Sensible conversation on gun control...

The Guvna...

Stay safe.

At the bar...

From David P. in S.C.

I pointed to two old drunks across the
bar from us and told my mate, "That'll be us in
another 10 years."

He said, "That's a mirror, you
dickhead."

Thanks, David!  Love you, man...

Stay safe.

Truth is still truth...

Via Cousin Michael...

Not such a difficult concept to understand...

Stay safe.

FBI Uniform Crime Report data...

From David P.

"We have to educate ourselves, in order to debate effectively."

Follow this link to FBI murder data for the past 5 years.

It's like I have said before...  the facts do not even remotely match the purely emotional Liberal hyperbole being spewed regarding "assault weapons".

Make sure to point out when talking to your Liberal friends and acquaintances that all murders involving "Evil Black Rifles" are but a fraction of the total number of murders committed with "rifles" and that rifles are the firearms least used in homicides in this country.

I know that Liberals do not like facts that disagree with, or disprove, their emotionally grounded beliefs.  There is some excellent data here that even a moron could understand well enough to come to the logical conclusion that "assault weapons" are not causing problems to the degree that they are being led to believe.

When you're having that conversation with those Liberal friends and acquaintances, it might be a good time to point out that they are being lied to by those whom they revere, the media and their duly elected politicians.  No one likes being lied to.

Stay safe.

Gun control explained...

:)

Stay safe.

"I hate guns..."

Stay safe.

R.I.P.

Stay safe.

No fair...!

If they do it, it's ok.

Stay safe.

Ban...

True dat!

Stay safe.

Monkey tail...

I saw this at the local Hallmark store on Sunday...   Someone had a sense of humor.   

At least he had a sock on it.

Stay safe.

Feeding frenzy...

If you haven't already done so, go to eBay and search for "AR15 magazine".

It's insane.  Watch a couple of auctions as they end.  I hate to say it, but it's entertaining.

Folks are paying $50 to $125 each for AR mags.  Wow.  New or used, it doesn't matter.

Crazy.

There was an auction earlier in the day for 10 new DSG aluminum mags with no tilt followers for $1399.95 "Buy it Now".  DSG has none of these in stock now, but when they do they sell for $85 for 10.   I just checked and it appears that someone bought them for $1399.95.  10 magazines.  Wow.

Here is another one that is going on now...

I'm glad I don't need any more AR mags right now :)

Stay safe.

Freedom's just another word...

Stay safe.

The reason...

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."






~~~~~

Merry Christmas, friends.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  

Please take a moment to think about all of the good people who are spending this Christmas far from home.  Say a prayer for them, and for us...

Stay safe.

Fire Sights...

I had mentioned earlier that I had plans to upgrade the sights on my new GP100.  The factory sights include a rear sight that is adjustable for both windage and elevation and a solid black front sight.  There is no contrast between front and rear sights when acquiring a sight picture and that problem is compounded when trying to acquire a black target.

I ordered a set of Williams Fire Sights on Monday and received them today.  They are simple fiber optic sights, and from what I can tell, much more user friendly than the original factory sights that came installed on the gun.  The front sight fiber optic is a single red dot and the rear sight consists of 2 green dots.  Pretty standard set up.

They were very simple to install.  Google "change front sight GP100" to see how it's done.  Pretty slick.  The front sight has a pin above the muzzle that you depress with a small punch or other suitable tool.  Depressing this pin allows you to remove the front sight with your fingers.  Installation is simply the reverse of removal.  

Changing the rear sight required the removal of a small pivot pin that goes through the frame of the revolver and through the rear sight base, and the elevation screw from the top of the sight base.  There are 2 small springs beneath the rear sight base that assist in the elevation adjustment that are retained with the new sight installation.

Start to finish it took me about 15 minutes. 

These are not night sights but they are very bright if there is even a minimal light source.

I think they are much easier to see than the original sights and, at least in the basement, it is easy to get a good sight picture.  They fit well and the finish is pretty good.  They are made completely of anodized aluminum except for the fiber optic tubes.

I figured for $50 shipped, I couldn't go too far wrong.

Perhaps some of you have used these sights before?  They make them for a wide range of guns.

I will report back later on how they work at the range.

Stay safe.

A debate...

This is the transcript of a "debate" that took place between me and "Commenter 2" this afternoon regarding an internet news article on banning "assault weapons".  It was somewhere in the middle of the comments section following the article.  The writer, "commenter 2", is apparently a Liberal and claims to be a veteran of the US military.  He doesn't believe that anyone outside of Law Enforcement and the Military should be able to possess  "assault weapons".   His thought process is that of a typical Liberal, though he hasn't made any ad hominem attacks against me and I didn't notice any made by him against other commenters.  Perhaps there is such a thing as a polite Liberal?

The comments in their entirety were typical for such a post.  Some very thoughtful and factual with some others obviously based on nothing but emotion.  Some of the comments were dog-shit crazy, but that's pretty typical, too.  It was interesting...

~~~~~~

Commenter 1:

I see automobile fatalities are up 7.1% so far this year over last year. Congress should ban all assault automobiles with high capacity gas tanks, don't you agree?

Commenter 2:

We have regulations and restrictions on cars, we require seatbelts and we require the manufacturers to make cars more inherently safe. WE require every single car driver to be licensed and to be insured, We have laws that take away driving privileges for infractions and we have laws that restrict who can drive.

We have almost none of these same things for guns. Yes, we should regulate and restrict guns at least like we do for cars.

Blue:

And still, with all of these regulations, 33,000 Americans died violent deaths in automobile accidents last year.

Commenter 2:

Which is down dramatically from 45,520 in 2005. Do you have a point?

Blue:

Absolutely. 

Nearly a third of those "accidents" were caused by impaired or distracted driving.  You know, drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs or drivers distracted by cell phones or other electronic media within their vehicle.  A few more were caused by other distractions such as screaming children, conversations with passengers, etc.

Of the 32,883 deaths by auto accident in 2010, 1539 of them were children under the age of 16.  (I wonder how many of those children died at the hands of a careless, distracted, or impaired parent?)  Virtually 100% of these deaths were preventable, yet there is no obvious outrage over them.

51% of those violently killed in automobile accidents in 2010 were not following the regulations when they died, because they were not wearing seatbelts (Source: NTSB).  Other contributing factors, such as alcohol and drug impairment, are also against the rules, yet many more died because they failed to follow these rules.  Most of these drivers took the required training and tests and were legally licensed to drive.  Most of them had the required insurance.  Yet they are dead.

Apparently, violent death by automobile is acceptable.  Simply a fact of life.
 
Gun homicides have declined in this country by a similar percentage over a similar period of time.  Further, they have declined by fully half since 1990, a far greater percentage of decline than automobile deaths.

Total homicides by rifle in the US in 2010 were 358.  Homicides by shotgun were 373.  Hands, fists, or feet were the cause of death in 745 homicides and knives were used in 1704 homicides.  Of the homicides committed by rifle, "assault weapons" were but a small fraction of the total, a number that the FBI calls "statistically insignificant".   6009 homicides were committed with handguns and 2035 homicides were committed by "unknown types" of firearms.  1772 homicides were committed by "other weapons" (Weapons that do not fit any of the categories listed above.  Weapons like the bow and arrow used by Christopher Krumm to incapacitate his father in a college classroom earlier this month before finishing him off with a knife to the chest.  Christopher was apparently angry at his father for passing the Asperger's gene on to him)

The vast majority of the homicides cited above were committed by people other than "lawful gun owners".  The homicides of approximately 1000 children under the age of 16 are included in this data.  (Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report and DOJ Homicide Data.  Please feel free to use Google and verify.)

Any preventable death is a sad occurrence.  Any preventable death of a child is a tragedy.  A person killed in an automobile accident is just as dead as a person killed by a gun, yet there is no massive public outrage over violent automobile deaths.

Simply put, my point is that the people screaming for "assault weapon" bans are doing so using arguments based purely on emotion with little regard for facts.  Most of the screamers are simply ignorant and are merely repeating the misinformation broadcast by the media without realizing that the media has an agenda and without checking the veracity of what is being reported. 

The "assault weapon" is not the weapon of choice for homicides in this country.  In fact, the "assault weapon" is used less frequently than any other weapon in the commission of homicides in America.

The "assault weapon" is but a small fraction of the weapon class (rifles) that is used least frequently in the commission of homicide in this country.


~~~~~~

Anyway, it has been several hours and I have had no further response from Commenter 2.

What seems simple and logical (as well as being verifiable) to you and me is apparently unfathomable to others, even in the face of irrefutable factual data compiled by the government that they love, trust, and depend upon.  I find that kind of hinky. 


Stay safe.

Sowell...

Stay safe.

NRA's "Write Your Reps" webpage...

http://www.nraila.org/get-involved-locally/grassroots/write-your-reps.aspx

Simply enter your zip code and find links to your representatives in government.  They make it easy for you.

God knows that there is plenty to write them about...  Don't be shy.

Thanks, David.

One thing that we have to remember is that the "gun grabbers" are in the minority.  The problem is that they have a very strong voice through a compliant media.

Stay safe. 

Morality...

From Cousin Michael.

Pretty much sums it up.

Stay safe.

Rimfire...

From Modern Musket...

Link here.

"And it came to pass that Bloomberg spoke.  And the sheep people listened.  And they believed him because they are as stupid ignorant as he is..."

In my opinion Bloomberg shouldn't be handling that, or any other, firearm.  He looks dangerous and more than a little incompetent.  He called it a "semi-automatic machine gun".  Who knows what mayhem he is capable of....

Stay safe. 

Misdeeds...

"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."  ~~Mahatma Ghandi

 

 

Thank you, David

 

Stay safe.