Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

A day in the city, a night in bankruptcy court.

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

You know what New York City needs? Strict scissors control laws. I bet those were deadly assault scissors, too. At the very least, background checks for scissors purchasers would have prevented this…

And the New York City Opera has officially announced that they are shutting down. (Previously.)

(At this point, I would ordinarily nudge you, the metaphorical reader, in the metaphorical ribs and note my restraint in not making a “fat lady sings” joke. But the only reason for my restraint here is that FARK already did it.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law, Music, Politics | Comments Closed

Answers to Tam (Gratuitous Gun Porn)

Sunday, September 22nd, 2013

Tam posted hers, so I figured I’d respond by posting mine. Though mine’s not quite as pretty, and she’s a better photographer.

model57

My records show I bought this on my birthday in 2006. (I know I was working at The Other Place when I did buy it. I also know Tam was still working at Coal Creek Armory, because I emailed them looking for Safariland .41 Magnum speedloaders, and she responded.)

It was picked up used at McBrides for $417 (including tax). I figured it would make a nice home defense gun; if you can’t stop a rampaging home with six rounds of .41 Magnum, you should at least be able to fight your way to your elephant gun and put a couple of rounds of .460 Weatherby through the bay windows.

(Yes, I will be here all week. Try the veal, and remember to tip your waitress.)

Anyway, I got the gun home, picked up a box of remanufactured .41 Mag at the next gun show, and took it to the range. Can’t have a home defense gun you haven’t shot, can you?

I set up at the bay, took aim, and…

(click)
(click)
(click click click)
(click click click click click click)
(click)

Capstick mode.[1] Sigh. My friend Karl recommended a good gunsmith, and $125 later, I had a gun that would go “Bang!” instead of “Click!”. As I recall, the cylinder timing was a bit off, and my smith said the previous owner had apparently trimmed a spring to make the trigger pull lighter. It probably would have gone “Bang!” with factory .41 Mag ammo, but the remanufactured stuff had harder primers…

Even at $500+ all in, I’m still pretty fond of this gun. If I had to hike in bear country, this would be the sidearm I’d take. It doesn’t have a lot of collector value, thanks to the refinish (the barrel was also cut down from 6″). But, though I can’t prove it, it has the same feeling my pre-Model 10 does: that this was a gun carried and used daily by someone who relied on it, knew exactly what he wanted and why (like Earl Swagger), and made the changes he wanted without worrying about future collectors.

[1] “The most terrifying sound in the world is not the scream of a descending bomb nor the roar of a charging lion, but rather a click when you expected to hear a bang.” –Peter Hathaway Capstick

Posted in Guns, Photography | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch (#40 in a series)

Sunday, September 22nd, 2013

Yesterday was gun show day.

(I didn’t pick up anything, though I did see a couple of nice Savage Model 24s in .22 magnum/20 gauge on one guy’s table. They seemed reasonably priced, though I still couldn’t afford them right now.)

As our party was on the way out, we noticed a bunch of Austin Energy trucks off to one side of the expo center parking lot. That’s not unusual – the expo center is within sight of one of the major power plants – but there were also signs for something called “PowerUP”.

What is “PowerUP”, we wondered? It turns out that “PowerUP” is…

…a performance featuring the employees and machinery of Austin Energy. Performed to an original score by Graham Reynolds and accompanied by a string orchestra led by Austin Symphony Conductor Peter Bay featuring “digital violin” solist Todd Reynolds, PowerUP will showcase 50+ linemen, electrical technicians and Austin Energy employees, bucket trucks, cranes and field trucks, a set of 20 utility poles, and an audience of 6,000+ people!

So I’m still not sure exactly what it is, beyond a performance that apparently involves linemen and bucket trucks. There was a Kickstarter for this project, too. $500 got you a reserved parking space and four reserved seats.

I’m intrigued by the description (and I also get a kick out of “Forklift Danceworks”); I might have gone to this if I hadn’t had other plans last night. (Of course, I would have had to wear my “Forklift Driver Klaus” t-shirt.)

They’re also doing the performance tonight, as well, but according to the Forklift Danceworks web site, they “sold out” both nights of the free performance, and don’t have any additional tickets available. Which sort of renders my gripe that there hasn’t been any publicity (that I’ve seen) for this null and void…

Posted in Art, Guns | Comments Closed

Dear Washington Post.

Friday, September 13th, 2013

Recalls should target those who deserve extraordinary rebuke, primarily those guilty of malfeasance. It should not become a regular feature of America’s system of government, which is premised on the notion that voters entrust their representatives to act with deliberation and a degree of independence.

There’s something you might want to go read. Parts of it are engraved on a monument very near your headquarters. Here’s the relevant section:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, I recommend an extended session of meditation at the Jefferson Memorial, and perhaps a little bit of reading.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Politics | Comments Closed

Random notes: September 12, 2013.

Thursday, September 12th, 2013

Two games in, and we have our first head coach firing of the college football season: Doug Williams is out at Grambling. The team lost the first two games of this season, and was 1-10 last season (0-9 in conference).

The Chicago City Council voted to do away with the city’s gun registry.

The change, which the Council made reluctantly, comes as Chicago is trying to control a rash of gun violence that drew national attention when the city’s homicide count surpassed 500 last year. The Chicago Police Department has cited gang activity and a flow of firearms from suburbs and from across the Indiana border into the city, which continues to pursue more aggressive gun restrictions.

Or, as Iowahawk once noted, Chicago blames their violence problem on other states…that don’t have a violence problem. (I can’t find his exact quote. By the way, Twitter’s search features stink.)

Criminal experts say the gun registry database in Chicago, which contains more than 8,000 gun owners and about 22,000 firearms, has helped the police better understand the movement of weapons in the city as they put in place new law enforcement strategies. Adam Collins, a spokesman for the Police Department, said in a statement that officers would be able to use a new online database of permit holders maintained by the Illinois State Police under the law.
“There’s no scenario where this makes the jobs of police easier,” said Jen Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, about having to repeal the registry.

Of course, because Chicago’s criminal class is composed of law-abiding permit holding individuals who register their illegally possessed guns.

Speaking of sad pandas:

While some voters in the two districts groused about the flood of donations Mr. Bloomberg and outside groups made in the recall campaigns, analysts in Colorado said the election results were shaped by an eruption of local discontent from voters who say their leaders are ignoring the concerns of gun owners and abandoning Colorado’s rural, libertarian roots.

Kind of interesting that the paper of record mentions Bloomberg specifically, and not the NRA.

Ms. Giron’s loss raised far more red flags for Democrats. She represented a district where registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by two to one, and she won her seat in 2010 by 10 percentage points. But on Tuesday, voters lined up against her, 56 percent to 44 percent.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

And among the many things Mexico needs: strict machete control.

Four men hacked a state legislator to death with machetes and wounded a journalist who was apparently talking to him on the side of a highway Wednesday in the western Mexico state of Michoacan.

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Guns, Law, Politics, Schadenfreude, Sports | 1 Comment »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! watch (#3 in a series)

Wednesday, September 11th, 2013

Two Colorado Democrats who provided crucial support for a slate of tough new gun-control laws were voted out of office on Tuesday in a recall vote widely seen as a test of popular support for gun restrictions after mass shootings in a Colorado movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Politics | Comments Closed

Random notes: August 27, 2013.

Tuesday, August 27th, 2013

Back in July, I noted the rhythmic gymnastics scandal. There’s a new development:

The governing body for rhythmic gymnastics has cleared dozens of judges who were suspected of cheating on qualifying tests last year, despite an investigation that concluded some of the test scores “could only have occurred by cheating.”

More updates, this time on “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”. It took in $966,952 last week. This is not good, as the cost of running the show is over $1 million a week.

The producers have also been optimistic about earning back the show’s $75 million capitalization, but that feat would require weekly box office grosses in the $1.5 million range for several years.

Only the police should have guns department:

An apparent booze-fueled dispute over loud music between two groups at a Chino campground over the weekend escalated to the point where men from both sides drew guns and opened fire.

There were no deaths or injuries, as both sides “did not fire at each other, he said, but into the air”. Of course, what goes up must come down, somewhere…

It turns out that the rival gun-toting campers were both Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Sports, Theatre | Comments Closed

Random notes: August 20, 2013.

Tuesday, August 20th, 2013

NYT headline:

Rodriguez’s Lawyer Calls Baseball’s Offer a ‘Trap’

(Edited to add: I am willing to offer karma points and gratitude for a photoshop of Admiral Ackbar in a Yankees uniform.)

At least Richard Cohen is consistent. Here’s a man who’s never met a totalitarian initiative he doesn’t like.

Speaking of NYC and guns…

“A lot of firepower,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg mused as he paused to look at some of the 254 guns — large-caliber pistols and military-grade weapons modified to improve aim and avoid detection —

Say what?

Officials said two men — Earl Campbell of Rock Hill, S.C., and Walter Walker of Sanford, N.C. — bought stolen guns from associates or used straw purchasers at legitimate stores, then simply loaded them into suitcases and boarded cheap buses to Chinatown or occasionally drove in private cars. Most of the deals were for several weapons; one sale, for $9,700, included 14 weapons.

So let’s see. NYC has strict gun control. So crooks are stealing weapons (already illegal) or engaging in “straw purchases” (also illegal, and rarely prosecuted by the Feds). So what we need is more gun control, and also stop and frisk.

During the investigation, which emerged last August from an unrelated drug case, the undercover detective watched as two of the suspects struggled to assemble an assault rifle during a sale. They even looked at an instructional video on their smartphone, said Bridget G. Brennan, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor, before the detective agreed to buy the gun in pieces.

I would laugh at these guys, but…I’ve got my own embarrassing gun related issue (which I will write more about at some time in the future; no, it wasn’t a negligent discharge, I’m just having problems getting something to run right), so I’m withholding the laughter for now.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Geek, Guns, Law, Sports | Comments Closed

Random notes: July 24, 2013.

Wednesday, July 24th, 2013

Man, this is a day for sad sports stories in the NYT.

George Sauer Jr. passed away in May.

He caught eight passes in the Jets’ upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. In six seasons with the Jets, Sauer caught 309 passes for 4,965 yards and 28 touchdowns. But after the 1970 season, when he was 27, George Sauer retired, criticizing a sport that he described as having a “chauvinistic authority,” “militaristic structure” and that he termed “inhumanly brutal.” He briefly returned to play with the New York Stars of the World Football League three years later, but after that, Sauer’s football days were over.

What makes this story interesting is that Sauer, according to people who knew him, was a really smart guy who may have never wanted to play football in the first place; what he really wanted to be was a writer.

On a slightly more upbeat note, there’s an interesting piece by Frank Bruni in the paper of record. Vetri, a very well regarded Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, transformed itself for three nights into Le Bec-Fin, a legendary restaurant that closed (temporarily?) in 2012.

I like the idea of recreating legendary restaurants for a few nights. I’m not sure what Austin restaurant I’d like to see do this; I think that needs some more consideration than I am currently able to give it.

And since this isn’t behind the paywall, i’ll link to it: the Austin Police Department has fired another officer. What did he do? Well…bad guy broke into someone’s home and stole their pickup and gun. Police chased the bad guy. Bad guy wrecked the truck, fled on foot, and broke into another house.

As police converged on the home, he began backing out of the garage in the homeowner’s car.
In a disciplinary memo, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said [Christopher] Allen [the fired officer – DB] fired four shots into the car’s window as it backed out of the driveway before chasing the car down the street on foot while firing an additional 10 shots, forcing other officers to take cover.

This has gone to the arbitrator:

According to the opinion, Allen acknowledged that he shouldn’t have fired all 14 shots but contended that he complied with the department’s deadly force policies because the suspect was an imminent threat to the public.

And the arbitrator said:

…that sustained violations of use of force policies have consistently resulted in termination, and that Allen should have been expected to avoid approaching the vehicle containing a possibly-armed suspect.
Though he said Allen seemed like a “thoroughly decent individual and dedicated police officer,” he decided there was no justification to overturn his termination.

I think the take-away here is: hit what you aim at. And always be sure of your target and what’s behind it:

The chief said Allen’s actions violated several departmental policies, including determining the objective reasonableness of force, and that he was a more of a threat to the public than the suspect.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Cops, Food, Guns, Law, NFL, Obits, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

Cause.

Monday, July 22nd, 2013

I haven’t gone crazy since I got the new job. I did purchase a few things: I bought a couple of DVDs during the Criterion 50% off sale. And I bought myself a snazzy new lunchbox, because I really needed one to take my lunch to work in. (I can’t use one of those plastic grocery bags, after all.)

I haven’t bought any guns, yet. (One of our local gunshops had a really nice US property marked Mossberg 44, at a reasonable price. But first I had to leave town, and then I dithered some when I got back, and when I went back Saturday they’d already sold it.)

There are a few other things I have on my agenda, but those may wait either until I get paid or until I empty the change bank. (I don’t really need the money in the change bank that badly, but it has actually gotten so full that the coins in it are interfering with the mechanism and keeping me from adding more coins.)

There’s one thing that I was glad to be able to do before time ran out: donate to the Evict Lyme FUNdraiser.

I don’t know Bonnie of Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease. I’ve never met her in person, and if I did, I suspect she’d want to punch me in the nose. But she has a problem of the kind that requires expensive and extensive surgery, and she needs help paying for it.

I don’t know Jennifer, of In Jennifer’s Head, either. I’ve never met her in person, and if I did, I suspect she’d want to punch me in the nose. (If you think you’ve detected a theme here, you’re right. I pretty much assume everyone wants to punch me in the nose until proven otherwise.) But I feel pretty confident in saying that Jennifer is a good and decent person. Why? Because she’s running a raffle to help Bonnie out.

Not a charity, a raffle. With some pretty nice prizes. I like that leather range bag from Brownell’s (and I like the fact that Brownell’s donated it; it makes me feel all squishy inside when I think about them. Or that may be the enchilada burger making me feel that way. I can’t tell.) And that’s a swell looking holster from Dragon Leatherworks. (If I don’t win that one in the raffle, I’m planning to order a holster from Dragon soon-ish.)

There’s other nifty prizes as well. Would you like a shot at a pen and a bottle opener made from spent 50 BMG brass? A nice rifle sling? Wind chimes?

Go over and check out Jennifer’s post for rules, instructions, and a full list of prizes.

As I’ve said before, I don’t like using this blog to beg folks for money, so I try to keep the number of charitable solicitations down. I also don’t like asking you to give to a cause I haven’t given to myself, which is why I waited until I had a job and could chip in before posting here. In a way, I kind of feel that being employed now is sort of like being touched by grace, and giving money for Bonnie is kind of a thank-you prayer, or a way of paying that grace forward.

(Yeah, my theology is probably a little messed up. But this is the theology I have, and which is mine.)

Posted in Endorsements, Guns, Sarcasm | 2 Comments »

I went back to Ohio, but my city was gone.

Monday, July 15th, 2013

Well, not really “gone”. I hadn’t been back to Ohio for nine years, and it amazed me somewhat both how much and how little has changed.

For example, there’s an entire grocery chain that I don’t remember from my last trip…that takes the Discover card and cash. No Visa/AmEx/MasterCard/Diner’s Club, not even debt cards with a PIN, just cash and Discover. Who came up with this idea?

On the other hand, the tractor tire store that was a landmark on the way to Grandma’s place is still there, after 40 something years. And Grandma’s place still feels remote from everything, even though there’s major strip centers at the end of her road, and even though much of the land was sold off over the past few years (and now has houses sitting on it).

And the old NASA hanger is still visible from the airport. That was another landmark for us kids. (My dad worked there, back when it was still the Lewis Research Center, before it was renamed “NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field“. Which is a mouthful. Not that I’m bitter or anything over the renaming; by gosh, if anyone deserved to have a NASA facility named after him, it was John Glenn.)

This is shaping up to be a long post, and sort of “stream of consciousness”, so I’m going to put the rest of it behind a jump. Before I do, here’s Grandma’s obituary, just for the record.

(more…)

Posted in Admin, Android, Apple, Books, Clippings, Food, Geek, Guns, Lizards, Mixology, Obits, Photography, Planes, Reptiles, Thanks, Travel | 3 Comments »

Today’s bulletin from the Department of WTF…

Friday, July 5th, 2013

…can be found here.

Posted in Guns, Politics | Comments Closed

Administrative note.

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013

I’m going through a little bit of personal agita right now. The next few days leading up to, and during, the holiday, are shaping up to be kind of busy. Mostly the fun kind of busy (some of us are trying to plan a range trip; plus, fireworks), but with some work involved.

This coming Saturday, I will be flying out to Cleveland. My maternal grandmother passed away on Saturday, and her funeral is scheduled for a week from today. I plan to take a laptop with me and blog as much as I can from the road, but be prepared for a bit of a slowdown.

(I know there’s been a bit of a slowdown already. Mostly, that’s because there hasn’t been a lot going on that I’ve found worthy of blogging. I think we’re into the summer slowdown season; things are so hot that everyone is acting like giant lizards, conserving energy as much as they possibly can. Which is great for keeping cool, but not so great for providing blog fodder.)

(Is it just me, or is Houston experiencing a rash of motel fires?)

Posted in Admin, Clippings, Explosives, Guns, Lizards, Reptiles, Travel | Comments Closed

Random notes: June 13, 2013.

Thursday, June 13th, 2013

Gun control works! How can a bunch of people with rifles and handguns defeat a heavily armed military? Just ask Syria!

Across northern Syria, rebel workshops like these are part of a clandestine network of primitive arms-making plants, a signature element of a militarily lopsided war.
Their products — machine-gun mounts, hand grenades, rockets, mortar shells, roadside bombs and the locally brewed explosives that are packed inside — help form the arsenal of a guerrilla force that has suffered serious setbacks this year in its effort to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

More on our pal Louis Scarcella, the former NYPD detective whose cases are being reinvestigated: gee, there’s awfully similar language in many of the confessions he obtained.

In at least four more murder cases, suspects questioned by Mr. Scarcella began their confessions with either “you got it right” or “I was there.”

NYT obit for Iain Banks.

Noted without comment:

“Ann,” Holland Taylor’s solo show about the former Texas governor Ann Richards, will close on June 30 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, two months before its scheduled closing date of Sept. 1, the show’s producers announced on Wednesday. Directed by Benjamin Endsley Klein, “Ann” opened on Broadway in March to mostly positive reviews and was extended once. But weekly grosses never surpassed $400,000, and in recent weeks it has never played to more than 50 percent of its capacity at the Beaumont.

Since Lawrence and I have both touched on this story, I thought I’d link to the followup: the “psychic” who claimed there was a mass grave in Liberty County has been ordered to pay $6.8 million in damages to the property owners. If I understand the HouChron correctly, this was a default judgment, as the psychic didn’t appear in court. (Insert your favorite psychic joke here.)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Obits, Theatre | Comments Closed

More on Kimber and LAPD SWAT.

Saturday, May 25th, 2013

Last August, I noted an LAT article about allegations that LAPD SWAT members were purchasing specially made and marked LAPD SWAT Kimber pistols at a steep discount and reselling them on the open market. At that time, it was unclear if this violated any regulations or laws; LAPD conducted one investigation, which was badly botched, and had just started a second investigation when the LAT ran their report.

Today’s update: the investigation has expanded to include LAPD’s Special Investigative Section (SIS), who also had custom Kimber pistols made for them. And the FBI is involved.

…the company unveiled a new edition of its model 1911 pistol that had been designed for officers in the Special Investigations Section. The weapons were emblazoned with the SIS insignia, and the company made the .45-caliber handgun to address specific requests made by SIS officers. The guns, for example, were lighter than those typically carried by LAPD officers and could be cocked and fired with one hand, in case the other was injured or otherwise unavailable.

Yeah, I remember the Kimber SIS guns. I thought they were kind of neat looking, but:

  1. I need another .45 like I need another hole in my head. Not that that stops me from looking and drooling, but
  2. I already have one Kimber (from prior to 2000), and…
  3. This was the period when I heard bad things about Kimber’s quality control, especially on the smaller guns. (I understand the person who was in charge at Kimber during this time has since left and gone over to Sig Sauer. I don’t know if Kimber’s QC has gotten any better.)

Kimber appears to no longer sell the SIS gun. However, it continues to sell another version of the pistol that it says on its website is “identical to the pistol carried by LAPD® SWAT.”

Yeah, see my previous entry for more details on the LAPD SWAT gun. As for the SIS gun, here’s an example from GunBroker. N.B.: I am not the person selling this, I have no connection to that person, and the GunBroker link is for illustrative purposes.

Andrea Ordin, president of the L.A. Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD, declined to discuss the specifics of the investigation but said the decision to alert federal authorities was probably made because they would be better qualified than LAPD investigators to assess whether any of the country’s often arcane, complicated gun laws had been violated.

I’m sorry. Did the LAT, which has been calling for more gun control, just refer to Federal gun laws as “arcane” and “complicated”?

And here’s a small note that amuses me: this month’s American Handgunner (July/August 2013) has an article on the new LAPD SIS gun: the Glock 30S, which was custom built for LAPD SIS, but:

Good news travels fast, however, and it wasn’t long before members of a federal law enforcement agency caught a glimpse of the unique gun and requested a run for their agency as well. Convinced they were definitely onto something, Glock’s plan for a small run of off-catalog guns soon evolved into a plan to make the gun available as a standard model — the G30S.

More from the Glock website. I suspect this won’t be quite as controversial as the Kimber, only because Glock seems to have eschewed adding the “SIS” logo to the slide.

(And is there anyone out there who can explain to me why Glock’s .380 pistols are law enforcement only?)

Posted in 1911, California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »