Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category

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A grand day out.

Friday, December 30th, 2011

If you’ve got a week off, and you live in a relatively free state, why not schedule a range day?

And if you’re doing that, why not bring the middle nephew:

especially since he got a pair of Say Uncle endorsed active muffs for Christmas?

(I wanted to bring the two older boys, too, but for logistical and other reasons I wasn’t able to make that work.)

So we went out to Best of the West in Liberty Hill. I had not shot there before (though I’d been there once for LaRue’s Range Day). I was actually pretty happy with the range; everyone we dealt with was polite and friendly, and we managed to get an entire 50 yard bay to ourselves. (I only felt like we needed 50 yards, since all I brought with me was .22LR stuff for the novice shooter.)

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Posted in Clothing, Guns, Shirts, Winchester | 6 Comments »

One. Million. Dollars.

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

That’s what the District of Columbia owes Richard Heller and his attorneys, including Alan Gura, in legal fees over District of Columbia v. Heller.

Actually, the figure is $1,137,072.27. The Honorable Mr. Gura and the other members of the legal team were asking for $3.1 million, while the city was arguing for $840,000.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | 1 Comment »

Administrative note.

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

I’m taking this entire week off of work, and using the time either to do stuff I’ve been wanting to do, hang out with family, or both. (If the weather holds up, we may try for a range trip this week.)

In the meantime, blogging is sort of on the back burner. There will be a TMQ Watch this week, but it may not go up until later this evening.

Side note: Apparently, I have been designated the “coolest uncle ever” on Facebook (I am unable to verify this for myself, since I don’t do Facebook) because I got this one:

one of these:

for Christmas. (At least, I think it was one of those: it was an H&K folder that McBride’s had on sale, cheap, but I didn’t make a note of the exact model. I know it was one that had the tanto point. If he still has the box, I’ll get the exact model later.)

Posted in Admin, Christmas, Guns | Comments Closed

Appalling.

Monday, December 19th, 2011

I sent an earlier version of this story to my great and good friend Weer’d Beard for his “Gun” Death files, but something in today’s NYT coverage moves me to post.

But there was no way Ms. Gillespie, 73, could have been prepared for what happened.

No, actually, there was a way that Ms. Gillespie could have been prepared for what happened, but the city of New York denied her the tools she would have needed for effective self-defense against Jerome Isaac.

(Fair question: would the muzzle flash from, say, a KelTec .380 have ignited the fumes? Not sure, and I suspect it depends a lot on what type of fuel he was using. The NYT describes him as “reeking of gasoline”, but I’m not sure if that’s an accurate description or a colloquialism. In any case, I like Ms. Gillespie’s chances with a gun much better than the no chance she had without one.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Grind that axe, NYT.

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Stipulated: the death of a police officer doing the right thing is tragic.

But there’s some odd stuff going on in the NYT coverage. For example,

His death at the barrel of a semi-automatic Ruger pistol, the same kind of gun used in the 1993 shootings on the Long Island Rail Road and the sort of firearm that continues to vex the city,

“the sort of firearm that continues to vex the city”? Are there a lot of folks getting shot with semi-automatic Ruger pistols? Would it somehow have been better if the officer had been shot with a Smith and Wesson revolver? And doesn’t NYC have strict gun control laws?

One of them is believed to have stashed his revolver — an unloaded black Smith and Wesson that was jammed — in a dirty microwave oven in the kitchen, where officers found it later.

I realize I’m probably expecting a little much from the NYT, but I’d like more details on how this unloaded revolver was “jammed”.

And:

The police identified the gunman as Lamont Pride, 27, a felon who served a prison term in North Carolina and was wanted by the authorities there for a shooting in August. He was arrested on a drug charge in Brooklyn in November but released.

Isn’t that interesting? I expect we’ll be hearing more about it in the next few days.

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

Always be sure of your target and what is behind it.

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

A reality television stunt that went awry sent a cannonball careening into a residential Dublin neighborhood late Tuesday afternoon, punching holes through the front door and a wall of a home and smashing a minivan’s window, but luckily leaving area residents unharmed.

Hmmmmm hmmmmm hmmmmm. A “reality television” show. I wonder what show that could be. Actually, I don’t wonder: I took a guess as soon as I saw the headline. Anyone want to play along? I’ll put this behind a jump…

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Posted in Clippings, Guns, Stupid, TV | Comments Closed

By the way…

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

…thanks to Jay G. for reminding us that Saturday is National Ammo Day.

I’m thinking about picking up some .45 Long Colt for one of my Smiths.

Saturday is also World Toilet Day.

We recommend you celebrate both holidays in a safe and appropriate fashion.

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

Still alive.

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Just not much to write about, and working on a final project for school.

I feel like I should write something about the Austin F1 race, but I don’t know what to make of the situation at the moment. It feels like a huge scam, but I can’t tell who is scamming who.

I also feel like I should write something about the passage of HR822, but:

  1. Other people said it better.
  2. Okay, so it passed the House. It still has to pass the Senate, and be signed into law. When it becomes law, then I’ll celebrate. But I think there’s still a long road to travel.

I also feel like I should write something about the Astros situation. Not that I care about baseball, but I have covered it before. The problem I have is that almost all of the coverage at this point is speculative; ask  me again after today’s meeting, when a final deal is (or is not) made.

Edited to add: Okay, it is now official. Jim Crane is the new owner of the Astros.

As part of the deal, Crane was required to give baseball the power to move the Astros to the American League West. That move is expected to happen in 2013, but won’t be finalized until the sport’s new collective bargaining agreement is in place.

Posted in Cars, Clippings, Guns, Sports | Comments Closed

Random notes: November 8, 2011.

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Obit watch: Smokin’ Joe Frazier, 32-4-1. (And two of those losses were to Ali.) NYT obit.

Christo has obtained Federal approval for his latest project, “Over the River”.

…will include eight suspended panel segments totaling 5.9 miles along a 42-mile stretch of the river, about three hours southwest of Denver.

(Artists conception in the linked article.)

Attorney General Eric Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution, never should have happened and “it must never happen again.”

Yeah. At least, it must never happen again until the next time the NYT and the current administration want to drum up support for a ban on modern sporting rifles.

Posted in Art, Christo, Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 1, 2011.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

William Zeus Bligh-Glover, M.D.

Dr. Bligh-Glover was a consulting forensic pathologist, and an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University.

He was also known in the gunblogging community as William the Coroner.

I’ve mentioned before that I have family in the Cleveland area. Next time I went up to visit them, I was hoping to be able to invite William and some other Cleveland bloggers out for dinner and storytelling one night. I never met him (though we exchanged comments a few times on his blog), but he struck me from afar as someone I’d very much like to meet and befriend.

Tributes from Calvin’s Mom and Ambulance Driver.

Posted in Guns, Obits | Comments Closed

A handful of randomness.

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Headline: “Texas Equusearch wants Casey Anthony to answer questions under oath”.

That’s nice. I want a pony.

From the linked article: “Texas Equusearch is suing Casey to recover the more than $100,000 it says it spent on searches for Caylee Anthony in 2008.”

On what basis? Texas Equusearch is a non-profit organization that volunteered their services. They had no contractual agreement with Casey Anthony, to the best of my knowledge, so what basis do they have for filing a suit to recover costs?

She may be guilty as all get out. But the courts disagreed: only God knows, and he will pass judgment at the appropriate time. Let it go, people.

He plays that Choctaw stickball every Friday night.

Ask not for whom the bells toll at Notre-Dame: Angélique-Françoise, Antoinette-Charlotte, Hyacinthe-Jeanne and Denise-David are going to be melted down and replaced next year.

The other day, I mentioned the California rogue PI setting up ex-husbands for DWI (plus running a brothel for the cops and selling drugs for cops) case. Balko covered this as well, prompting a lively discussion in the comments.

One of the commentators posted a link to a longer article from Diablo Magazine about PI Chris Butler, which I think makes for interesting reading. The writer apparently started out expecting a standard human-interest story about PI moms; it’s fascinating to watch his skepticism develop as things start not adding up.

The website also said that Glock Firearms is the official firearms sponsor of Butler and Associates investigations, and that all of Butler’s investigators and investigative interns are trained exclusively on the Glock model G19, 9mm compact semiautomatic.

The first part of that statement would have raised red flags with me: I’m not aware that Glock officially sponsors private detectives (though they do sponsor competitive shooters). It seems like something that would have been easy to check with a call to Glock’s PR department; curiously, there’s no indication that the author ever did make that call.

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

Just in time for Christmas.

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Sean Sorrentino is doing a third run of Project Gunwalker t-shirts.

This is great news. As a proud owner of one of Sean’s shirts, I’m considering ordering two or three more. Remember, these shirts make great presents for any major holiday: Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Ashura, even Armistice Day (though from what Sean says, the shirts may ship a little late for that one).

Edited to add: Now in pink!

Posted in Clothing, Guns, Shirts | Comments Closed

I am furious, Holder.

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

I’m a little busy, but I’m taking a break from Chimel v. California to throw some linky-love Lawrence’s way for his “Fast and Furious” posts. Especially this most recent one about Holder, which can best be summarized as:

Oh, wait, you're serious. Let me laugh even harder.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch: October 4, 2011.

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

One of WCD’s favorite quotes is from the late Arthur Schlesinger Jr.:

The notion that authority is entitled to reverence per se is the most subvervise of all notions in a free society. “There is not worse heresy,” Lord Acton wrote, “than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.” Authority is entitled only to the respect it earns, and not a whit more.

After the jump, this week’s TMQ:

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Posted in Food, Guns, Neuroscience, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Quote of the day.

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

“Now let me tell ya,” he continued, “On television they’re always hitting the cap of the gun and fanning it real fast so it looks good.”

“I always aim before I shoot,” O’Brian answered.

“Why, that’s right!” Jennings said. “A man couldn’t hit a flock of barns shooting the way most of them movie gunmen do. He’d be jerking the gun so much that he wouldn’t be able to aim at anything.”

Actually, this is just an excuse to link this historical piece from the LAT, featuring Hugh O’Brian (who played Wyatt Earp in the ABC TV series “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp”) and Al Jennings, “an admitted bank robber, train robber and cattle thief of the 1880s”.

What I like best about this piece is the huge photo at the top of Jennings and O’Brian shooting Colts, and the equally large photo at the bottom of Jennings, O’Brian, and two police officers.

“Jennings was showing Hugh O’Brian, TV’s Wyatt Earp, how Colts were handled in the old days when neighbors became alarmed, called police.”

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

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