Gah!

Researching candidates for the upcoming MD primary, down ticket.  Not much to see.

NONE of them have a prominent policy on the 2nd Amendment.  Well, except for Senator Ben Cardin. He's got a primary challenge from several hopefuls.  They appear to be trying to win by getting to the left of the Senator.  I didn't think that was POSSIBLE.

ONE of the Republicans wants to address Illegal Immigration by repealing the 14th Amendment.  Careful there buddy, there are parts of the 14th I really like.  Don't throw that baby out with the Immigration bathwater.  And there are quite a few Amendments ahead of it in line that need repealing...

Another candidate wants to eliminate the IRS (yay) and change over to gold and silver back currency (uh... you might want to think that one through a bit more.  Like answering the question, "Ok, and then what happens?...")
"1) We want money to maintain a stable domestic price level.
2) We want money to maintain a stable relationship against other currencies.
3) We want money to be freely convertible into goods, including other moneys."

I like number 1.  Hard money does 2 and 3.  Which is fine.  But I really like #1.


--

Chances of my district dumping Chris Van Hollen or my state dumping Ben Cardin are slim, tho.

I think I will pick all Ron Paul delegates for the convention.  I'd not vote for the Wookie, but I'd love to see a convention hall full of Ewoks.  And I'm not voting for Mitt.

Current CCW Option in Maryland

They won't let regular folks carry a concealed pistol in Maryland just yet, but they have no problem with Frisbees..




Why didn't this movie do better, maybe spinoff a TV series, by the way? Looks AWESOME. Like Magnum PI, but COOLER.

Hard Ticket to Hawaii

This is the Scooter

I want when I am fat and old...

In case you missed it.

A nice article on Appleseed over at Pajamas Media.  PJmedia is NOT a metrocon site...

(and I love the Sam Whittemore story.  How can an 80 year old man even have walked around like that?  I mean they must have been the size of basketballs...  And solid brass.  Hard to carry.  THEN he got wounded.)

Martin Vs. Zimmerman Latest

I had a dream last night that upon waking the clock radio alarm was on the News.  The latest detail to emerge from the shooting was that Martin and Zimmerman had been in a long term romantic relaitionship, and the shooting may have been the result of an elaborate lover's quarrel. 

I threw up my hands at that point. 

I've got to stop eating Berger cookies before bed.  (a Baltimore delicacy... they are really just a fudge delivery vehicle, these cookies.)  The dreams are TOO weird.

But I wouldn't be surprised at this point if something just as outlandish came up, the way 'facts' dribble out of this story.

OH NO!

Newbius died!  Horrible.

M1A Magpul

I did not know this was a thing.  Magpul apparently started making magazines for the best rifle in the world, the M14/M1A. 

Gonna have to try these out.  Plus!  Inexpensive-ish.  So replacing all the Chinese knock-offs I have now...  Will only hurt a little bit.

Taurus Ug

Saw this review on the Firearm Blog.

Scroll down.  Look at the picture that shows the back of the pistol.  Third picture down. THAT.  THAT is why I'd not buy a Taurus for myself.  Or keep one if I got it for free.  Look at that dog's breakfast.  Did they machine it with dull nippers?  Yick. 

"Oh but they are only $150 and all 4 of my Tauri work great, and they have a great warranty system if one does break, NJT!"

So?  (And I know they are more than $150, but even if they were $5 I wouldn't keep one.  Not even as a bury-gun-in-case-the-Feds-go-rogue.)

[update:  Whoa, I didn't see the comments over on the OP article.  Lots of people displeased with Taurus over there.  But they DID add a better picture of the back end of the Taurus that makes the gun look better than the one pic I referred to.  Check it out.  Yeah, better, but it still looks pretty rough.]

Really?

5 Year Old Girl, Jumps on Bed, Causes Accidental Discharge, Struck by Bullet.

I don't know... sounds kinda fishy... 

Adieu Gunsmith

Saturday was the last day for the gunsmith at my local gun shop.  I'm sure they will hire a replacement, but this one is going.  Where?  Well there is this place in Accoceek Maryland.   He's going to work at the big Beretta gun making place thingy.  He'll start with small pistols and move around where they need him.

Yes I am a bit jealous.

But I did learn something.  I thought Accoceek was near Aberdeen.  Nope.  One is Southwest of DC, the other is NE of Baltimore.  How long have I lived in this state?  So embarrassed.  (and what IS it with states like Conn, Mass, MD, and NY getting all the big gun factories?  They HATE guns...)

Anyway, I threw a tiny bit of work his way on his last day.  I got my ambi safety bobbed.  I'm not using the side on the side where a right hander's thumb would go.  Might as well grind it down to old school dimensions. 

He used this neat little prying tool.  I have no idea what it's called and couldn't find in on Brownells.  It's made out of a non marring plastic.  Nylon, maybe?  Anyway it's great for compressing the plunger on the safety to get that sucker back on.  I guess a popsicle stick would do that job too.  Anyone know what that is?

More Zombie Fingernails

This time from Top Coat It.

I wonder what the nail on the other hand say?  Probably pictures of the cast praying that the show is cancelled, ormaybe words saying "the books were much better, where did they dig up the writers for this show, Love Boat and Fantasy Island hacks that haven't worked since 1980?"  Or something.

Anyway...  At least some good comes out of the show apart from Zombie awareness.  Pretty fingernails, for one.

Ruger

Here is a reprint of the original 1964 American Rifleman review of the then-new 10/22. 

The Beard (work buddy, owns M&P, Mk III, Mossberg) heard that business is so good for Ruger that they stopped accepting orders in order to try to catch up with production demans already in place.  He had a want for an Elsie Pee, and now is hurrying up the selling of his old gaming console in order to fun his firearm purchase. 

It all going according to plan.

All he needs now is a real rifle.

Zombie Boot Camp Part 2

They've now expaned Zombie Boot Camp - they sold out in days (and even made CNN and Fox News) but their biggest 'get' was here.


They contacted me and wanted me to be the first to know that they've just launched their latest zombie experience… in an abandoned shopping mall outside London.

The catch? The mall is due to be demolished, so tickets are available for a limited period of time. In the meantime, it's theirs (and the zombies)!

The experience is designed like a movie. So think Hollywood-grade special effects and video game-style missions. Participants will be trained by police firearm specialists on the best way to take on the zombies.

Full details here.

(Yeah, yeah, I cribbed from their press release.  I so rarely even GET press releases.  It was sort of novel for me...)

A few things.  Why haven't we done this on THIS side of the pond?  We have dead malls, too, you know. 

The weapons are airsoft guns.  So, please, no Americans show up with actual firearms a this English mall outside of London.  The undead are actors.  A shot to the head is actually a crime... like manslaughter at least.  Just like Soylent Green, they are PEOPLE.  And re-killing them is not a favor you are doing to the few remaining living, uninfected humans on the planet.  These 'zombies' have families and dreams and mothers that love them.  Or Mums that love them.  It IS Britain.

Oh, and yes Britain is a basket case with regard to their basic natural human rights to keep and bear personal arms, but it's things like this, what with the survival scenarios and airsoft guns and a tangible simulated shamblor threat to experience...  Well it won't make them American Libertarian Firearms Enthusiasts (tm),  but it might make them scratch their head, go 'hmmmmm' and wish they hadn't chased Iain Harrison off their Island.  So a net positive.

Poor Uganda

First they got trouble with that Kony warlord guy, then they get invaded by obscene out of control documentarians, then they get a Zombie outbreak.

Oh, sure, they call it 'Nodding Disease,' but my RoMERO beeper is going crazy.  Longtime readers know what that means.  (Yes, we still use beepers.  Budget cuts.)

"Pauline, like more than 3,000 other children in Northern Uganda, has been struck by the mysterious syndrome that has doctors and scientists puzzled"

Jihad Jean-Claude

This terrist in France, they are reporting here that he used, "a World War II 11.43 gun," to murder those children and rabbi and French soldiers.  There are separate reports of other weapons at his apartment and that will make a news show Junk on the Bunk shot.

But any clue what the 'World War II 11.43 gun,' might be?  It's a .44 or .45 ish round if the 11.43 is in millimeters.

Ammo Scarcity

Some Gun Nut is noticing a scarcity in ammo again.  Like back in 2009.  Like it's some conspiracy.

Rember how NICS checks hit record numbers on Black Friday last November?  And again on Christmas Eve?

Maybe the record number of gun sales, with ranges and gun stores and gun shows at their most crowded EVER...  Maybe folks are just buying ammo so as to go have fun with their new gun, huh?  I don't think Barack "Teleprompter" Obama, Eric "Furious" Holder, and Joe "The Brains" Biden are stealing all our ammo.  ...THIS time....

That said, I just bought some ammo.  I was getting low on practice .45, and I wanted to try a mess of hollow points anyway.  So 500 rounds inbound.

I would have used Ammoman.com, and have in the past, but they don't recognize ANY of my email addresses to send me a password.  I'm not going throught their rigmorole again with a fax machine to get my package dropped off without a signature... So... Ammoman?  Sorry.  You've made it too hard to continue to give you my money.  Hello, Luckygunner.

WD on AMC

Horribly written series.

Metrocon on Zimmerman

National Review's VerBruggen's solution?  Make it a crime to follow someone, then tragedies like this possibly true possibly fictional version of events (we don't know, yet) wouldn't have happened.

Sheesh. 

At least he conceded the problem isn't with stand your ground laws.  Good!  Because Maryland just instituted one not more than a few years ago.

Look, I dislike cop wannabes as much as the next guy, but we have no real idea of what happened in this case (or even if the shooter IS a holster-sniffing mall ninja!).  Don't just DO something, sit there.

Will

I had a dream a while back that reflect my thinking on self defense I have picked because of gun blogging, et al.  Then THIS comes out in a post.   Where a guy realized, while taking the stinky end of the stick in a knife fight, that he had a .25 pistol...

Robb expounds on the issue of Will being the first means of resistance you employ.  It's not how well armed you are, everything is a weapon.  Better weapons are better, but the vital part of the self-defense equation is your wetware.

Jeff Cooper recommends, when you find yourself in a struggle for survival, get mad.  Convert fear to anger.  Go from "Holy crap this guy is attacking me, I'm in danger," to, "how DARE he attack me, dammit!"

In my dream I was going for my snubbie when the home invader shot me in the throat.  That spot right between the collar bones.  I knew, in dreamland, I was a goner and was lying on the floor next to my bed.  My thought, then, "am I hurt so bad that I can't get up and still go for the snubbie and put up a fight?"

That's a great improvement in attitude in my nightmare.  The thought of resistance at least occurs to me, rather than just curling up.  But I still have it half wrong.  My final thought before waking should be, "I am still going to go for my snubbie and put up a fight."  THAT is the reaction.  That should be instinctive.  What's the worst that can happen?  You can get killed?  You are already getting killed.

So my subconscious almost has the right combo...  Not there yet. 

(also:  stupid dream-blog-post.  tedious.... mea culpa)

Duck Dynasty

This is a joke, right?

Walking Dead

Just read books 2 and 3. All in one night.  Up til 2 AM doing it.

Oh my.

MUCH better than the crappy TV show.  Now THAT is drama.

Wait.... why didn't the TV do that instead of that baloney they did do?

What.  Has.  AMC.  Done?

RUINED.  If your only exposure to The Walking Dead is the TV show do NOT buy the books.  It's like being told dog poop is steak for the first 25 years of your life, then offered an actual beefsteak.

How much?

Good point. 

What is the rule of thumb these days?  For how much ammo to keep on hand.  I haven't kept too close a tab on mine, as I reached a critical mass, in my mind.

The old rule is/was... Have 100 rounds for each gun you shoot available, and 1000 in the primary shooting pieces.

In a bad situation you'll go through 1000 for your rifle and pistol, but if times are that bad you'd have to CARRY everything you own.  I'd hate to carry 2000 rounds of 7.62...

Anyhoo.  I have like 200 for each usable gun set by.  Or more.  Over 1000 for the M1A.  Well over.  That's the big one, ammo wise.

At any rate, it's been a while since I made an ammo purchase.  I need to get off my tail and do the hollow point test for my Commander.  See if HP .45 makes it jam.  Just to know.  Pricy, tho.

Gun Control Proposal

Seen at JayG's blog, a proposal for all guns to be fitted with a GPS transponder. 

I guess since the microstamping proposal was for the most part revealed to be silly, they have to think of a new silly thing to foist. 

But man, a GPS transponder would make confiscation a snap!

Speaking of silly things, remember the biometrics gun in Shoot Em Up that the 'evil' gun maker, played by Paul Giamatti, wielded?  I doubt that would get popular with shooters.

I remember.. must have been in the late 70s early 80s... There was an article in Popular Mechanics for something similar.  It was for cops, for weapon retention.  The officer wore a ring that activated a safety in the gun.  Anyone without that particular ring couldn't fire the gun. 

I'm sure it wasn't popular with the police.  The occasional failure to function, or one cop getting loaned another cop's gun... this would kibosh that.  That I remember.

But at least it wasn't pushed as a gun control scheme.  Homeowners could also get it installed for safety purposes. 

Wait!  Here it is!  June of '77.  The Magna Trigger Safety Ring.  Looks like it is still made, too.  Anyone ever seen one in the wild?

So that biometric scheme is nothing new.  The concept has been around for decades.

Damn

Archie is feeling the weight of age, setting things on the stove, then napping, then waking up when the smoke detector goes off.  Another neighbor that spoke English is getting foreclosed on (she constantly rolled over her mortgage in re-fi for 18 years, then got laid off.)  Another neighbor is 3 years older than Archie and is also feeling the weight of age...

My neighborhood is changing.  Too fast.  Kinda bummed about it. 

Double 1911

The gunbloggers are talking about it and some are tittering, justifiably.  The usual suspects are losing their fudge. over it.

The double .45.




Interesting, I say.  I wonder if it will cost less than $3000?

It's a Stanely #444 to me.  Something to 'want' but not something I'd pursue.  I'd love just to hold it once in a store to see how dang fat that grip it and to check it's heft.

Hello?

Gun Sto'

Got a strange call from the gunsmith at my local gunstore.  He left a message, but no detail.  He wasn't in when I visited and no one there knew what he was calling about.

"Probably your gun is ready."

Nope.  I don't have a gun in the shop.  Haven't for months.  Interesting.  I'll have to try again.

They are having a sale on US milsurp ammo cans full of 5.56 ammo though.  420 rounds on stripper clips for $160, cash.  Plus you get a free ammo can.  LOTS in stock.

That... sounds?... good?  I know if it was 7.62x51 I'd have loaded up.  I guess there is cheaper.  But since Prvi Partizan sells it (62grain FMJ) for about the same price at the samish volume I guess $160 is better than a kick in the head.   Just a heads up for lower Montgomery County peeps.

And it was 62 grain stuff.  "Green Tip," whatever that means.  Someone more in the know might pipe in. 

Zombie Boot Camp

Just like it says.

Now YOU can run over regular people done up in gray makeup with your urban assault vehicle (mine is a 2001 Durango with 170,000 miles!  What's yours?)

"Experience lasts 3 hours"

Yeah, but the flashbacks last for decades.  The horror... The horror...

PJ

PJ Media and the zombocalypse parallels.

"A small band of heroic and sometimes not-that-heroic survivors — let’s call them Conservatives — make their ways singly or in pairs to a secluded house or other shelter — let’s call it the Constitution."

Defending themselves agin' gummint zombies.




Note: Klavan is not advocating the standard remedy. Probably for the best.

Camping

You want to enjoy your pre-zombacalypse outdoor recreational camping, but you are afraid what happened to those idiot on Walking Dead will happen to you?  Worry no more.  Anti-Zed Tent.  Remember to have your 10/22 with you.

Thanks to: Breda.

CCW Process

Ooo, don't forget Question #25, that you see on this sample application.  Page 3.

"On the attached continuation sheet, list all past employers for the previous 5 years..."

THAT is actually my hardest one.  I don't remember my start date.  It's the same job I did since before 2005 but with a different contractor.  Same chair and everything.  I just need to list my previous company, I guess, but my previous supervisor is long gone. I don't even remember her name.  And that company has been sold twice.  The current employer, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with the exact date.  And I know all those supervisors because it has only been two.

If I am really lucky I am misremembering my start date with my current employer and it is really March 2007.  That would be fortunate.

The CVS next to my gunstore can make passport photos.  My gunstore will notarize it for 2 bucks.  I got my references are figured. So, get the app's ducks in a row, make an appointment for fingerprints (and pay for it), write a check for $75 to the state, and visit the post office.  Gonna have to take an afternoon off, and then that will be that.   

But don't forget question 25 out there.

Another from the Fortnightly

A positive gun rights article at the Metrocon Fortnightly.

This time the problem is with the commenters.  They seem a little pessimistic.  I guess we all are that, at times.  I'm just juiced by the Woollard case right now, still.

Passport photos

One set of instructions for the Maryland CCW permit says the 2 passport photos must be 2x2. Another says they must be 1.5x1.5.

These are on State websites, so it's not like some shlub in the internet got it wrong.

I'm going with the instructions on the application itself. 1.5

Here's a 'What If'...

What if I apply for a CCW, and then the expected happens and the State Police deny it (keeping my application fee, of course) and all others coming in now until the whole court thing shakes out in a year or two...  Then, I will have on my Permanent Record, the fact that I was denied for a CCW permit in the State of Maryland.

We all know that that fact is no biggee, but it might be a headache or even lead to a recalcitrant digging in his heels when I re-apply assuming the court cases resolve in 'our' favor (as it probably should.)

Worth the risk?  Nothing on the Utah or Virginia application for out of staters that asks "Have you been denied for a CCW anywhere before now?"

What do you think?

Note the Bad News

Note:

"While the ruling is appealed, Maryland State Police, the agency that processes permit applications, will not make decisions on applications in which approval rests solely on that clause"

Dammit!  Doesn't say they will deny, tho...  Think they will sit on them?


Some daylight:

"The state, which has not yet filed an appeal, also asked Legg to clarify whether he intends to issue an injunction barring the state from denying permits based on that [good and substantial reason] requirement."

Worst Show Ever

that he can't stop watching...

I managed to stop.  It had potential, this show.  Potential wasted.  AMC made Breaking Bad, after all.  Mad Men.  They made a show about advertising execs.  They managed to hold your attention in an office.  This is a Zombacalypse.  They can't manage to keep things interesting in life or death struggle for humanity? 

Application Activity and Instructions

Information on applying for CCW in MD

Also here, and more concise.



What you need:

Where to get your fingerprints taken care of.  Find a place that does them electronically.  There is a list on the webpages 

What the application form looks like.  You need 3 references that have known you for 2 years and are reputable.  You need their full name, address, employer name, and resulting phone numbers for their work and home.  You need the application notarized.  You need the notarization and fingerprinting and submission via the mail to be close together,in time, so nothing 'expires.'  Don't delay.  Do it all in one week. 

For the reason on the application on why you want a CCW, don't put "to stick it to the Man!"  put: "For self defense and all lawful purposes." or summat.  NOW you don't have to cite police reports of actual threats.  It's Shall Issue now.

Get 1.5x1.5 passport photos, 2.

I've lined up references.  Not for a passport photo and that place will probably also do notarization, so I'll come back to it after I get the fingerprint chit.  Then it's just put them all together and mail it with the check.

The Vector

It's even worse than I thought.

Zombie are bad enough.  Do you know what causes zombies?  Spiders.  (fixed link*) Spider that burrow into your brain through your ear nose or just through your skin.

Now it has to be headshot... then kill it with fire.  If they are sprinters?  Sprinting, flesh eating, enraged, undead controlled by spiders?  Mother of God...

Look! Politics

A reasonable and intelligent commenter gets noticed by a major media organ of the Grand Old Party.  It's so easy to Pavlov the Stupid Party.  Any thing that can be angled toward Religion is seized up by the Republicans, and, guided by the Dems into said trap, they take their train right off the rails into that swamp.  Which would be fine, electorally, if a majority of the country shared the views.  I am dubious that they do, despite GOP protestations that the electorate must.  Ah well.

But the commenter gets to brass tacks.  The latest hoopla isn't really about the Patriarchy versus Women, or the Religious against those Godless Commies.  Not at it's heart.  It's about LIBERTY.

"There is no lack of access to contraception or attempt to restrict it. Any American can walk into any drug store in any State and buy whatever contraception they want. If they are poor, they can use Medicaid, various State programs, or Planned Parenthood."

and

"Contraception is a personal matter and should not be in the government domain... If they [liberals] insist that contraception is a government issue, they forfeit the right to invoke privacy rights about it."

Ooops

"Americans should do whatever they want with regard to contraception, whether their religion plays a role in the decision or not, and the government should not force any company to offer it or any person to pay for it."

There you go.  And that whole Liberty thing?  Dovetails nicely with self-defense rights in the 2nd Amendment, and a few other things, don't it?  Like all those other items in the Bill of Rights.  And then some.

Take Gov't bloat.  Please.  Like rust on the iron ship of Freedom.  Like plaque in Lady Liberty's descending aorta.  Like a hair clog in the elbow trap waste pipe on the plumbing system of Self-Determination.

Maybe the Zombacalypse has already happened.  Just it's confined to Congress.  500 and some odd walking dead on that Hill at one end of the National Mall.  I see a time where Congress has a moratorium on new regs or legislation and just corrects old stuff and chops out the deadwood.  Then I wake up, disappointed, from that lovely dream. 

You wasted how many cycles on low flush terlets?  And declaring April 22nd National Lycra-Spandex Day or what have you?  When Social Security, from the 1930s and obvious to everyone broken for a long time, was just sitting right there?  RIGHT where you could see it? 

Well at least your approval rating is 11%.  That's the thing with eliminating regs.  It steps on toes of SOMEONE that kinda liked the law or rule.  So if they take it out their electoral popularity... goes down?  You mean single digit approval rates?  It can't go down much more.

And that applies to both parties, but Republicans have LIBERTARIAN Republicans in their midst that seem to mostly be ignored, so they have no excuse.  But the whole grand-damn party should know better.

It's Women's Freedom and Religious Liberty. (Or what have you, whatever the issue du jour.)

Not Women's Freedom and Religious Liberty.

Everyone wins and loses with the first, a coalition subset of the population wins and loses with the second.

[At least that's how I see it, and what has always guided and informed me, since Junior High.]

Big Time!

I made Tam's blog roll!  I'm in the BIG TIME now, baby.  The greatest day/week of my blog life.  Shall Issue, Tam...  Only a few blog goals left.   [Heck, I might have been there a while.  Every other month I search for 'jovian' on her page and get nothing.  Well, she put it up as 'NJT']

I'd love an Instalanche, but what are the chances?  I don't post Instalanche type stuff. 

There are a few more bloggers I'd love to meet in person.  A RobertaX blogmeet would be 'da bomb' and 'coooool daddy-o' or whatever the kids and hep cats are saying these days.

I want to rifle-hunt a deer.  And susccessfully clean another without requiring stitches.

Generics

Tam and Caleb are talking about generic guns they have gravitated, too.

Let me tell you a story. Another hobby of mine is antique handtools. Stanley made scores of varieties of planes to do various things. One of the niftiest is the Model #444 dovetail plane It's purpose is to make a groove in a board for a sliding dovetail. Neat! Thing is, there is no real way to hold onto the thing without hurting yourself (no really, you will bleed like a Mutha Hubbard, especially that second knuckle of your pushing hand). And it takes some serious finesse and skill to use it, otherwise (and then some). And there are plenty of other means available to make a sliding dovetail by hand. A plain old chisel is fine. If you have the skill to use a #444 effectively, you have the skill to do it with an inexpensive generic chisel.

Because of all this, they sold few #444's, as it was also complicated and expensive when new 60 years ago (it's not made today). The ones they did sell are found these days practically unused and in great condition, generally. So they command a high price when sold to handtool enthusiasts.

Do I want a #444? Yes. Would I ever USE a #444? No. It's neat. That's about it.

I'm sure there are interesting shovels out there. I dig holes with a regular one.  It's not a cheap shoddy shovel.  It's just regular.  It works.  Does the job. 

There are plenty of neat guns out there, too, that I'd love to have and play with. But I'd 'use' something a bit simpler for daily carry.

My guess is I am on the same page as both bloggers.

Likely

Woot!

"Shall-Issue Ruling Likely to Withstand Appeal, Experts Say"

If it can happen here it can happen in Massachusetts.  It can happen in Hawaii.  It can happen in New York and Jersey.  It can happen in Illinois.

One day I may have to change the blog to a 4th Amendment concentration, or 1st.  Because the 2nd is as sacrosanct as the 3rd.

Genius

Seen on Alphecca.

Guy (DUI charge, pot growing charge, confronted his neighbor, armed, in an argument) is upset the Police won't return the guns of his that were confiscated.  So Guy posts a bounty of $1 Million on the heads of each member of the department.

I'm guess this Guy didn't have that kind of money, anyway...

Do you really want to disappoint the Sumdood that is willing to murder cops for money by not being able to pay up, I'm wondering?

(Also:  There is a Bounty section on Craiglist now?  I knew there was a Dorm Furniture section and huge Hooker section...)

CCW Shall Issue

I'm jazzed now.  I am very glad I ordered a new holster from Milt Sparks a couple months ago.

I think I will try to apply for a CCW.  I may get in before the window in case the state appeals and get's an emergency stay on the ruling.  Not sure.  We still have to wait for the dust to settle.  Dunno if they'd vacate my permit while the case appeals.  If it appeals.   

I'm not even familiar with how to actually DO it.  Not expecting to ever fruitfully apply I am not versed on the procedure.  Prolly need to secure a passport photo and some fingerprints.  Wonder if they will accept one I bring in or will the State Police wanna do it? See?  Things like that I have to find out.

Lessee... I need a couple passport photos, 1.5" square, three fingerprint cards (one orange and white CJIS-011 card and one blue and white FBI applicant card bearing the code "ORI-MDMSP6000." These can be obtained at your local Maryland State Police barracks), three references from people that aren't your mother.   Plus the application. And I bet they want a cashiers check, too.

Except they might accept other types of fingerprint cards, now?  No wait...  So confusing.  It's $75 if the state cop shop does my fingerprints with the electronic scan.  $112 if they do paper.

Hmm, they take personal checks.

Maryland

Maryland is appealing the May Issue Woollard case to the 4th Circuit and seeking a stay.  Of course.

BREAKING

"Bin Laden NOT buried at sea!"

Well, that puts a crimp in the waterlogged Bin Laden zombie movie, doesn't it.  I had such high hopes...

Has teh World Turned Upside Down?

First everyone responded to my meme tag, including RobertaX yesterday, and now this court case.  Spooky, all this happening at once...

Real wrath of God type stuff.
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

(All right, all right! You get the point.)
 

A Maryland Victory

On the May-Issue to Shall-Issue, you can read more about it, including a link to the court case, HERE.

I feel kinda numb. Waiting to see how this plays out in the coming week or so. Better get my form-filling-out pen handy.

Woot

Maryland's May Issue Carry Permits Struck Down

Death by Zombie

If, truly, a zombie outbreak happens?  Shamblors?  The infection spread out of control?

Yeah, slow walking biters susceptible to a shot to the noggin isn't going to be the real threat.  We are humans, and are pretty good at adapting to that kind of threat and meeting it head on.  So to speak.  In the US there is a gun for every man woman and child.

So, I don't think, in a Level 4 outbreak that the zombies will own 90% of the territory, and whittle the uninfected population down to 5% of it's current numbers, as all the really fun and good zombie literature indicates.

No, Zed won't be the big threat to human life envisioned.  We will.

The disruption a Level 4 outbreak would cause before the uninfected get on top of things will be the true killer.  Disruptions in agriculture and, more importantly, transportation of vital life sustaining food and medicine will lead to famine.  Diseases like Typhus and Cholera we now have a good handle on will explode after among weakened uninfected populations.  People in office jobs unaccustomed to work via manual labor will have to til the fields, move the stuff, and guard against the Zombies.  It'll be nice for people to be gainfully employed in 'real' jobs instead of the law firm, the NGO offices, and the SysAdmin server room, but they won't be that good at it, at first, and we do lose the infrastructure they now maintain that gives us the world we see around us.

Stresses from such disruptions will likely cause political stress.  Enclaves that have their region under control will chafe at the pressures from higher up the command and control food chain.  Enclaves that are more hurt will be pleading for more resources to help them back.  And lots of them will now be armed and practiced at zombie retirement.  It doesn't make them good infantry against other uninfected, but it doesn't make them a slouch either.  Revolutions and regional wars will almost invariably follow.

10 million zombies, 100,000 in 100 population centers across the world get loose.  They spread and quintuple their numbers.  50 million total undead versus 7 billion is not the issue.  It's the billions that succumb in the aftermath that will be the real suffering, and all after the Zombies are fully or pretty much contained.  The Arab Spring, the Rwandan famine and genocide, Hurrican Katrina and the 2011 Japanese Tsunami all rolled into one would seem like a picnic in hindsight. 

Think on that.  That's how Zed will really 'get' us.

$

Walking Dead

From Penny Arcade. Click to embiggenate.

Choices

So the choice now is between a Massachusetts Democrat with good hair and an R after his name, and THIS (bottom picture) internet joke for the nomination?

I really don't think re-instating the anti-sodomy laws are going to help the economy, bring fiscal sanity to the Federal Government, or secure Our Blessing of Liberty.

(what about Ron Paul, T-Bolt?!  Ron Paul is not going to be nominated.  Even if he took a pill to take away the crazier aspects and make him more palatable.  Gingrich, neither, methinks.)

No Rick, that is exactly how traditional American conservatives post 1980 view the world, really.  You are thinking of the Puritan tradition and busybody instinct that all Americans, when properly reflective, try to tamp down.  Goldwater's thoughts aren't perfect, but they are a damn sight better.

Guest Blogger

Today is a special day, as we have a guest blogger known to many.  The World's Most Dangerous Librarian.

This ensemble will put the fear of death in any shamblor.  Well, re-death.  Second death.  It would scare them if they were smart enough to be scared.  Here she is going Old School with a vintage carbine and sporting a flash of apocalypse appropriate color.  Just because it's the end of the world doesn't mean you have to be unfashionable.  Rebuilding civilization in all its glory is still all us Zombie Hunter's goal.

Note the trigger finger.   That shade is a matte black Orly Iron Butterfly.  Black is never out of style.  It's Tactical, too!

In keeping with our Zombie theme the other digits are showing off a Dollish Polish Zombie Flesh.  A nice polish that says, "Hey Zombies!  You don't intimidate ME.  And thanks for lining up like that so I can save ammo by combining headshots."

The M1 Carbine is still a handy and rugged little warhorse that is more than enough gun for Zed Heads.  Semi-auto goodness, and the ammo won't weigh you down like all you folks that invested in bird shot 12 gauge.  And with a much better range radius for retiring the benighted souls looking to feast upon tasty living flesh.   In fact, I'd prefer the M1 Carbine for such a job if surplus ammo for it was more available.  That 5 pound weight has a lot going for it.  When the Zombie Survival Guide came out the recommended rifle was this, and it was still widely available and cheap.  It's not too late to get one of your own.  Stand out in a crowd of M4geries!!

Thanks Breda!

I agree with the Brady's

On this issue we have common ground, and others have chimed in similarly.

Hinckley wants more unsupervised releases from the booby hatch.  He should never have gotten ANY releases, supervised or otherwise, I think.  I agree with the sentiment, "You shoot a president, you don't get to go outside anymore."  It's a good rule and I stand with them on that.

I bet they don't agree with a single other thing I, or other gun bloggers, believe.