Old Stuff

I'm running short of blog fodder so I am checking old subject items I jotted down but never fleshed out to make an entire post. One of them was a contemplation on what company to turn to to get a left handed bolt action rifle. It's a pretty reliable topic here. I started the notes last Spring and forgot about it. SAKO and CZ were interesting me at the time. Remington, as usual.

One item I noted was that if I was really flush with cash I could get something like the pretty rifles made by a Dan Cooper.

!!!

Little did I know the controversy that would erupt when Dan, the president and founder of the rifle manfacturer, would come out as whole-hog anathema to American citizen's Civil Rights and support a demonstrably anti-rights candidate! The company has been mending fences with gun enthusiasts since that disastrous self-inflicted wound. The board has exiled Cooper and apologized profusely. Good. With time, the wound may heal, the rift close.

It's better than can be said for H-S Precision, which sought and got the endorsement of disgraced FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi for their line of rifle stocks. That 's like using Josef Mengele to endorse your extra-strength rat poison (strong enough to kill a grandparent!) or OJ Simpson endorsing your Chef's knives. H-S Precision must be good buddies with Lon because they put out a half-butted apology that just peeved people off more. Sort of a, "we're sorry YOU were offended."

And now the first indoor range I shot at, Blue Ridge in Virginia, went on TV and bragged his gun sales were going great and he vote for Obama. He made it sound like "I'm really soaking those cousin-humping rednecks." He too apologized. He didn't want it to sound like he disdained one side of the political spectrum, and that he was trying to stress inclusiveness to both sides, and it came out all wrong. Or something. The jury is still out on this situation.

All three give me a bad taste in my mouth to one extent or another. I'm not in a hurry to spend my money with any of them at this point.

Back in the hoary mists of time Smith and Wesson betrayed gunnies by adopting a anti-gun system and supporting Clinton Era restrictions openly. Ruger, led by its founder, also came out against regular sized magazines and endorsed gimped miniature magazines, restricting their capacity artificially. I can sort of see their position. They saw what happened to the cigarette makers and thought they were next up on the lawsuit chopping block. Company destroying product liability cases seemed to be working their way up the food chain. To survive they rationalized they may have to pre-emtively submit to the big Federal Dog, and devil take the hindmost customer. They'd take that customer's money now, but throw him or her under the bus tomorrow. And it looked like that would be the way of the world in perpetuity. Since then, laws against product liability came out. Gun owners helped vote out an anti-gun majority in Congress, anti-gun researchers like Bellisiles were exposed as frauds, and the Supreme Court agreed unanimously that an individual has a right to bear arms and the 'collective right' idea was just so much baloney. Whoda thunk that sort of an environment would exist today? And S&W and Ruger are coming around, becoming 'normal' gun manufacturers again. Not just lap dogs hold the razor to cut their own throat. Of course, they and others could swing back to the submissive role out of fear at a moment's notice, but it is less likely in light of recent gains.