Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category

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Morans.

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Identification won’t be required to turn in a weapon through Guns 4 Groceries, a program sponsored by the Austin Police Department and the Greater Austin Crime Commission that will allow police to buy guns in exchange for grocery store gift cards.

“Identification won’t be required”? That’s interesting. Whenever someone goes to sell books or CDs at Half-Price Books, they’re required to show a photo ID before the clerk will even start processing the sale. My understanding was that this was a legal requirement; does this program get a pass?

There is no limit to how many guns a person can bring in, and Acevedo assures that no questions will be asked, unless it is obvious that a weapon is stolen. He said all guns would be tested to see whether they are linked to criminal activity, and if they are, officers would investigate the case.

I assume when he says “tested” he means ballistic tests. Will they also be checking serial numbers against a list of guns reported stolen, and returning any recovered guns to the rightful owners?

A $100 gift card will be given for each handgun or rifle, and a $200 gift card will be given for each assault rifle. Even air guns, BB guns or replica guns can net $10 apiece.

How much for zip guns?

Acevedo said if the gun buyback is successful, the Police Department will look into having two a year.

Not with my tax money, you clueless bag of crap.

(In this case, I should point out, it looks like the money is coming from private donations raised by the “Greater Austin Crime Commission“, an organization I was previously unaware of, and with a web site that is less than informative. I do like this, from their “Programs” page:

“Supplying equipment to create the nation’s first K-9 chembio and radiation detection programs”.

Yeah, here’s your K-9 chembio and radiation detection programs: you send the dog in and wait five minutes. If it keels over, you don’t go in after it. This is much like AD‘s recommended procedure for dealing with chemical spills, except the K-9s don’t go through as many doughnuts.)

I’m halfway tempted to pull some money out of the bank, go down there, and offer cash money for old S&W revolvers. The only thing that’s stopping me is that other people seem to have had the same idea.

(Subject line hattip, just so people don’t accuse me of being unable to spell.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Politics | 2 Comments »

Random notes: May 20, 2010.

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

For various reasons, I haven’t been able to work up a lot of excitement about “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day.” If that’s your cup of tea, let me point you over to Lawrence’s coverage at the Battleswarm blog.

I did want to link back to this thread over at Alan’s blog. Not so much because I posted in it, but because:

  • the photos are pretty neat.
  • Jim Supica debunks a common myth that I’ve heard (and read) elsewhere about the Dirty Harry .44 Magnums.

Posted in Art, Guns, Politics | Comments Closed

Dear New York Times…

Friday, May 7th, 2010

This is James Robinson.


He used to be a brigadier general in the National Guard. He’s a commercial airline pilot who is certified by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit. He was also on the terrorist watch list.

This is Michael Hicks.

He’s eight years old. He’s also on the terrorist watch list.

This was Ted Kennedy.

He was a United States Senator from Massachusetts. He was also, at one time, on the terrorist watch list.

Are you seriously suggesting that the rights of American citizens should be revoked, merely because their names have been added to a notoriously inaccurate list? Without due process of law?

What country do you people live in, anyway?

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Random notes: May 6, 2010.

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

OMG! Faisal Shahzad had a Kel-Tec Sub Rifle 2000 in his car!

…all along he possessed a weapon that could have easily done extreme damage, one rapidly fired round at a time.

Later:

It is, in effect, a low-powered rifle. Unlike those of some rifles, its bullets probably would not penetrate a police officer’s bullet-resistant vest, a law enforcement official said.

And:

Unlike the Tec-9, it is not frequently used by criminals, the official said.

Meanwhile, Dana Milbank in the WP asks the musical question:

Is the NRA a terrorist organization?

What prompts this? The NRA’s opposition to barring people on the notoriously unreliable terrorist watch list from purchasing guns.

In other news: Houston rapper that nobody’s ever heard of files lawsuit against local radio station for not playing his “music”.

Trae is suing for general damages to his reputation, character, standing in the community, mental suffering, loss of professional opportunities, performance revenue and record royalties.

I’m looking forward to seeing what legal precedent his lawyer sites that requires a radio station to play someone’s music. Could I sue KGSR for not playing Jonathan Coulton? Even better, could I sue KGSR for playing Kasey Chambers?

Edited to add: “Washington Post puts Newsweek up for sale. Do I hear $1? Anyone?”

Provider 1 bids 300 quatloos on the newcomers.

Edited to add 2: I have been in the practice of noting Roger Ebert’s better negative reviews, especially the one-star and zero-star reviews. A zero-star review from Ebert is pretty rare; he’s stated in the past that for a film to get no stars, it not only has to be bad, but morally reprehensible in some way.

Accordingly, I am going to link to this zero-star Ebert review. I am not going to name the film. I do not encourage you to click on the link. I had heard about this film previously on FARK, and wish I had not.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Hysteria, Law, Media, Movies, Music, Stupid, Thanks | 4 Comments »

“The Klan did not like being shot at.”

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

I have not seen this noted elsewhere yet, but Robert Hicks passed away on April 13th.

Mr. Hicks was one of the last surviving members of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, and founded the Bogalusa, Louisana chapter of the organization.

The Deacons, who grew to have chapters in more than two dozen Southern communities, veered sharply from the nonviolence preached by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They carried guns, with the mission to protect against white aggression, citing the Second Amendment.
And they used them. A Bogalusa Deacon pulled a pistol in broad daylight during a protest march in 1965 and put two bullets into a white man who had attacked him with his fists. The man survived. A month earlier, the first black deputy sheriff in the county had been assassinated by whites.
When James Farmer, national director of the human rights group the Congress of Racial Equality, joined protests in Bogalusa, one of the most virulent Klan redoubts, armed Deacons provided security.

This is a surprising obituary to see in the NYT, as it comes close to acknowledging the racial aspects of gun control laws, and the role played by legally armed individuals in fighting the Klan during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. If you’re interested in the subject, David Kopel did an excellent two-part article for Reason on the racial roots of gun control; the second part goes into more detail on the civil rights era struggles. Part one is here; part two is here.

Posted in Guns, Obits | Comments Closed

Random gun crankery.

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Say Uncle linked to this article on improving the Glock trigger.

That’s actually a pretty good article, but I found this article describing Jeff Cooper’s “El Presidente” drill, and this article about the “Fitz Special” Colts, just a little more interesting.

I was tied up with some other things on Saturday, and didn’t make it to the Austin 2nd Amendment rally, but I welcome comments from anyone who did make it.

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Random notes: April 15, 2010.

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Happy National Buy a Gun Day. I usually extend this out to the weekend, just because it is almost impossible to get out to the gun stores during the workweek.

Lawrence suggested I blog this: guy gets 20 years in prison for selling community service hours to people on probation. The coke they found in his pocket didn’t help much, either: he got 15 years for that. (The Chron doesn’t say if the sentence runs consecutively or concurrently.)

The Astros are now 0-8. I was holding out on blogging again until they reached 0-10 (if that happened) but noting the Astros record gives me an excuse to link to this article about the 1983 team, which started out 0-9.

Edited to add 2: Darn, they finally won a game. At 1-8, that puts their winning percentage at .111, which projects out to 17.982 games over the 162 game season.

Edited to add: Tragic news out of Louisana. Production on “Steven Seagal: Lawman” has been shut down. Apparently, the sex slave charges are just too much of a distraction for the department.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law, Loser, TV | Comments Closed

Flash! (A-ah!) Savior of the universe!

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Lawrence pointed me to this article over at /dev/why!?! about possible reasons why Apple doesn’t want to support Flash on the iPhone.

Meanwhile, Sebastian has a good post up on the NRA’s crappy Flash-heavy website.

And Other Brian sent me a link to this Downfall parody.

Posted in Apple, CompScI, Geek, Guns | Comments Closed

Consumer tip.

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

The UT Students for Concealed Carry on Campus are offering a CHL class this Saturday, April 17th.

The cost is $45, including your DPS packet, gun and ammo, range fee, notary, photo, fingerprints, and lunch.

I support and endorse KR Training; I encourage everyone to take classes from them, especially concealed carry classes. However, I realize some people are cost sensitive, so I’m passing this information along. I don’t know anything about the classes or instruction beyond what’s on the website, and you should contact them with questions.

(Hattip: Howard Nemerov.)

Edited to add: Digging a little deeper into the registration page, it looks like this offer is only open to UT facility or UT students, not the general public. (It isn’t clear to me if it also applies to non-facility staff.)

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

Noted.

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

While browsing Wikipedia for unrelated reasons, I discovered that today is the 40th anniversary of the Newhall incident, which was a contributing factor in the start of the officer survival movement.

Ayoob’s summary of the incident doesn’t seem to be available online, but can be found in Ayoob Files: The Book, and is worth reading.

Edited to add: Obit watch: Wilma Mankiller, former chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Mankiller met snide remarks about her surname — a Cherokee military title — with humor, often delivering a straight-faced, “Mankiller is actually a well-earned nickname.”

Posted in California Über Alles, Cops, Guns, Law, Obits | Comments Closed

“I’ve got blisters on my fingers!”

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

…”Perhaps this will refresh your memory.” The District Attorney suddenly thrust a heavy automatic at the quiet figure on the witness stand. “Have you ever seen this before?” Walter Mitty took the gun and examined it expertly. “This is my Webley-Vickers 50.80,” he said calmly. An excited buzz ran around the courtroom. The Judge rapped for order. “You are a crack shot with any sort of firearms, I believe?” said the District Attorney, insinuatingly. “Objection!” shouted Mitty’s attorney. “We have shown that the defendant could not have fired the shot. We have shown that he wore his right arm in a sling on the night of the fourteenth of July.” Walter Mitty raised his hand briefly and the bickering attorneys were stilled. “With any known make of gun,” he said evenly, “I could have killed Gregory Fitzhurst at three hundred feet with my left hand.”
—James Thurber, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

Back when I was a teenager in the suburbs of Houston and dinosaurs roamed the earth, I would practice “practical shooting” in my back yard. I’d spend a hour a day, two or three days a week, practicing drawing from a holster and trying to hit shotgun shells from 25 feet away. These were the glory days of the Second Chance matches and I figured if I could hit shotgun shells from 25 feet away consistently, I’d have a good chance on bowling pins with a real gun. Especially since I was using a Crossman 454 pistol with a trigger pull like dragging a John Deere through mud. (Not that I’m complaining: that’s what we had at the time. Kids now days don’t know how good they have it.)

I hadn’t met Karl yet, so my ambition was to be as fast as Jeff Cooper. Or as fast as this guy:

(The curly haired guy with the shotgun is Jim Zubiena, actor and IPSC shooter. That’s not visual trickery; the fast draw is for real. And, yes, I was out of high school by the time Miami Vice came on the air. What of it?)

Anyway, stuff happens. I didn’t get my first pistol until November 7, 2000. (I remember that date for a reason.) And I didn’t shoot a formal sanctioned match until this past Saturday.

(more…)

Posted in Endorsements, Guns | 1 Comment »

The gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

The NYT “At War” blog gives a rundown of some reasons why the Taliban are poor rifle shots.

Short summary:

  • Poor fundamentals.
  • Excessive use of full-auto fire. (Timeless wisdom: “Aim low and keep your bursts short.”)
  • Weapons in crappy condition.
  • Ammo in crappy condition.
  • Bad and uncorrected vision.
  • Limited training.

(Hattip: Say Uncle.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Rick Perry and the Austin gun show.

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Thanks to a tip from someone at Tex-Guns, we have video of Rick Perry responding to the Austin gun show controversy.

(Tex-Guns is the official purveyor of fine weapons to Whipped Cream Difficulties. Remember, the right to buy weapons is the right to be free.)

Posted in Endorsements, Guns, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Updates from the gun show front.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Texas Gun Shows says their next show will be the 20th and 21st at the “Old Target Building” (6405 S. IH-35: Google map.)

As I recall, this is where the TGS shows were before Saxet left Austin and TGS took over the North Austin space. The TGS website does not state (as of right now) that only licensed dealers will be able to sell at the February show.

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

Ah, Austin.

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

More than 200 people gathered outside Austin Police Department headquarters Monday to protest what they said was heavy-handed enforcement at a gun show held Jan. 16 and 17.

I didn’t find out about this until 6:30 PM last night, or I would have gone and covered the event for my loyal readers (all three of them; and I’m counting the guy with the tapeworm twice).

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | 2 Comments »

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