I got a 9mm

I remember shooting various buddy's 9mm and thinking "wow, that seems gentle."

I'd shoot better with gentle, no?

Time passed.

I did a lot of training.  Broke myself down to get the fundamentals down pat.  Shot nothing but a .22 in a metal pistol when doing live fire.  Simulators have zero recoil so even easier than a .22 for gentleness.  For years!  Then, I get ready to ease back into centerfire.

Then I get a metal 9mm.  Heavy.  Put a light on it to make it heavier!

9mm doesn't feel gentle like I remember.  Try a plastic gun in sub compact.  Nope, this isn't what I remember back when I was more n00b.

You know what does feel gentle?  The .45.   Huh.

"Oh, that's because the .45 has a different trigger, T-bolt."

No, that ain't it.  They are both 1911 style triggers.  The 9mm is much much nicer, but the .45 is decent now.  Better than factory.

It's odd.

You know what never gives me magazine headaches?  The .45.  (Chip McCormicks...)

Gonna learn me the things I don't know.  Keep at it.  I'd love for 9mm to feel 'easy' like it did when I was stupid.  More stupid.

It's cool, learning all this stuff.  About things and about myself.  It's why I like doing this.  It can be weird, tho, when you get into the weeds. 

Great

NOW I have to buy Chip McCormick mags for guns I don't have in case Wilson changes anything about them.

Been Feelin Poorly

Since last Saturday.

You always remember when you were sick on Christmas.  At least it wasn't a stomach bug.  Those are the worst.

So blog fodder suffers, some.

Oh drat.

I wasn't drunk but apparently I made an Amazon purchase, unexpectantly.  My memory is hazy.  Should get here today.

You know, it might be a GOOD thing you can't order a gun for yourself online to be delivered in 2 days of less.  I can't imagine how many Rhinos and KelTex308 and Calicos I'd have by now.  

SCCY

SO I was reading this HuffPo article Why Black People Own Guns.  Three things jumped out at me.  One:  HuffPo writers know nothing about guns.  Two:  Lots of folks own the Taurus Judge.  I swear, that was a great product to sell, Taurus.  Three:  I had never heard of a SCCY.  One dude in the article owns one.

Or maybe I did and it just didn't take.

An American gun company that flew completely under my radar.

Looks like they are competing in the CCW market with companies like Kahr and KelTec, offering a small easily concealed 9mm.  10 shot, tho.   That "I'm a pistol slightly bigger than those pocket .380s that were all the rage 6 years ago but now shoot 9mm" niche. 

Interesting.  You go, SCCY. 

I'm waiting for .32 to make a comeback in the carry world.

Also, the NRA dropped the ball not supporting Philando Castile after that cop shot him down.  I know the line that the NRA has to walk.  Support the police, or support CCW people.  To support one means they have to come out AGAINST the other, so they stayed mum.  Not make waves in that case. Which is a shame.  The NRA could have come out if it was a cop vs. a bad guy or a bad guy vs. a CCW holder, sure.  That's not the baby they had to divide, like Solomon.

But I think maybe this time, in that one case, they could have come down in favor of the black CCW holder a bit more than they did.  It's not like anyone thinks that cop was just doing his job.  Everyone thought he screwed up.  He wasn't going to be a cop long after that, and everyone knew it.  And he wasn't going to get prosecuted, because they never do.  I think the NRA could have garnered some goodwill from African Americans without looking like they were against the Police and in the corner of the Black Lives Matter extremists.

Sadly, water under the bridge now. 

In personal survival rations

I have tasted of the Biscuits and Gravy and Chicken and Dumpling and pronounce them very good. 

Add them to the list of acceptable 30-year + rations:

• Beef Stew
• Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Chili Mac
• Lasagna (those three are practically the same thing with a different form factor)
• Noodles and Chicken

I just need to think of various means to boil water.  And acquire water.  Well, I have some techniques.  I can build a fire and hoof it to the creek.  I want ALTERNATIVE heating method.  Like the Coleman stove and drain the hot water heater.  And a dozen other methods in my tool kit.

Doomsday Cracker

No not Daryl.  Different kind of apocalyptical cracker.

Hardtack for World War III.

Make plain bland ancient war-ration unleavened crackers great again.

How do you feed millions of Americans when they are hiding from Soviet fallout in shelters under bridge abutments and basement of municipal libraries?  They are only down there for a few weeks, but them No. 10 cans of Hormel Chili and Underwood Devilled Ham might not stay preserved over time.

If the nukes go flying THIS year you are fine, but what if it takes 15 - 20 years for things to come to a head?

You need long term storage options using only 1950s technology.   Things may last, but it can be a crap shoot.   You need something guaranteed to last.  No fats to go rancid.  No liquid to harbor pathogens or leave a microflora to encourage the growth of the nastier microfauna.

Tada!  Low salt saltines fit the bill.  BIG ones. Well sorta

Bulgur wheat!  That's the ticket.

 Just need 150 million pounds of it made and distributed, now.  Well, then.  1960ish.

Since, if you recall, there was no thermonuclear war, what happened to all them crackers?  Well, there were sent as food aid to Niger and Chad 10 year after they were made.

I reviewed Bushwick

Last week.

Now it has struck me.  It's Red Dawn but for them Antifa types.  Drax is Powers Booth, but there are no good 'kid' characters to anchor the movie.  The character development is sparse.

Instead of Cubans and Soviets, the bad guys are Libertarians from the Bible Belt, so...  super Evil as far as them Socialist Antifa types are concerned.  And they hold their own with Uzis they'd never shot before and shields made out of trash cans.

Oh, and in the end Antifa lost, really.  If they win it is Pyrrhic.  If the Texan separatist militias are pushed out the five Burroughs they left them is flames.

By night all this was on fire:

 

Wow

His handwriting is awful. Do any crazy people have decent penmanship? I bet $5 there are more than 3 full size bumper stickers on the back of his car.

Happy Life Day, may the Force be with you

Watch out for Krampus.



And Merry Christmas.

Commercial from 1978

A GM commercial.

Here is James Rock.

He wants to be sure 4 cylinder Pontiacs are good in 70s.   Of course I remember these commercials.

I wonder what happened to him?  Retired by now, I bet.  Definitely over 60 today.  Prolly 70s.  There are 3 Jim Rocks in Facebook that worked at GM.

Could be him, no?  Kept his hair.

I hope he's lived a happy life after his brief brush with fame.

Never did get a Red Ryder...

More...

More, from yesterday, about the Leftist Seattle-ite that tried to be as fair as a leftist could be about guns... 

His stuff in the quote sections like:

"But unlike so many clear-cut, bafflingly contentious subjects in American life—racial equality, health-care affordability, abortion rights, climate change, LGBTQ rights—the issue of guns actually is somewhat complicated."

Yeah.  All those other issues are clear-cut?  I dunno about that.

"The idea that gun regulations should be regarded as a threat to constitutional freedom is a treacherous hoax. And yet, it's patently unfair to paint all gun owners (roughly one-third of Americans) as crazy rubes tooling up for the day the revenuers show up to raid their compound."

100,000,000 Americans.  Say that out loud.  Some people, not necessarily this crazy writer, think it's possible to take away the guns of 100,000,000 Americans.  They think that they can even restrict the rights of 100,000,000 Americans.  Expansions of our rights is coming.  It's only a matter of time.

"I didn't realize why some guns were called pistols and others revolvers. I was a neophyte, verging on phobic. I thought of guns as dark magic, unpredictable talismans, better left alone."

Which is why he is super weird about guns throughout the article.  He has a much longer way to go.  MUCH.  Much greener than I ever was.  I was further down the firearm path at age 7, hitting pie pans with a BB gun.

"Only question five gave me pause: 'Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to marijuana, or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?' I mean, no, as it happens, but still, they're more worried about weed than a desire to commit murder, or the ability to demonstrate competency?"

You mentioned the 1993 Brady bill and the GCA of 1968.  This reefer-madness bit is a artifact of the 1968 law. 

"Almost every single person from this second [gun owning associates of the writer] group said two things: (1) They favor gun control, and (2) please don't use their name."

You know you might get upwards of 80% pro-gun-control in this country if everyone believed it was what it said it was.  For safety.  Not as incrementalism to the gun ban regime of Great Britain.  Us wide-spectrum libertarian absolutists aren't as numerous as we'd like to be.  You'll just never convince America again that gun control is not just a cover for gun bans.  Americans aren't hardcore libertarian, but libertarian is in our national DNA.

"My aim remained poor no matter what distance I shot from, always dragging low and to the right."

I bet you are left handed...  Relax and work on your trigger pull.  Surprise break and all that.

"I believe the NRA's rhetoric about 'good guys with guns' is largely bullshit, the same as all marketing that tells you one thing in order to sell you another. Nonetheless, I thought that if my experiment was going to be fair, I should try a little harder to put myself in situations where I might have reason to feel, if not actually imperiled, then at least uneasy. "

NO!  Don't go looking for a fight, fool!  You have a lot to learn if you continue down this path.  Which you shouldn't.  You are a self-admitted prohibited person.

"Whether or not there's a causal link between those two seemingly contradictory facts [increased gun numbers, decrease in crime] is impossible to establish"

Contradictory?  I don't understand?  How is that contradictory?

"The first time I was hospitalized for acting on suicidal ideation, I was 15 years old. It wasn't a serious attempt—but it was a serious harbinger of the nearly 30 years that have followed. During that time, my feelings on the subject have ranged vastly, from no danger at all to dialing the first two digits of 911. I have envisioned killing myself in styles baroque and anonymous. I have written extensive suicide notes, including personalized messages to everyone I care about. I have pushed the edge of a razor blade until the tip punctured my wrist, and then stopped."

Yeah, if I felt like that I'd sell most of my guns off and the one or two left would be stored at a buddy's house, locked, where I couldn't get to it.  There wouldn't be a gun in my house. 

Now I'm not telling you how to live your life, but...  Think on that.

I felt bummed when going through my divorce.  It impacted my work.  This very thought occurred to me, even then:  "Now is NOT the time to go gun shopping.  Maybe in the future."  And I wasn't clinically depressed.  I wasn't taking crazy pills for years and years.   Like this guy still does in his mid-40s.  I was situationally depressed because of circumstances, but still cautious and self aware enough to not even tempt myself.  YOU, sir, are way beyond that. 

I am worried you wrote this article as a going-away piece and will be dead before Spring.  To sorta prove  and anit-gun point, somehow. 

I am coming around to this idea

Democrats... maybe they should be prohibited persons.  Well Leftists.   Though when they let felons vote, they tend to lean Democrat. too, so...

"You could almost say that a gun wants to be shot. I know that sounds like a magic busload of hippie nonsense, and I have no doubt that experienced gun collectors would scoff at the idea, but I swear I felt it."

When I was greener than spring grass I didn't think this.

"The first time I was hospitalized for acting on suicidal ideation, I was 15 years old" 

Wait, you didn't divulge this when you filled out the 4473?  Great.  We don't have to make Democrats prohibited persons to keep a gun out of your hands.  It already should be verboten.  You were institutionalized AND lied about it, AND admitted it?  Dude, you are going to jail.  Or should be.

"Though I hadn't admitted this to myself earlier, it was perhaps inevitable that the very first thing I did when I brought the gun home and was alone with it was to put it in my mouth. Unloaded at first, then loaded "

WHOA WHOA WHOA!  HOLEE CRAP!  This is NOT responsible gun owner behavior!  Stop!  Don't touch it again!  Get an adult!  Jeezum Crowe.

What made you think any of this, getting the gun, committing the felony, bring back old suicidal thoughts, admitting all this to the world... was a good idea, buddy?

[it's a great big long article by a lefty trying to be honest and fair, and plenty to mine out of it.  of interest, HE is a new shooter like I was, but with obvious big differences on how we came to the subject.  Gonna keep reading.  Maybe there is a less... upsetting... bit of blog fodder I can get from it.]

Awww.

Olympic athlete Lones Wigger Jr. died last week.  On the 14th.  He was 80.

Who is that?  Two time gold medal winner, holder of many world records,:| and member of the US Army Marksmanship Unit.  Small bore rifle was his jam. 

Even the New York Times called him 'the best ever.'

Hot of the FB presses

This has been everywhere, shared and reshared.  You have already seen it, chances are

I just like it.

This has got the post war, pre LBJ look about it.  Stylistically.  The artist captured that mood very well.  Before photo color reproduction became much cheaper and widespread in magazines and pretty much took over all the ad copy.  The golden age of the illustrator.  Note the typeface is NOT Helvetica.  Which will also become ubiquitous as the camera work comes to the fore on every damn page of a periodical.

Now, for slowheads like me.  This is NOT an actual vintage ad from Colt back in the day.  Women shooters (and men for that matter) in ad copy were smiling back then, but never gleeful about it.  Or taking a bead in the living room.  With a suppressor.  No, not in the ad copy.

Salon.com

Up is down

Freedom is slavery

Hot is cold

War is peace

Love is hate

Pineapple goes on pizza

"Sorry, NRA: The U.S. was actually founded on gun control"

"let’s consider the case made by the NRA, its Congressional hired hands, the majority of the Supreme Court, and various right wing pundits who claim the Second Amendment is not simply about state militias but guarantees the unfettered right of everyone to own, carry, trade and eventually shoot someone with a gun."

So you are admitting that a vast proportion of the world says the Second Amendment enumerates an inherent individual right.  Good.

Oh wait.  I read on.  You aren't.

The 'eventually shoot someone with a gun' is a bit of a strawman, added for drama tho, right?

And I WISH the NRA had enough money to buy a bunch of politicians.  In the DC politics game, NRA is pocket change.  I love how gun rights and the NRA are supposed to be all about money.  The NRA is powerful not because of money, it only has a small amount of that.  It is powerful because of motivated membership voting.  And being vocal about it.

"And that’s the problem with it: While stating the need for a “well-regulated Militia,” does it at the same time also guarantee the individual citizen the personal right to “keep and bear arms?” In 2008, Justice Antonin Scalia, ruling for the Majority, said that it was"

Oh, he is trying to re-argue Heller.  Dude, if Roe v Wade can be sacrosanct for 45+ year, Heller can be untouchable for at least that long.

"Here is Madison’s first draft of the Second Amendment:

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, a well-armed and well-regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.”" 

Yeah?  And?

He steals a few more bases saying the people that wrote the 2nd, hell, they didn't even want poor white males to vote.

So let me slide some wisdom on you, courtesy of Robb Allan (blue check pending).  You clearly aren't too bright.  Maybe a picture will help you:

Flee America!

I don't get myself a calendar every year.  This year might be different.

It's not even all zombies.

Bushwick

So Dave Bautista is in a B-Movie action show.  Bushwick.  He plays a mopey ex Marine, ex Navy corpsman with PTSD.  Well, he is the biggest name in the show, it really centers on a blond college student caught up in events that teams up with the big galoot.

Special effects are meh.  Clearly the film crew couldn't light ACTUAL Brooklyn row homes on fire.  Understandable.  You need a big budget for that.

Released in 2017, a Three Percenter Molon Labe Secessionist REAL Constitution style Militia is the heavy, taking over the US from within with AK-47s and souped up civilian helos.  Like that is what they'd choose.  The setting is in Bushwick Brooklyn where the Militia realizes they have bitten off more than they can chew and can't pacify these New Yorkers.  They aren't looking to conquer, just more Raid and Paralyze.  Our protagonists have to make it 5 blocks to a safe zone and eventual evacuation to Non-Walmart America. 

Lots of gunplay. 

The Militia expected fewer New Yorkers with guns.

Bautista has a chrome/nickel 1911.  Other guns are scrounged from the fallen.  College girl settles on a Sig.  Our protagonists eschew rifles for pistols.  The New Yorkers fight back against the black clad, black helicopter, rifle troopers with lots of Uzis and shields made of 55 gallon drums and baseball bats.  New York is outgunned, but has the numbers. 

The movie feels like a chance for Bautista to exercise his acting chops, and he does ok at this.  Mission accomplished for Bautista, as his range extends beyond hulky action dude.  I didn't dislike his performance.  But the movie itself is a little nihilistic for my taste. 

A Reckoning

Weaver?

I was just discussing with Sam how the Weaver has fallen out of fashion.


So, Jeff Cooper dies, and people, except for a few holdouts, stop talking about, and mostly stop doing, the Weaver stance.  The two handed grip that brought pistol shooting out of the one-handed point shoot and bullseye dark ages.  Bladed-ish body stance, push-me pull-you grip, with a hunched over head like you were cheek welded to an invisible rifle stock.

Now folks are all square face to the target, mostly square on stance, isosceles hold, and most people do the thumbs forward crush grip with locked wrists.  More range of motion left to right that way.  More natural means faster.  And it's always been about the shooting competitions.  Though the competitions is the crucible that makes its way into training for social purposes, of course.  Both law enforcement and self-defense.  Even old Colonel Cooper would freely admit that.  Competitors innovate, then the trainers disseminate.

"Are they really ALL Isosceles, T-Bolt?"

Well not ALL.  Gunsite will still train you up with the Weaver.  But Isosceles is the new hotness.  Everything evolves.  For example, locking the elbows in Iso?  Heck even I have seen people cut back on that.  It can be exhausting to keep them locked.

"What is the Universal Shooting Stance, T-Bolt?"

Huh.  That's a new one by me.  Lemme look... Hey, Shooting Illustrated did this blog post a year and half ago.  Good thing I don't do this for a living.  Nothing on Universal there though.

It might be made up?  Good reason there is no wiki article for it.  

----

Just speaking on the grips.  Thumbs forward, wrap around support hand, gun aligned with your elbow...  That seems universal.  There are other grips but the Tea Cup and Wrist Grab are sub-optimal two handed grip styles.   Has anyone even heard of a another type of two handed grip that isn't point shooting.


----

Can't stop the signal

Ready to blog, in the era without net neutrality.

Crud!

Accidentally double posted. 

The second post will come out tomorrow.  Again.  Cuz I don't have anything else for tomorrow.

The Best 1911.

This is practically a meme on what is left of the gunblogosphere.

And now I can pretend to be an expert and make a fool of myself spouting opinions, 10% from personal experience, 20% from learning for a gunsmith, and 70% osmosis from his experience.  So... add that all up and my opinion is worth...  6.77%?

Anyway.  New guns

Colt: 80% Crap.  Maybe the steel is better than some others, but they've been coasting on that metallurgical reputation for sometime.  The more you pay the more disappointed you will be.  Only Wilson owners in the basic armorers course were more disappointed.

Springfield:  50/50 chance it is crap.  Maybe 55/45?  Flip a coin on your lucky day.

Wilson:  Worst gun and most expensive gun in the survey class.  Every time.  Often arrive unsafe.  As in it fails the safety checks.  Their parts are either crap or the best, but no way to predict what you'll get.  Like an extractor I bought was rounded over junk, but the fancy ambi thumb safety was a piece of art. 

S&W:  50/50.  If the extractor works.  If you have extractor troubles trade it in.  Those with extraction trouble are 100% crap.  It will never be right.

Taurus:  No

Kimber:  A more expensive-than-Taurus 'No'.  For similar reasons.  It's reasons just don't have a Portuguese accent.

Para:  Dunno, really.  Never seen one in the Basic Armorer class.  Or anywhere else for that matter.  I know of a sketchy reputation, but other than that I can say nothing one way or another.

RIA/Armscor:  Not half bad actually.  72/25 or better?  You have a better chance that BOTH hammer hooks engage the sear with this than any of the other choices above.  Out of the box.  The metallurgy is a little softer, but so?  And if you ruin it you are only out $500.  So very good gun to take to a rebuild class.  If I ever buy a 1911 again it will be $500 for an Armscor slag 1911 or $3500 for a custom.

That analysis was free and worth every penny.  Why are you listening to a 'New' Jovian Thunderbolt?  Look for the Wise Jovian Thunderbolt or the Half-Competent Jovian Thunderbolt.  Not-a-Fool Thunderbolt.

1911 factories don't have the skilled work force that is cheap enough to turn out a new 1911 for less than a kilobuck or two.  I worry that the $2000 1911 guns come in two qualities.  Dreck for people that don't know the difference but undoubtedly filled with some higher end parts, and Decent enough if the guy that knows what he is doing lucked out or had time to make Decent.

Also, today's parts... you have to get cost savings to compete on price.  So labor AND materials.  Lots of exciting and innovative news ways to make gun parts.   But maybe apply those to new models.

Little story.  The first 1911 I bought was a Springfield Loaded.  9 years ago.  I didn't know any better then, despite my research, or I might have caught this.  The barrel hood where it contact the breach face was an angle.  Like a blunt chisel.  It's peened an indentation into the breach face now.  So the barrel and slide are junk.  I use that frame as the base for a .22 conversion kit.  The second Springfield I got was a Stainless GI.  Or was it Range Officer?  No matter.  It was ok.  Enough meat to the slide rails it became my rebuild gun.  The ejector didn't come with a hole to a pin the ejector in.  Boo.  But it bears out.  50/50 with Springfields! 

Maryland Gun Laws...

...Are one of the last remnants of Jim Crow laws. 

Gun Crow laws. 

I've said this before, and sometimes people dismiss me out of hand.  Not everyone in Maryland minimizes this view, however.




Gun rights are civil rights.

Weird

Here is another target from the live fire session mentioned yesterday.  Concentrating on two things, shooting decent, and the magazine tests and recording.  So my attention is somewhat divided. 

But look.

Drat, I am favoring right a bit still.  Some high ones with that 9mm, occaisionally.  So finger placement and flinchy still.  But...

"10 years ago when you started this journey did you think you'd be this good, T-Bolt?"

Yeah, sorta.  I just didn't know how I would get here.  Practice and diligence initially, then regular, decent training.  I have sort of achieved my goals from back then.  I just wanted to get more rounds in an imaginary 3X5 card on the bullseye.  About there. 

"So, you achieved your goal.  What now?  Quit?"

Hell no.  Now I need new goals.  This, but faster.  This with double taps.  This, from 15 yards instead of 7.

Live Fire

So, was testing the double stack Hardcore 9mm, with Sam.  Well, it's magazines.  But might as well work on accuracy too.

"That looks like .45 holes in the center"

Good eyes!  Sam also brought one of his custom guns he just finished, and he let this noob shoot it.  To get a different pair of hands on it, see if it was as reliable.  9mm lower right.

Both these guns.  I find myself shooting through holes I just shot.  That feels weird.

Anyway.  Separate problems.   The follower is getting too high so the gun locks back even thought there is one round in the magazine.  Easy tune, just take a hair off the one part of the follower that touches the slide lock.  Also:  Feed lips spreading.  Let's try making a mandrel.  Back to the shop for HOURS of shaping a hunk of tool steel into something that can fit up a magazine and get hammered on.  Hope to have picture of that for you soon.

My first double stack gun and the magazines for the gun are for doodly squat.  Drat.  I will fix this gun, and have it run like a top.  Dunno if I will still love it because of that one flaw.  The rest of it is EXCELLENT.  But part of me wants a single stack custom 9mm 1911.  I bet Sam would do a trade-in...

When the magazine says 21 round capacity, maybe only load 10 or 12 or 15.  Unless you have a Glock.  A later style. Them double stacks seem to have it dialed in.  And considerably cheaper.

AH ahah Ah Ah

NEW Master List.

I have an old one I started 10 year ago.  It's still somewhat valid.  Things like ".22 revolver" used to be on there.  And ".357 lever action rifle."  They aren't anymore because I got those.  And there isn't really a priority anymore.  Everything now is 'just because it'd be neat.'

1. .22TCM/9mm single stack Armscor 1911.
2. CMP vintage Colt 1911.
3. S&W Model 19.  No lock.  Earlier model?  Like a dash 3?  Or the Stainless version 66-3.  Condition is important, naturally.  Full length extractor rod with the shorted barrel do-able.  So, 2 and half inches, I guess.  I'd have to hammer down the details.
4. Custom single stack Commander length 9mm 1911.   Just cuz.
5. DeLisle style new made bolt action rifle, left handed.
6. S&W M&P 2.0 or Sig P320.  Full size.  With a light rail obviously.  House pistol.  9mm prolly.

Or bag it all and just get the .22 TCM full size with a light rail and the custom Commander with no light rail.  Then call it a day, forever!  Depends on the mood.

Huh.  Pistol heavy.  I must be getting old.  I wonder what I'd be like if I lived next door to a nice rifle range...

I may get any one of those on the list soon or never. 

What?

You wanna live forever?


The '57 Bel Air is unsafe?  Say it ain't so. 

You don't want to get hurt don't run it into stuff.  I'm a very good driver.

"That may be so T-Bolt but there are lots of idiots out there and they might run into you."

Shut up!

Speaking of Bel Air, I hope the Fresh Prince got out of his neighborhood before the fires got there.  Wonder where he will move to next?

Fix NICS

Rep Thomas Massie of Kentucky warns us.

Don't vote for Reciprocity, as Schumer has thrown a NICS expansion amendment in the Bill that will expand prohibited people.  A Poison Pill.

Massie is right.  That would be bad.  And I already don't trust Schumer.  But who is Massie of Kentucky?  I don't know him.  And HIS constituents already have Shall Issue CCW.  Why should I listen to him?  Maybe he is crying wolf.  Maybe he is just in the Establishment and doesn't care about my civil rights?  Or maybe he cares too much.  A 2nd Amendment proponent so ardent, that insists on permitless machinegun carry and votes no if the law isn't that expansive.

The devil, as they say, is in the details.

Is breitbart blowing smoke up my skirt, and this isn't really what Massie is on about?

Maybe Massie just a tool.  I dunno him.

The NRA has always had the position of accepting NICS and using it to keep prohibeted persons from purchasing.  And a fix that alerts the system about felons or adjudicated crazies that were slipping through the cracks is just fine by me.  But if it is adding, at the whim of some bureaucrat, folks to the NICS list for cashing their first Social Security check or getting a check up at the VA hospital, then that is unacceeptible.

So adjust the amendment to take out the judgement of the bureaucrat, Massie.

"[It] encourages administrative agencies, not the courts, to submit more names to a national database that will determine whether you can or can’t obtain a firearm. "

That's fine if the bureaucrat is going "hey, this felon we just dispensed with should be on the NICS list.  I wasn't alerting anyone before, but maybe I should have been.  And heck now the laws says I must" because we know the bureaucrats were letting things slide up til now anyway.  Fix NICS can be done properly.

If this law was passed in 2007, how would the Obama administration have abused it?  That's the test before the vote.  Hold the tack-ons proverbial feet to the fire, legislatively.

Let's see the language.  The final language is only final at the vote, and I don't trust Schumer not to insert a clause in the last 5 minutes that turns the whole thing against us.  But lets see the likely final language.

"What final language T-Bolt?"  Correct, fair reader.  Schumer is in the Senate and the bill hasn't left the originating house to go to the other wing of the Capitol yet.  Pelosi can't add any amendments from her perch, the Harpy.  No merging with another bill has happened yet.

And I would be supportive of a proper fix to NICS merged with the reciprocity bill in order to get 60 votes in the Senate.   If we could give someone like Senator Tester of Montana an excuse to go against Schumer in an election year and get us cloture that way, that'd be great.

[Addendum after scheduling:  Oh look, I'm not the only one seeing shennanigans. Even ostensible allies wanna queer the deal, for some reason. Wrote this on the 6th.  Probably OBE when it publishes on the 8th, but such is blogging ahead of time.]

{Update again.  HR 38 passes 231-198. 225 Republicans and 6 Democrats voted yea, 14 Republicans and 184 Dems voted no.}

Navy

I normally put something up relevant to Pearl Harbor Day on the blog, but not feeling it so much this year.

"Are you melancholy, T-Bolt?"

No that ain't it so much.  Maybe I don't feel the urgency to reinforce the memory of an imminent ongoing threat from history to support current focus on imminent ongoing threats.

Wait, is this Trump's fault?

Maybe.

Maybe it is Secretary Mattis' fault.  That guy... I don't think he ever takes his eye off the ball.  And say what you will about Trump's methods he does lean on his SecDef and give him his head.  So far that is working out.

I worry about the Navy's recent woes, lack of funding, leadership, and deadly fender benders in the 7th Fleet is disconcerting.  I shouldn't feel like 30 year old watchstanding and seamanship skills are better than a currently serving Officer of the Deck.  All this is only tertiarily concerned with this anniversary, however.

I've had millennials come up to me this month and tell me, "T-Bolt!  Did you know there is/was a conspiracy theory about Pearl Harbor?  That the gov't knew the attack was coming and let it happen to galvanize public support to enter the war."

Yes, young man.  I did know about that theory.  I probably first heard of it in the 70s.  But the 1970s were a great time to disseminate conspiracy theories into the wider culture.   It might have been Spock that told me, too, but I am not sure.

GI Joe

All my G.I. Joes had the fuzzy head that grew bald over time.  Figure he was exposed to radioactive fallout.  The one with the Kung Fu grip.  Like this:



Other kids in the neighborhood had M1919 machine guns.  Not me.  No BAR that I remember either.  Looking back I had 03 Springfields, Garands, M-16, and scoped sniper rifles. Not even a flamethrower.

I also had the jeep with the recoil-less rifle. It was after Nam so Joe was leaning toward outdoorsy adventure instead of war. Hence the out of regs beard.

CMP 1911

I am debating whether or not I want one.

I love the history, and that is why I'd get one.  I can afford it, and I can fix one up without detracting from it's historical value.  Maybe.  If frame and slide fitment is crap (it will be), if the barrel lockup is loose (it will be) there still might be a way to fix the sear hammer engagement without ditching the hammer and only getting a new sear.

But that's not the point.

I hesitate because I don't have a big case of the WANTS, and another safe queen 1911 is less practical for me where I am right now.  It's cool, I guess, just not practical.

I am more likely to buy a $4000 custom 1911 than a $999 piece of history. 

What a weird place to be at this point of my Shottist career, just 10 years in.  

The Future

They keep saying "Robots are the Future" or "VR is the Future" or "Self Driving cars are the Future"

Meh.

They've said that before.

They also said in the 1950s "Fusion power is the Future!  Limitless electricity too cheap to meter.  Just 5 - 10 years from today."

Yeah, yeah, I'll believe it when it comes.  Like jetpack and flying cars.

Sure, there have been great strides.  But I don't think the autonomous robots people picture in their head are even close to realizable yet.  And my car going to work and parking in my space while I napped the entire time in the driver seat?  Nice, but, nowhere near soon.

It's like Smart Guns.  The very concept makes it impossible.  Just unworkable.

It's like November 9th all over again

Is there any going back after this #TaxBillScam? To America? Does it matter now if Trump is impeached? There’s no America now. Not the one we knew. Sorry, feeling real despair this morning

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 2, 2017

Yeah. A tiny tax cut, a little less socialism, has changed the fabric of reality and destroyed the United States.

Range over T-Giving

Hit the range on black friday.

The bad first?  Ok.

Taurus .22 revolvers have an AWFUL trigger.  Gritty and over firm and over variable.  Ruger 101's like this:

the pull is ok, but the edges aren't eased like they are on a Smith and hurt my tender little girlie fingers.  At least the one I shot wasn't eased.  Sharp arris that bit me with the recoil.  If I had shot 12 I'd have a blister or broken skin.

Shot the new S&W M&P 2.0 from the rental desk.  The compact.  Decent.  Even with a rental gun factory trigger.  I was pleased.   The only quibble I have with the M&P is the placement of the slide release lever.   Not ideal with a lefty like it is with a 1911.

The good?

I got to shoot a Model 19 S&W that looked like this:

But with Hogue grips.  Early version.  Good condition.  Good trigger.  A joy to shoot and shot well.   I covet that revolver.

I shot my 640 a bit, and my 1911.  Early low-and-rights from flinching but then I got their number and improved.  Here is a sample.  1911 on top.  There are some 9mm from the M&P in there too on the bottom target, the rest are from the 2 .38 revolvers.

Got my first malf with the 1911 tho.  Failure to lock back on empty at round number 543.  550 total so far, no cleaning, but I am over due for 3 drops of oil. 

You make my dreams come true

Don't you Firemen

Tell me what to do, either.  My smoke detector isn't obsolete, it's vintage.

And stop begging for money like a hobo at the traffic light.

Are you older than your smoke alarms?! Here are some smoke alarms "retired" today by firefighters during home safety blitz in Aspen Hill. @mcfrspio Smoke alarms older than 10 years need to be replaced. Don't risk it - REPLACE it. pic.twitter.com/p4QUTWoNsF

— MontgomeryCo(MD)Fire (@mcfrs) December 2, 2017

Don't Lie to the Po-Po

Martha Stewart
Scooter Libby
now Michael Flynn

Did nothing provably wrong except the cops caught them in a lie.

I will never want to speak to any law enforcement people, EVER.  Even to say good morning to an off duty foot patrolman.

"What's 'good' about it?  Nothing!  YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT T-BOLT!  STOP RESISTING!  THIS IS PEPPER SPRAY!"

The FBI always gets their man, I guess.   

The Girl with all the Gifts

It's a Zombie movie.  From Britain.  With Glenn Close.

Well done, too.

Zombies are made with a fungal infection, just like them zombie ants.  And it's been about 10 years since the plague started.   How do we know?  Because the uninfected have some children that... well, just check it out.  Prolly on Netflix streaming.