing the position from 5:00 to 3:00 or 4:00 mitigates the issue. I can also change the height at which the holster rides which may help.

Still, a trend of the mag release getting hit which pops a mag out, which would induce a malfunction if I had to fire the pistol, is very problematic.

For a Good Cause

2011-11-30T19:38:00.000-09:00

On the off chance that you haven't seen this yet, Linoge at Walls of the City is running a fundraiser for Soldier's Angels. Check it out.

Dragon Leatherworks Flatjack Review

2011-11-30T12:27:00.002-09:00

My holster arrived back in September. I posted about it then but wanted to come back to it now that I've had a chance to really break it in. The bottom line? I still love it! The leather has loosened up slightly with use (I wouldn't turn it upside down and shake anymore!). The firearm is still retained snugly, but the draw is smoother. While the holster is obviously gorgeous for open carry, it also functions fairly well for concealed carry, particularly given that it is an OWB holster. T-shirts work well, even my smaller t-shirts are fine for day-to-day concealment. If I were going somewhere where I needed deeper concealment, a size larger shirt or a jacket thrown over top fix it up. It does not, however, conceal very well in shirts that are even the slightest bit fitted. As a woman, that can be a bit of a problem if that's where your wardrobe tends. I also have problems occasionally with my t-shirts being about an inch too short - if they're pulled down all the way they cover the whole holster, but tend to ride up slightly with normal walking. Overall, a great compromise between comfort and concealment. We had family in town and I carried most of the time; they never noticed, even with all the hugging.

In other news, I'm taking a rope and rappel course this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it!

Supertuck IWB Velcro Modification

2011-11-28T13:56:00.000-09:00

I've previously discussed the Supertuck IWB holster and wanted to provide an update.

I just recently modified my Supertuck to make use of the velcro belt-securing option. Basically, this involves removing the metal clips that you normally attach the holster to your belt with and installing velcro tabs. The tabs loop over the top of your pants and secure to the back of the belt with velcro.

Of course, you need a belt with velcro on it to enable this. I ordered a purpose-built belt from Crossbreed Holsters and have been very happy with it -- it seems to be a quality belt, and it looks nice enough to be dressy as well. ALternatively, the kit comes with velcro you can attach to another belt.

While I was originally skeptical of the concept, I'm actually pretty impressed with how well the setup works. With quality pants that have a stiffer waist line, the velcro tab actually has plenty of stability. I wore the velcro'd holster around all night, including driving, sitting, walking for a fairly large distance with no problems. Stability was excellent.

Concealability was good too. I actually tucked in my shirt (a heavier loose-cut polo shirt on one day, and a thin nylon hiking shirt on the other). The holster tabs securing to the belt are noticeable under close inspection but not something you'd note under casual observation. The tuck actually worked fairly well. The trick I discovered is to tuck everything in tight and evenly, then pull about three quarters of an inch of fabric loose all the way around. "Blousing" the shirt like this mitigates printing, solves bunching around the holster, and also helps cover up the tabs at the cost of looking a bit sloppier.

I wore this setup in a setting requiring deep concealment. Carry was legal but there was a lot of well organized private security that is not friendly to open carry along with some city police presence. I kept a loose windbreaker on (unzipped) and felt 100% comfortable with the concealment setup. With the windbreaker tied around my waist, DW noticed a slight bit of printing as the fabric got tied in close. It required close observation though, and I think most any other observer would just notice an ambiguous bulge (so to speak).

Without the windbreaker there was some bulging and slight printing that could be seen by a careful observer. I think you could get away with no cover garment and a tucked shirt in a regular sort of environment, but given the security presence I wanted to keep low profile. I think a tucked in shirt would work great with a sports coat for more formal occasions, giving a great CCW option instead of a shoulder holster for men in business casual plus attire.

Overall I continue to be impressed with the supertuck. It gets good marks for concealment and comfort.

Black Friday defensive handgun usage

2011-11-26T22:37:00.000-09:00

Saw this story on a news aggregation site: LINK

A woman, her sister, and her son are bringing their bounty of deals back to their car outside a walmart in South Carolina. They were sure to park in a well-lit area. Still, muggers hold them up at gun point. The woman hands over her purse, yet the mugger still shoots her in the foot even though she has complied with their demands. The mugger also starts pistol whipping the son.

Meanwhile, the sister gets into her car and retrieves a handgun. The sister has a concealed weapons permit. The sister is able to fire a warning shot (she says she was concerned about hitting bystanders) and the muggers flee. The first woman who was shot is expected to recover as is the son who needed stitches on his head.

I am not a fan of warning shots; you either shoot to stop the threat of death or serious bodily injury, or don't shoot at all--who knows where your warning shots will fall? Still, it looks like the law abiding citizen won this one.

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the perps are prohibited persons, as well. No amount of gun control would stop their predation. In this case, the victims did "everything right." They parked in a well lit area. They traveled as a group. They complied with the demands of the aggressors. Even so, the aggressors used deadly force against the victims, and only the threat of deadly force (in the form of a CCW's lawfully possessed pistol) was enough to deter them and cause them to break off their attack.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED:

- Carry your gun with you, don't leave it in the car.

- If you can't carry your sidearm with you, having it in the car is better than nothing.

- Shoot to stop, but even if you can't get a good shot to stop, any return fire is better than no return fire. Most criminals don't want to tangle with victims who can fight back.

Midway Great Deal for Black Friday

2011-11-24T18:54:00.002-09:00

Boy, I really am tempted by the black friday deal for Aimpoint Micro T-1s at Midway. They are selling the T1 for $499 tomorrow. Being on the west coast, it would be easy to wait until late tonight and get an early first order in for one. I've been wavering about 75/25 between the Aimpoint and the Eotech, and for $499 it is a pretty easy decision.

However.

I cannot bring myself to fork up another five bills on the Aimpoint plus another one on a mount for my AR right now. The AR ran a few hundred bucks over budget in the first place and it is going to take me awhile to pay myself back for it, even if sell something from the safe. I just can't justify dropping another six hundred bucks on this optic right now. Plus, optics are something that gets better every year; the progress isn't quite as fast as Moore's Law in computing, but it is hard to deny that your dollar gets you more every year.

While I will be sticking with my iron sights, if you have a few hundred bucks you may want to consider hitting up Midway. This looks like a pretty good deal.

For that, I might brave Black Friday...

2011-11-23T11:35:00.000-09:00

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Cabelas-Black-Friday-Freebie----a-Gun-134409808.html

Cabela's in Hartford (of all places) is giving away a Browning A-bolt on Black Friday. Only one, though. If you're one of the first 800 people at the store, you get a chance. Further inspection of the Cabela's website indicates that this is the case at all Cabela's. Too bad we don't have one nearby!

As a side note, how on earth does Connecticut have a Cabela's while the entire south-east is devoid of a single store?

Home Invasion -- Another View

2011-11-16T18:55:00.001-09:00

A few days ago, Heather highlighted a story about an older Alaskan gentleman who shot two home invaders who broke into his house, pistol whipped him, and forced him to open a safe at gunpoint.

Our local anti-gun bigot, Gwen, has another view:

11/10/2011: Two teens shot to death during home robbery because guns don’t actually help
http://www.adn.com/2011/11/10/2163898/police-say-two-dead-in-apparent.html

Here’s the kind of story gun owners love to point to as a valid excuse for owning a gun. The problem with their position is that it doesn’t help their position. We still have a crime, we still have people being shot, and the only way people end up shot is when a gun is used. I’ve never heard of someone being shot when there isn’t a gun used. Plus, the robbers chose to carry a gun to make their crime easier. The best outcome in this situation would have been for nobody to have been shot. That didn’t happen, and it didn’t happen because so many people are totally blind when it comes to understanding the consequences of our gun culture. Thanks, NRA! Thanks, gun owners! You are awesome .

Of course, I did some digging on the perps who thought it was cool to kick in a door and pistol whip an old man. One -- Maurice Johnson -- at the tender age of 19 has a long record for "A" misdemeanor violence arrests, family violence, domestic violence, burglary and then more minor traffic and fish/game violations. The other -- Joseph -- also has a long run of substance abuse, violating protective orders, assault charges, resisting arrest, and so on. It looks like both would likely be prohibited from buying a handgun -- besides being underage, they were also under DV protective orders and had substance abuse issues.

Of course, the character of the dead men doesn't justify vigilantism. However, that's not what we're looking at here. This appears to be a clear cut case of self defense. The homeowner was facing the imminent threat of death or seriously bodily injury and seems to easily meet the required elements under Alaska law for using deadly force in self defense.

The thing here is that Gwen is incapable of distinguishing between violence used for good and violence used for evil. In her world, it is entirely acceptable for older men to be beaten half to death -- or even killed -- in their homes by gangs of teenagers, but it is unacceptable for the man to use any violence to resist.

When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
Luke 11:12

The western tradition draws a clear line between violence used for evil ends and violence used for defensive ends, especially defense in one's own home. In this case, the man wasn't just defending property -- he was defending his own life from known aggressors with murderous intent.

Gwen's inability to process this moral distinction separates her from many other adults. I would agree that the best solution once a gang of armed young men -- whether they be armed with bludgeons, crossbows, pistols, knives, or socks full of quarters -- kicks in a door and starts beating the lone owner, the best solution that can occur is for the defender to stop the attack using any force available. The goal isn't to kill the attacker -- it is to stop the attack. Firearms happen to be a great way to stop attackers.

P.S. -- I also checked the defender's record. He has run two stop signs, has one speeding ticket, and one misdemeanor conversion for an arrest on assault charges from 21 years ago. Certainly no disabling defenses. This looks at first blush like a "good shoot," a legitimate defender -- not gang bangers shooting it out.

Unpossible: Guns on Campus

2011-11-15T19:37:00.002-09:00

Occupy Protestor shot by the police at UC Berkely. Allegedly he drew down on a cop -- on campus.

Clearly unpossible, as guns aren't allowed on campus. And even if they were, the cop should known that openly carried firearms in Cali must be unloaded. Either this is double unpossible, or criminals ignore the laws. Who knew?

Home Invasion

2011-11-10T10:43:00.000-09:00

ADN has the story.

This is the sort of thing the antis deny existence of. This man's home was invaded by men with guns and he used a gun to defend himself. Good for him.

When the world isn't what you thought it was...

2011-11-08T11:16:00.000-09:00

By now, everyone's heard of the allegations of sexual assault and cover-up at Penn State. As proud Penn State alumni, we are both absolutely crushed by this whole mess. As a friend of mine said, "it's kinda like...finding out that santa, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy, and every super hero aren't real...all on the same day." Another said "I know how you feel. The worst part of it is that it kills the memories, some of which were the ones you treasured the most. It invalidates so much of the good." And there has been so much good. Our football players have a much higher rate of graduation and academic success than most Division I-A schools. But it's not just about football, either. Joe Paterno has donated more than $4 million to the universtiy, supporting not only the library but endowing faculty and scholarships throughout the liberal arts and arts departments. This money also supported construction of the spiritual center in which Chris and I got married. Joe and Sue also support the special olympics in Pennsylvania and pledged #1 million to the local hospital.

How, then, could this happen?

This is a question that Penn State students, alumni, and fans are asking themselves across the country. We are disgusted by what Sandusky is accused to have done. We are angry at what Curley, Schultz and Spanier failed to do.

But we are hurt by JoePa taking the easy route.

Yes, he does not appear to have done anything legally wrong. And there are still some questions I would like answered about his follow-up with Curley. But the crushing thing here is the moral failing - not as much for any of the others, but for JoePa especially. This is the man who benches his players for not living up to his standards. This is the man that had the whole football team clean the stadium after games because they had faltered off of the field. If you had asked me a week ago what I thought JoePa would have done if he'd heard allegations of child abuse in his locker room, I'd've said he would have marched in there and kicked the "man's" you-know-what five ways to Sunday.

But he didn't.

For many of us, JoePa is family. It is as if these accusations were leveled against your own grandfather. It is completely natural to not want to abandon your family. You are hurt. You try to rationalize how something like this could have happened. You try to reconcile the news reports with the person you thought you knew. All of your memories are called into question and tarnished by this. And it is a horrible, horrible feeling.

All I can do now is hope that the entire truth comes to light, that appropriate steps are taken, and that the victims in this tragedy find peace and healing.

Whatever happens, we as a Penn State family need to stay strong together. We cannot let ourselves be torn apart by the actions of one, three, or more people. Do not let this awful situation define who we are. We are... THON. We are...educating 94 thousand students. We are... olymic gold medalists, astronauts, actors, authors, musicians, scientists and teachers.

We are... Penn State.

May no act of ours bring shame

To one heart that loves thy name

May our lives but swell thy fame

Dear old State, dear old State

Your Body - Take Care of It

2011-11-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a 6-day, 51-mile Rim to Rim to Rim Grand Canyon backpacking trip and I am feeling good! This was a pleasant surprise, as I had definitely been prepared for this trip to pass in a blur of pain. I have bad knees and had been having lots of trouble with my boots in the weeks prior to the trip. As it happened though, the work I put in training for this adventure totally paid off. Not a single blister and I was able to hike the final two days without my knee braces as well. This was a bit of a revelation for me, as I've been dealing with knee problems since high school. I've never let them stop me from doing what I want, but thought I'd just have to suck it up, deal with the pain, and make accomodations. Now I've proved to myself that, while being in excellent shape doesn't completely solve the problem, it makes it a heck of a lot better and less painful. I think that lesson applies to more than just my knees, too, so get off the couch and go for a run!

If you want to read more about the backpacking trip and see pictures, all of that stuff will be going up at my photo blog over the next few days.

Big Brother would be so proud...

2011-10-22T08:40:00.000-08:00

As reported by the ADN, a Fairbanks middle school student brought a gun to school (unpossible!). The student was expelled for a year. Okay, I can understand that.

Then the school goes around and asks all the students if they knew about the gun. Only a few tell the truth and admit that they knew about it - many others certainly lied and denied any knowledge.

So you've found the honest ones. What now?

Why obviously you hit them with the SAME penalty that you gave to the gun-carrying child for not being an informant!

There are just so many things wrong with this situation I don't know where to begin.

1) How soon do we end up with kids being forced to inform on their parents?
2) What happens to our society when we punish kids for telling the truth?
3) Even if you think these kids deserve to be punished, do they really deserve the same punishment as the kid who actually broke the law?
4) Even if you think the kids should have reported this situation, these are twelve and thirteen year old kids - not exactly the most logical, thoughtful and responsible beings out there.

QOTD

2011-10-18T20:50:00.000-08:00

From Joan: "We've gone over this ad nauseous. When you guys stop saying you need your guns to defend yourself and others in public then we can talk."

I guess we see more proof here of what they really want.

Slow Posting

2011-10-17T12:57:00.000-08:00

Chris is pretty busy at work and I'm gearing up to backpack the Grand Canyon next week, so posting here has fallen a bit down the priority ladder.

Prohibited Person commits murder

2011-10-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

Gwen is blaming the law abiding for the actions of a career criminal.

Well, if we look at the actual source, we can get the name of the criminal who shot a man in the back of the head in the Mat-Su. Turns out he has a long record, including felonies. While the Frontiersman only mentions one assault, the CourtView records show multiple robberies and DV incidents as well. The bottom line is that all this stuff would make him a prohibited person who cannot legally touch a gun.

Gwen then accuses the NRA of brainwashing, closing with, "Gun religion, anyone?"

I really don't understand this. Because a felon who cannot legally touch a firearm committed a crime, law abiding gun owners must be held to account? In what world does that make sense? I assume Gwen is calling for the collective punishment of all auto owners to atone for DUIs, right?

Furthermore, if you look at the stats, the number of law abiding gun owners dwarfs the number of criminal abusers. Linoge did a good job summing up things graphically this year.

It seems pretty clear to me that Gwen is the one who is out of touch with reality, more so because she lives in Alaska. Her objectives are absolutely politically and realistically impossible to obtain and there is zero evidence to back up her assertions. Then again, this isn't unexpected, given that she is an anti-gun cultist with no interest in reality.

This was a tragic crime, and it looks like justice will occur. But collective punishment for the many because the police failed to enforce laws already on the books and due to the actions of one criminal isn't the way we operate, not when fundamental rights are involved.

Reasoned Discourse?

2011-10-12T16:03:00.001-08:00

http://www.commongunsense.com/2011/10/guns-in-bars-good-idea.html

This post had some 53 comments earlier today. Now it's gone. Go figure.

Update: it's back now.

Nuclear Option

2011-10-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

Apparently the Democratic party today unilaterally overturned the US Senate's tradition of the filibuster. It has gotten kind of silly but I generally approve of anything that gums up the wheels of government. That was the intent of "separation of powers," right?

The interesting thing in this byzantine political maneuvering is that Sen Begich (D-AK) was sitting as the Senate Chairman. He ruled that the Republicans had a right to gum things up. That allowed Sen Reid to call for a vote to suspend the rules and overturn the Chairman's ruling. Sen Begich then voted to overturn the rules.

This suggests that Sen Begich played a witting role in this whole process: after all, if he honestly thought the parlimentarian was correct and the rule was valid, why rule for it and then vote against it? Either he is a politician of conscience (i.e. naive) who interpreted the rules as a "strict constructionist" but then voted his conscience, or the maneuver was set up in advance with Sen Reid. Given that one doesn't overturn this type of precedent without some preplanning I find the former option unlikely.

The interesting part about this is that it suggests that Sen Begich might be a rising star in Washington. He was recently made the chairman of the party's Outreach and Steering Committee and he's on the powerful Budget and Armed Services committees. Regardless of what you think of his politics, it is good for Alaska to have powerful Senators -- especially given our limited representation based on population in the House. Sen Murkowski and Sen Begich both seem poised to play significant roles which should be helpful for our state.

"Boy" Toys and "Girl" Toys

2011-10-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

I really thought we were past this.

Yes, if you go into a store, all the GI Joes will be in one aisle and all the dolls in another aisle. Okay, whatever. Yesterday, however, we were walking through the local walmart and as we walked past the toy section I noticed that the aisles were actually LABELED "Boys" and "Girls." My jaw dropped and I just stared for a few moments while complaining loudly to Chris. I wish I'd had my camera, I'd've taken some pictures. How absurd is that?!

Theft at Three Bears

2011-10-02T19:57:00.000-08:00

Nine people were charged in the theft of 38 handguns from Three Bears in Wasilla. Three Bears is a local Alaska business that runs grocery stores and mini-department stores.

I didn't look up all nine perps, but I did check the records on the oldest four. Two of them have serious arrest records, including DV, breaking and entering, and stalking. All four have a long record of run-ins, mostly revolving around DUIs, substance abuse, and traffic violations (including speeding and some other reckless driving offenses). People with clean records generally don't commit crimes involving firearms (except possibly straw buying).

Interestingly, the ATF was actually involved in this bust. It is pretty rare for me to hear about the ATF being part of the solution rather than part of the problem -- or simply harassing the law abiding -- so good for them.

Guns and Inheritance

2011-10-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

Who gets your guns when you die?

If you don't know, you'd better figure it out and put it in your will. While you're at it, make sure that your heirs are aware of this and, even more importantly, make sure you and your heirs are aware of the applicable laws (especially if this would involve an interstate transfer!) and how to safely handle the firearms.

When taking my CERT class, I introduced myself as a firearms instructor. At the break, one of my classmates came up to me and told me that she had inherited some guns a while back and had no idea what to do with them. I asked if they were loaded - she had no idea. In addition, simply by possessing the firearms she was in violation of at least one state law. I told her how to fix the latter and sent her to someone who could check the guns for her. Turns out that they were, in fact, loaded. She's now learning how to safely handle and use the firearms, but this easily could have had a not-so-good outcome. Don't leave your heirs in this situation.

Unconfirmed report: Federal ID no good for booze

2011-09-30T12:04:00.000-08:00

Seen on Facebook: "FYI: The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has informed us that US Passports are no longer acceptable identification to be served alcohol. Please make sure you bring your valid state ID, regardless of age."

I haven't been able to find this anywhere else yet to confirm, but if it is true this is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous are those people who seem to think this is alright. Now, some background information: Alaska does label some people as alcohol restricted, typically for those convicted of DUIs. The person is prohibited from purchasing alcohol and this is indicated on their driver's license.

So, if true, this is infringing on me to better keep track of criminals. And apparently people are fine with it because "everyone has a driver's license." Last I checked, one wasn't required to have a driver's license in this country. Admittedly, this state has a very severe drinking problem. But is this the way to fix it? I don't think so. One needs to address the social and economic roots of the problem.

Now, the ABCB's FAQ still states that "A passport issued by the United States or Foreign Government, an ID card issued by a United States Government agency , a drivers license issued by any of the 50 states or an identification card issued by the same state agency that issues drivers licenses. All "valid" identification must contain a photograph of the bearer and a statement of the bearer's age or date of birth."

Next question is, do they stop at passports? What about military IDs? Or any other ID card issued by government agencies? Apparently federally issued ID isn't good enough! I'll be keeping an eye on this to see what happens.

Side note: When I was on the east coast visiting family, a friend and I went to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. We both had out of state licenses and were informed that they needed another form of identification proving that we really lived in that state. At first they wanted photo ID. What state issues multiple forms of photo identification (and I was NOT about to pull out my CCW permit, not in that hoplophobic state!). They eventually accepted my military ID, which doesn't say a word about Alaska, and my friend's car insurance, which doesn't have a photo ID. Bizarre!

Canada: Delicious Whisky

2011-09-23T19:22:00.002-08:00

Some of my most popular posts here at the blog have dealt with Canada. Lest my readers think that I have nothing but ill will for our fellow frozen friends to the East and/or South, I do have appreciation for many things in Canada.

One of them is Canadian whisky. I don't think I've ever had a whisky from Canada that wasn't delicious. Right now I'm enjoying Crown Black, which is somewhat mass-market but nonetheless delicious.

Life is too short to drink cruddy booze.

Knives, Like Everyone Else

2011-09-20T21:36:00.000-08:00

Due to our current state of confusion, finding my knife was difficult. Fortunately Ebay had several images. Unlike most people I don't have a pocket knife. This is a Cutco Drop-Point DD edge for field dressing all sorts of game. I bought my knife little more than a year ago and it has helped skin a bear and an elk, plus many rabbits, grouse and ptarmigan.

Many people are skeptical of the serrated edge. I certainly was, until the cutco rep who sold me the blade said he'd straighten the edge for free if I didn't like it.

I loved it. As did everyone else - including the instructors - in my field dressing class. I'm planning on getting it sharpened before our Kodiak hunt next spring, but that's mostly preventative. This is one sweet knife. We'll bring a few extras, particularly smaller turning blades, but I would be very confident going into a skinning job with this knife alone.

Cabbie Attacked

2011-09-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

Our local anti-gun bigot highlighted a recent attack against a cabbie in Anchorage. The ADN reports that a man opened up on a cabbie at night with a shotgun.

Gwen would have us believe that the perp was a law abiding citizen. She actually also says, "Pro gun folks seem to actually believe that criminals are very careful to make sure that their guns are bought completely legally, and only THEN do they go making trouble." I think that Gwen has a distorted idea of "legally." When a prohibited person buys a gun in a private sale, that's illegal. When a prohibited person has a "clean" friend buy a gun for them at a store, that's illegal (straw sale). When a person steals a gun, that's illegal. When a person buys guns across state lines and then smuggles them into state, that's illegal too. When an unlicensed dealer engages "in the business" and sells guns to prohibited persons, then both people are committing crimes. Just because something happens and the perps are not caught does not make it "legal."

I have no illusions about where most criminals are getting their guns; most are just having friends straw buy them on their behalf. Others get them from illegal dealers who basically operate straw buy networks or by working with illegal unlicensed sellers. Only 10-15%, max, come from thefts from private citizens (that's per the ATF). That makes sense -- why would you bother to rob a house for guns when you can just have your "clean" girlfriend buy guns for you? Of course, one resists the easy jab to say that the ATF is also feeding the black market for guns through their "fast and furious" scandal.

In this case, the shotgun wielding attacker was likely a prohibited person. He had an extensive record, as reported by ADN:

His criminal record in Alaska includes three assault convictions since 2009, plus convictions for trespassing, theft and reckless endangerment. Authorities charged Blackwell last month with misdemeanor assault and a related count of "family violence," which means an assault committed with "knowledge or reckless disregard of the presence of a child or children in the home."

I kind of have to wonder why he's on the streets!

One also has to look at the weapon he used. We're constantly told that "assault rifles" which look scary and handguns need to be banned. Shotguns are almost always the last weapon to be banned, even in the UK, Canada, and Australia. But this crime occurred with a shotgun. Shotguns are actually highly effective weapons, especially at the close quarters which most criminals seem to operate.

Maybe the problem is criminal control, not gun control. The problem is certainly not legit law abiding citizens inadvertantly funneling guns to criminals through theft or private sales. The bigger problem is one of enforcement of existing laws--when the ATF, in charge of administering most of these laws, is actually part of the problem by encouraging dealers to sell to known straw buyers and having the FBI fudge NICS checks, then one has to wonder why we bother having the laws or the agency in the first place.

Disarmed.

2011-09-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

Some of you might have heard about the gunman scare on Davis-Monthan AFB last Friday. We've also talked before about how military bases disarm their people. Through sheer coincidence, I left Friday to visit friends in Tucson who live on Davis-Monthan. My plane landed at 10am. We were allowed through the gate at 10:30, even though they'd locked the outgoing gates. Why they allowed us in if they suspected an active shooter is beyond me. At the time, we simply thought it was a random drill or something. We went to drop off my bags and were considering going out for lunch when my friend's husband called and told us about the active shooter situation. So here we are, stuck on base, with (as far as we knew at the time) some nutjob running around shooting people, and I had been disarmed by the government.

It was not a pleasant feeling.

We locked the doors, drew the curtains, and settled down with cheese and grapes to play several rounds of Dominion, all of which I lost horribly. After the first few hours, I started to get suspicious. I couldn't think of very many scenarios where an "active shooter" would last this long. I started postulating other scenarios, including the one that we were later told was correct - there was never a gunman. Someone saw someone carrying something and called it in.

Now of course I'm glad that there wasn't actually someone going nuts killing people. But the helplessness I felt when I thought there was someone, and I had no way to defend myself just highlighted for me the ridiculous of all of these gun-free disarmament zones. The only people disarmed are the law-abiding. What right does the government have to deny me the right to defend myself?

My First Enhanced Pat-Down

2011-09-16T04:17:00.000-08:00

Sounds like the title to a kids book, in this insane world we're living in.

Anyway, I got landed with it today. Compared to this one, the one I had in Anchorage was all rainbows and puppies. I had a longer post typed out, but honestly don't feel comfortable posting it here, so all you get is that it happened and I'm still all grossed out by it. Uncool.

Odd End of the World Bedfellows

2011-09-14T17:44:00.004-08:00

List of things/people that will survive the end of the world:

And now, porn stars.

A spokesman for Van Nuys-based Pink Visual said the bunker will be “far more than a mere bomb shelter or subterranean survivalist enclave” with amenities such as multiple fully-stocked bars, an enormous performing stage and a sophisticated content production studio.
“Our goal is nothing less than to survive the apocalypse to come in comfort and luxury,” said Pink Visual spokesman Quentin Boyer...

Dragon Leatherworks - It's Here!

2011-09-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I sent Dennis an email with some questions about a custom flatjack holster. Not five minutes later he gave me a call and we chatted for a while. He had no problems with the custom work at all and shortly thereafter I put my order in. He shipped the holster Friday and I got it today!

Isn't it gorgeous? I could conceal it, but why on earth would I want to when it looks this good?

I've only had the holster for a few minutes, so a full review will come later, but right now I'm very pleased. As everyone else who has one of Dennis' holsters has said, this is some fine craftsmanship. I'm looking forward to showing it off!

Quote of the Day: Bloomberg

2011-09-06T06:27:00.004-08:00

"We just cannot continue to have these guns in the hands of kids who don't understand the value of human life"

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of NYC, following a labor-day weekend that saw dozens of shootings

I find it interesting that Mayor Bloomberg is more concerned that his subjects can acquire (often illegally) guns, knives, box cutters, cars, gasoline, matches, baseball bats, and gang paraphernalia than he is about the idea that his city has managed to create an entire generation of sociopaths who do not value human life.

He also asked the feds for help controlling the gun smuggling problem. Maybe that's not such a good idea...

Finally, I thought this sentence from the article was illuminating:

[Police] said they still are searching for 17-year-old Oneil DaSilva, of Mount Vernon, in connection with the shooting. His rap sheet includes nine arrests for attempted murder, third-degree assault and burglary.
So here you have one of the proto zombie bikers, a young man with multiple violent offenses who apparently fits Bloomberg's description as someone who has no respect for human life, who has been on the "catch and release" justice program.

The strictest gun control in the country isn't going to help stem violence if you've created a culture that revels in sociopathic bloodletting and then you slap violent offenders on the wrist time after time and allow them to roam the streets. Of course, it is easy to demonize the objects and hope that getting rid of the tools will get rid of the offenders too. It is much harder to confront the root causes, which probably involve a blighted urban landscape with failing schools, broken families, ineffective social organizations like churches, and generational involvement in drugs and gangs.

A Refresher for the Refresher

2011-09-03T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'd like to redirect certain readers to our comment moderating policy.

As you can see, comments on older posts are moderated simply so that we can keep a hand on things. Further, I will not be approving comments on posts made by Chris for several reasons. Therefore, if you feel the need to comment on old posts, we'd appreciate it if you could exercise a bit of patience. Chris is often travelling right now and very busy with work. When I see comments come up for moderation I will let him know, but approval will not be instantaneous. This is not because of dislike or disagreement with any comment, but simply due to scheduling.

Firesale

2011-09-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich suggests selling part of Alaska to Brazil to pay off the national debt.

He was joking, but that wouldn't even make a dent in the debt, that's how much money we owe. I've made a bundle of dough in gold and silver over the last week or so, so I guess I'm not the only one thinking along those lines...

Raffles and Sidearms

2011-09-02T22:22:00.000-08:00

There is a media-invented hullabaloo because the Pima County GOP is raffling off a Glock. Jered Laughner, a psycho with no coherent political philosophy who carried out an attack on a Dem politician who had been subject to media/verbal assaults from both the far left and the far right, also used a Glock sidearm. Ergo, the GOP must be supporting Evil Scary Lone Wolf Terrorism, because that's scary, even though the Glock being raffled is argueably less dangerous using the gun grabber's criteria (i.e., it isn't the same model and comes with a 12 round mag -- fewer rounds is less scary, right? Maybe you don't get credit unless you go below the magical number of 10 rounds though...).

Using that reasoning, I have to wonder why nobody has waved the flag about the Tucson/Pima County Sheriff's Department. They switched to Glock and carry Glock 17s in 9mm as their duty sidearm. If it is offensive for the GOP to raffle off a Glock, isn't it equally insulting/offensive/insensitive/supportive of terrorism for the Pima County PD to openly carry and use a higher capacity version of the exact same weapon, the one that Laughner used? Are we worried that the Glock 17s will start whispering an evil siren song of mass murder to the cops? Why is there not an NPR article about the Pima County PD's use of the Glock?

If we're not concerned about the Pima County LEOs using the glock, does it mean that the person carrying the weapon is the important thing, rather than the inanimate object itself? That would defeat the exercise in object fetishism though...

Cabbage Just Short of World Record

2011-09-02T20:41:00.000-08:00

I'm missing the AK state fair and I'm not pleased about it. Last year I was playing gigs and even got an honorable mention for my photo. This year I'm stuck out of state.

The answer? Relentless watching of all the news on the fair. That's why I'm all over articles like this.

I have to say, I never knew we had "Cabbage Fairies." Somehow I'm not surprised.

Revolution-Appropriate Attire

2011-09-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

This kid should get some.

1,723-pound pumpkin disqualified at fair

2011-08-31T18:55:00.000-08:00

ADN has the story. Seems a small hole can disqualify a giant pumpkin, who knew? The next biggest was still 1,287lbs, which is still a state record.

The really incredible things:

"Roughly the size and shape of a Smart car, and slightly heavier, Marshall's pumpkin will be put on display with the other giant vegetables for the remainder of the fair."

"The growing season for pumpkins is brief in Alaska. The titans at the fair grew for only three months, gaining 20 to 40 pounds a day."

I'm having trouble even envisioning this. The past few years, I don't recall seeing a pumpkin bigger than 500lbs. The one here is more than twice that size, the disqualified one more than three times. And to grow so fast? Man, you must be able to practically watch it get bigger! And getting the darned thing to the fair in the first place...wow.

Picture time!

2011-08-31T10:50:00.000-08:00

I couldn't get a very good angle on this due to another downed power line off to the side, but here's a bit of what it was like during the hurricane. The road is completely flooded, the lake in the upper left is actually a driveway, and the tree is down in the power lines across the road. This is what idiots were out driving through during the storm.

In other news, I just got an email from Dennis at Dragon Leatherworks and my holster is nearly done and will be on its way in just a few days! I feel like a kid at Christmas, that's how excited I am!

Seriously?

2011-08-30T21:37:00.002-08:00

Any cat burglars looking for a job?

Got the Lower

2011-08-30T06:39:00.000-08:00

I had a pretty rough week at work, so what better way to perk up then a trip to sonic (mmm drivethrough goodness) and a trip to the gun store? One of the local stores had a nice clearance sale over the weekend so I figured I'd check it out. In the spirit of hurricane preparedness, I was able to pick up some Emergency Water Pouches and emergency food bars for 1/2 off, which brough the price to a bit less than I'd pay on Amazon after local taxes. I usually keep a few nalgenes of water in the car but I figured a few pouches of water would be good for the car emergency kits, the desk at work, etc given the hot climate we're in right now.

While there I noticed some cheap AR lowers on sale. They had "Plum Crazy" brand polymer lowers with complete lower parts kit and stock installed for $129. I was hesitant of a plastic lower but they seemed solid enough, glock style plastics. They also had some Aero Precision lowers for $190 with LPK and stock installed. I was able to snag a used Aero Precision lower with parts kit installed which looked like it had never been fired for $150, and I grabbed a second one fully stripped for another $80.

There's a little wiggle with my BCM upper but it fits pretty well. For the price I'm pretty happy. Next I need a BCG and a charging handle along with a rear sight, and I need to install my ambi parts kit in the stripped lower. We also need to follow up on engraving for the lowers. Still, another step towards being complete with the project!

Irene Update

2011-08-29T13:04:00.000-08:00

Well, the power is still out at my parent's house, but we made it to the airport okay and I'm sitting around waiting to start my trek back home.

Almost 100% of the town lost power. Some of it is back, but most still isn't. The first two days of school have been cancelled so far. There were a lot of trees down in power lines and across roads, as well as some significant flooding. I took some pictures which I will upload later. One house that I've heard of was unfortunate enough to get a tree through the roof. I was a bit concerned about the same happening to us, and had made a few back up plans for that eventuality.

We went out during the storm for a short walk - we were getting a lot of rain at the time but not much wind and wanted to see what sort of damage we were dealing with as the power had already been out for 12 hours. We live a bit out-of-the-way, and if we waited for the town to take care of things, we'd be waiting a long time. After the storm was past, we went out again with chainsaws and took care of clearing everything that did not involve power lines.

Even without power we were quite comfortable, mostly because we were prepared. We broke out the white gas stove during the storm for tea and cocoa, and Sunday night (after the rain) fired up the charcoal grill and cooked off all the meat from the fridge and freezer. As of this morning, the fridge was getting a little warm, but the freezer was still, well, frozen. Helped, of course, by the fact that we'd frozen a bunch of jugs of water before the storm to help control the temperature. We had a fire in the fireplace for s'mores and candles and flashlights for when it got dark. I beat everyone soundly in cribbage, then got my butt handed to me in Yahtzee. This morning we were even able to heat up water for baths.

All the stores around are out of ice, bread, water, and some weird and bizarre items like bananas. Who knew bananas were a storm food? There was a run on generators as well, and I'll guarantee most people weren't hooking them up correctly. The day of a hurricane is not the day to buy a generator, folks! As always, preparation is the key.

Additionally, there were LOTS of people out driving around during and after the hurricane. I have no idea where they thought they were going, because every single business in the town was closed. With most of the roads closed, many people came down our road who have never driven it before. Mind, this is a dirt road, full of blind curves, with a speed limit of 20mph. People were whipping through at 40+, without headlights, on a road they'd never driven before, while there were power lines and trees down all over the place. It was utter insanity!

Of course, the bottom line is that being prepared is necessary, and being prepared occurs before a disaster is on anyone's radar. Unfortunately, I suspect that this lesson will not be learned by those who most need it.

Victim Disarmament Zone + Soft Targets + Jihad = ...

2011-08-28T06:30:00.003-08:00

Apparently a young jihadist in Maryland was conspiring with a student at Penn State to execute a Columbine-style raid on his school, in part because a lot of the kids had parents who were military or worked for the US intel community.

First off, this is unpossible. Maryland has relatively strict gun control, and in any event, you can't legally bring guns into schools.

The kid was reading Inspire, which is AQ's english language online magazine. Based on the wiki for it, Inspire focuses on recruiting so called "lone wolf/homegrown" terrorists. It has lauded the attack on Ft Hood by Nidal Hassan and pointed out numerous times that there are many soft targets which are undefended. Luckily we've been very successful in stopping these attacks due to law enforcement and good intelligence.

Given that these plots often pick target areas where the attackers know that nobody else will be armed, and the Al Qaeda propoganda points out the advantages of such target sets, it seems fair to say that the enemy has cracked the code on victim disarmament zones. Just something fun to think about, especially as DW and I both often have to work/travel in such areas, given that even Pres Obama is worried about "lone wolves."

Pirates

2011-08-27T07:17:00.000-08:00

Shocker: Allowing crews to defend themselves and hiring armed security guards cuts down on piracy. It is almost as if wolves prefer to attack lambs that aren't watched by sheep dogs.

Hello, Irene!

2011-08-27T05:02:00.000-08:00

So I've been on vacation the past two weeks, with plane tickets to come home Monday. Unfortunately, as it happens, I'm vacationing directly in the path of Hurricane Irene, which may put a bit of a crimp in my plans. I expect the worst trouble where I am will be flooding and downed trees. We'll be safe here as long as a tree doesn't fall on us (which, looking out the window, is entirely possible), but the flooding may make getting to the airport impossible. That is, if they don't cancel my flight in the first place. As it is, we're taking in some family who live in Manhattan.

The craziness has definitely hit. I was at the store buying tomatoes yesterday and the shelves were cleaned out. We have pretty good supplies here, but not the same as I would have at home. I did convince them to buy extra water though (before every place sold out!). We'll see how it goes. If nothing else, I'm hoping to get some great storm pictures!

State of Emergency in North Carolina

2011-08-25T20:12:00.004-08:00

The blogosphere has been humming about the State of Emergency declared in North Carolina due to the recent earthquake, impending hurricane, and inevitable swarm of locusts. Apparently NC has a broadly worded law that makes it a high misdemeanor to transport or possess any sort of dangerous weapon off your property when a state of emergency is declared, with the excpetion of certain special people on duty (I haven't dug into the law, but it may not exempt off-duty police... not sure).

People didn't read the actual proclamation though. In it, the governor explicitly stated that she was not invoking the restrictions on weapons. I agree that the law is stupid and possibly unconstitutional but it isn't a problem in this case.

Elections for the executive branch matter, because in many places the executive has the authority to enforce -- or not enforce -- the laws as they see fit. We often don't like selective enforcement because it can be arbitrary and capricious as well as dangerous to the principle of rule of law, but sometimes a win is a win. I won't fault an elected official for ignorning the law to stand for civil liberties too much!

My whimsical introduction to the contrary, I do hope that the Southeast gets through the impending hurricane ok with minimal damage and loss.

Gun Blogger Rendevous

2011-08-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

The Rendevous is rapidly approaching! On one hand, I really want to go. As a college professor of mine once said, "it will never be closer and it will never be cheaper." On the other hand, the timing is a bit awful. I was hoping we could both drive down over the weekend, at least, but September 11th is that Saturday and I have to be back in town to play a concert. I guess I could drive down Wednesday night or Thursday morning and then leave either Friday night or very early Saturday, but Chris certainly couldn't come with, it's a lot of driving for two days, and I just realized that it would entail missing my second CERT class... but then again, maybe it is worth it. I need to see if I'm even allowed to skip a CERT class, but if I am... What do you think?

Supertuck IWB Holster

2011-08-20T07:45:00.000-08:00

I have a mixed relationship with IWB holsters. On one hand, they are practical and fairly comfortable for me. The draw is pretty similar to an OWB holster and they're simple and straightforward. However, I've had trouble finding one that works well.

I started with an Uncle Mike's just to test the concept. It worked and was ok as an inexpensive "test of concept" but the design was floppy and didn't give much confidence. I like a more rigid design that protects the trigger guard more effectively. Additionally, there is no protection for your skin so you have to wear an undershirt to keep the pistol slide from chewing you up.

I tried some other designs including a Bianchi IWB that worked fairly well. The problem with the Bianchi is that it only had one clip, and it never felt secure. I felt like the holster would rotate a bit, even on a stiff broad belt. If I had to jog or climb stairs it would sometimes work itself off the belt. This was with good, thick gun-leather belts as well as no-nonsense stiff "duty" belts, so I feel comfortable in blaming the holster. There were also some printing issues.

When leaving the colder climes, my need for a good concealment rig increased. In Alaska I could get away with just wearing an OWB rig and putting a jacket on over the top. Not really an option in hot weather.

I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Crossbreed Supertuck Deluxe. They are a bit pricey but thus far I have been very satisfied. The holster works for both the compact and full size M&P which is nice. There is a broad swath of soft leather between my skin and the firearm, and it looks like with some break-in it will conform nicely to my body. There's a stiff kydex retention design which also keeps the trigger guard free of clothes and other material, unlike a floppy Uncle Mike's holster or even a leather one.

Concealment is excellent. I can wear this at 3:00 or 4:00 -- unlike the Bianchi which needed to go at 4:30 or even 5:00 to avoid printing too much -- and avoid much printing even with just a semi-tight polo shirt. With a looser garment there's zero printing.

While the name advertises an ability to tuck in a shirt with it on, I find that to be much less useful. I mean, ok, yes, technically you can tuck in a shirt. However, unless the fabric is really thin it bunches up pretty seriously. And if it is thin, then there is printing. However, the option to tuck might be a good choice for folks who plan on wearing a jacket or sports coat that could conceal the bunching or printing. I did order the velcro straps and a belt with velcro, so I will try those out and see if it improves "tuck ability."

The best thing about the supertuck is comfort. The broad leather design and the use of two belt clips distributes the weight very well. I almost forget I'm carrying with this holster. It really is that comfortable.

The main downside I've discovered thus far is that there is no screw to adjust retention. Crossbreed sends instructions for how to use a hair dryer to adjust the plastic's retention or offers to do it for you, and the factory retention fit is pretty good, but a screw would be a nice feature, standard on many other designs.

Thus far, I'm quite pleased. Good concealment plus great comfort is a winner in my book.

Ship Creek in the MSM

2011-08-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

Nice to see the MSM reporting on one of the really unique things about Anchorage.

One of my bosses used to hit up Ship Creek every day before work when the salmon were running. That is, when he wasn't "combat fishing" (drive 3 hours down to the Kenai, fish to catch his limit, sleep until 5 minutes past midnight, limit out again, drive back to Anchorage, shower at the gym, then come to work again).

Lone Wolves

2011-08-18T06:40:00.001-08:00

Apparently Pres Obama is concerned about Lone Wolf attacks, because one crazy person with a gun can inflict a lot of damage and is apparently hard to trace. That may be why his administration is promoting people who systematically armed organized drug cartels; maybe organized narco-terrorism is much easier to track and monitor than individual lone wolf crazy sprees, so we should just arm the cartels in hopes that they take out the "little guys."

Too bad DW and I both often work and travel in ~~victim disarmament~~ gun free zones. It seems that the lone wolf problem is most easily dealt with by encouraging a situation where the "good guys" can provide a <60 second response time in order to put down the rabid dogs that think themselves wolves.

Criminal Control

2011-08-17T22:36:00.004-08:00

This isn't local, but it relates to Victim Disarmament Zones and seems somewhat fantastic to me.

Apparently a kid in Florida was getting ready to blow up his school. Luckily police intervened and actually prevented the crime (unfortunately, they usually show up after the killer has committed suicide and are relegated to chalking out the bodies).

I do have to wonder, though... Why was this kid out on the streets?

Authorities said Cano has multiple juvenile arrests. Charges have included burglary, carrying a concealed weapon, altering serial numbers on a firearm and drug possession. All have been either dismissed or no action has been taken.

First off, all our gun control apparently didn't stop the perp from obtaining a weapon in the past. After all, it is illegal for him to buy one (under federal law), illegal for him to concealed carry it, and certainly illegal to obtain one while he's a user of an unlawful controlled substance. Even after he was caught for what would is a serious felony under our current gun control act, he was apparently cut loose. Next, even banning guns wouldn't have stopped his plot, which relied on bombs.

In fact, the police and school administrators said this:

"Mr. Cano had indeed been on our juvenile checklist in '08 and' 09. He had been arrested recently for a burglary in which a firearm was stolen, and he has some other charges such a [breaking and entering] of autos, and possession of marijuana," explained Major John Newman with the Tampa Police Department.
Cano was expelled from Freedom High school after that charge. He had started high school at Freedom as a freshman. Principal Chris Farkas said Cano blended in.
"He was not involved at anything that jumps out at me. Not an athlete or anything like that, involved those academic clubs," Farkas explained.
Farkas said he saw no warning signs, no red flags that Cano was plotting an attack.

The principal apparently doesn't consider drug use, breaking into cars, stealing guns, filing the serial numbers off of guns, and unlawfully carrying around a concealed handgun "red flags," but ok then. So we have a kid who's been committing felonies for the past three years, since the age of 14, and he's still out on the streets? Meanwhile, if an otherwise law abiding adult gun owner did something like this -- say, filing off a serial number -- it'd be a serious felony. Likewise, if he had been a poor kid from a bad neighborhood then I have a feeling the justice system would have chewed him up, put him on the digital plantation, and ruined his life forever.

I wonder if his friends or family were connected in the local community and were able to protect him from the fallout of the justice system despite some of his previous misdeeds.

So Much for Civil Liberties

2011-08-16T18:36:00.003-08:00

Remember how the Democrats kicked and screamed and made noises about civil liberties in the wake of the Patriot Act? I was actually really optimistic about the prospects for a Democratic president with a friendly Congress to undo the worst abuses of the post-9/11 security state.

Now the Democrats are deriding TSA's new intrusive questioning program for not being invasive enough. Apparently they strongly support groping and taking naked pictures of most airline passengers. If the Dems have no desire to scale back the TSA insanity I seriously doubt that the Strong on National Security Republicans will have any appetite. I think we're stuck with the expensive, useless, and offensive infringements.

Paranoid? I think not.

2011-08-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we were called paranoid for owning body armor. The person could not envision any possible reason for a person to need such things in their home.

Then this happened:

Today I was hanging around the apartment while Chris was at work. I was lounging on the couch, playing around on my guitar whe all of a sudden I heard several loud noises. I froze for a few seconds while my brain said "Hey, I'm pretty dang sure that was gunfire. Right here."

The guitar went down and I grabbed my gun and my phone and went into the bedroom and strapped on my body armor. From the bedroom, I could hear a male and female voice, both sounding quite angry. I couldn't make out much either than cursing and the occasional "get out of here" or "I want you gone" or something along those lines. I couldn't see anything out any of the windows, and could only really hear from the bedroom (which, given the layout of the apartments, leads me to believe that this incident was in one of the rooms directly below my bedroom).

No one appeared to be injured, nor were there any other gunshots. In short order the shouting was done, several cars left the parking lot, so I relaxed a bit and took the body armor off. It took about half an hour for the police to come knocking. I told them I did hear what sounded like gunshots, and shouting, but I couldn't see anything. Interestingly enough, the officer only spoke with me and one other apartment on this floor, bypassing the other two. He also didn't appear to talk to anyone on the other floors (apart from ground floor - I can't hear if someone walks up to a ground floor apartment).

I have no idea what actually happened tonight. If I was to make a guess though, it would be that someone in one of the apartments beneath me discharged a firearm in some direction that was (thankfully) not up. Given the lack of ambulances, I'm guessing that no one was injured.

Seeing as the police response is not very fast and I may be living on top of someone whose mastery of firearms safety is somewhat lacking, I think having body armor is a fantastic idea.

National Review for Gun Rights

2011-08-14T18:12:00.000-08:00

The National Review just ran a column about the chaos in Britain which points out the downsides of citizen disarmament programs. It is nice to see the conservatives in National Review -- who aren't always known for libertarian leanings, and who often think of the gun rights movement as the crazy uncle in the attic that conveniently votes Republican often enough -- coming out with an articulate and forceful argument.

Not Victims

2011-08-13T08:38:00.004-08:00

Apparently the US Attorney's office in Arizona has decided that Brian Terry's family are not victims with regard to the case against Jaime Avila, one of the ATF's ~~part time employees~~ straw buyers from the Fast and Furious "Gunwalker" scandal. Avila smuggled the weapon that killed US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry into Mexico apparently after the FBI ensured his NICS check would go through, when the ATF ordered the firearms dealer to make the sale, and while ATF agents watched but took no action.

Official victim status lets the family speak at the trial and sentencing. I am not sure exactly how routine a request this was and how strange it was to deny the request. Fox does say that such motions are routinely approved by prosecutors and usually opposed by the defense attorneys (makes sense). However, there are a few interesting reasons why this prosecutor rejected the request.

The feds may want to cut a deal with Jaime Avila so that he will implicate higher ups or at least sing whatever song they want him to sing vis a vis Gunwalker. That is, they have no interest in dealing harshly with this particular felon.
The prosecutor was also the lead District Attorney for Gunwalker in AZ. Both folks in the prosecutor's office are under subpeona to testify to Congress based on their involvement in Gunwalker.
If the family are considered "victims" then they may be able to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the US government.

The ironic thing is that if a private cartel had found a way to pervert background checks, encouraged straw buyers to make illicit purchases, and coerced dealers into making sales they knew were fradulent and illegal, then the DOJ and many others (media, brady bunch, etc) would be screeching for their heads and handing out "victim status" cards to everyone they could. But when the cartel organizing all this is the ATF then apparently nobody is a victim; after all, to be a victim, you need a perpetrator.

Still, maybe we should talk to Joan Peterson and the Brady Campaign to have them lobby for these victims of gun violence.

Restrictive Gun Control Fails to Prevent Shooting, So We Need More

2011-08-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

Gwen rants about a US Army-Alaska soldier who was shot by a trooper by Fairbanks:

http://www.adn.com/2011/08/01/1995427/trooper-shoots-armed-man-at-delta.html I am glad that our well-regulated militia has access to firearms–it prevented a crime in this case. Too bad that just about any Tom, Dick and Harry can get their hands on a gun, and then create problems for the rest of us.

At this time we still don't know many facts about this incident. We do have the names of the trooper involved as well as the soldier who has been charged (and who was shot!).

However, Gwen's position on this is incredibly absurd. Let's consider some of the incongruities.

- Prohibited Person: If we look up the soldier involved on Alaska Trial View, we'll find that he may be divorced with a restraining order out against him. I say "may" because there is another, much older, person with the same name who has a long record and the protective order is ambiguous. He doesn't appear to have a DV record in the state of Alaska. However, there is a chance that he is a prohibited person due to DV in another state, or due to the restraining order. This is especially disturbing, as the military takes enforcement of the Lautenberg Amendment fairly seriously. They actually require soldiers to regularly swear/affirm that they are in compliance with the law before they can be issued arms and may even check up on it. So, if this is the case, the soldier may have perjured himself and the Army may have failed to check up on their troop.

- The Well Regulated Militia: Gwen is confused, because a member of the "Well Regulated Militia" did not shoot the soldier. A member of a select militia, our own Alaska State Troopers, did so.

- "Only Ones:" In the past, Gwen has stated forcefully that the only people in our society who should possess firearms are the police and military. She has then clarified that this should only apply when such people are on duty. Think about what this implies about her view of our men and women in uniform -- clearly, she feels that they are so irresponsible and reckless as a class to only be trusted with arms when under direct supervision (and I think she does not understand what modern military training for marksmanship is like, nor does she understand how much autonomy the American fighting man is given in the field even at very junior ranks). Alternatively, she may feel that our soldiers and police can't be trusted with arms under any case but it is a necessary evil to arm them on duty, preferably abroad when among other people; in this case, one wonders how she in good conscience can support letting such an army operate among the civilian population of another country in a counterinsurgency war. Personally, if an army or police force requires close supervision to prevent atrocities against civilian populations, then that is not the kind of army or police force I'd want. I don't think we have such a force, thankfully, but Gwen apparently does -- either that, or she has zero regard for civilians in other countries.

- Registration: This soldier was a junior enlisted man which meant he was probably living on base. If so, then he was required to register his firearm with the unit arms room and his commander.

- Effective Licensing: When soldiers register their firerms, they must give written notice to their commanders. Commanders have exceedingly broad authority over their soldiers and could argueably prohibit them from accessing arms. This is essentially licensing, with very broad and subjective criteria.

- Safe Off-Site Storage: If this soldier lived on base, he was almost certainly required to store his firearm in the unit arms room. I am not sure what USARAK policy is right now but there is a possibility that it requires written commander or supervisor approval to check out the weapon. It almost certainly gives the arms room NCOIC authority to refuse to allow a member to draw their arm on purely subjective criteria.

- Concealed Carry Prohibited: Despite the DoD reauthorization bill which prohibits the Army from regulating arms of servicemembers and their families when off post, I believe USARAK still prohibited concealed carry under all circumstances. While perhaps not legit order, it is still in effect and may well be considered to be a "lawful order" if disobeyed.

So, to summarize, we have an "only one" who may be a prohibited person who is also subject to frequent background checks, weapons registration, safe storage, arbitrary and subjective supervision as to when he is allowed to actually take his firearm out of storage, and a ban on concealed carry. All that gun control, and yet an Alaska State Trooper still perceived an imminent threat and the man has been charged with serious crimes.

Gwen's answer is to bleat that we need more gun control. Really, she should think about what she is saying. This incident occurred despite all the gun control we currently have plus most of what she would consider essential intermediate steps along the road to the total prohibition she desires. Then again it is not a surprise to find that an anti-self-defense zealot has crap for brains.