Well, F---

Thanks for Roberts, W.

Went to a gunstore

A small one in Fredericksburg VA. They had a Tippmann Gatling gun that 9mm Glock mags. Neat!

If I were thinking on making one I'd have drifted toward a rimmed cartridge like a .38 Special, but I lack imagination.  Tippmann has apparently figured it out.

While there on a Saturday, this tiny gunshop had a lotta traffic, but no noticeable dent in his stock for sale.  But I had never been there before.  Maybe he normally has bigger displays up.  Or piles of ammo for sale.  And I have no 'before' picture in my head to compare it too.

You folks that use Revolver Shotguns

Like the Taurus Judge.

Have you ever patterned it by shooting it at a big piece of butcher paper 30 feet away?

I assume you'd never shoot at something further away.  It IS a self defense firearm.  You aren't looking to shoot at sumthin' further.

What did the pattern look like?  A big ring? 

I am curious because I have never done this.

Does the rifling in that pistol length barrel cause the pattern to ring, with few pellet in the center, but plenty in the periphery?

If it does ring like that, is that acceptable?

Dictionary

When reading, back in the old days, when I came across a word I was unfamiliar with the meaning of I'd look it up in the dictionary.  In school there were dictionaries everywhere.  And there were a couple at home.  I know other people that would underline and mark the page of the hard words and come back later.

And not just hard works.  I vaguely knew what a Davenport, Settee, Divan, and Morris Chair were, but it was nice to nail that down in my head, specifically.

Now?  I don't have to.  Highlight a word in Kindle or iPad or web browser and the onboard or online distionary pops right up.  One of the nicer things about living in the future.

The only problem?  The French and Latin the educated inter-war Swells like to bandy about when they are acting snooty.  Kindle don't do those.

Law Abiding Citizen

This is the most unrealistic scene in the whole movie.


Wait... there are plenty of unrealistic scenes in this movie to rival that.

Anyway.

What motivation does the CIA guy have to talk to these city/state government reps?  Plus Shelton/Butler character is ungodly smart, and the spy knows this better than anyone.  There is a decent chance even with good precautions he'd be caught.  Great, now another person on the hit list.  Him!

A career of positive reinforcement about the personal value of not spilling the beans, why choose now to spill the beans?

Good movie exposition, but it beggars belief. 

Range Monday

I noticed I was shooting low after the first magazine. 

I use silhouettes where I CAN'T see the hole to remove the temptation of looking over my sights for my hits.  But I see em when I bring the trolley back.  I adjust and the holes near the yellow spot on the face were my 5 round mag improvement.

The next 3 mags were the center mass shots.

There is always at least ONE flyer where I screw up. 

8 yards, commodity plastic striker fired 9mm rental service pistol.

I've been saying this for a while

A lot of cops can be shitbird bullies unfit to wear the badge, and it doesn't matter what skin color their victim has.

But whenever it comes up I often get dragged by cop-fans.  Not the kinda dragging the rioters do.  Polite comment disagreement.

Solution, for me, all this time has been to hamstring the public sector unions.  They wield too much power.  But that solution is, like most, too simple, direct, plausible  - and wrong.  Well, wrong-ish. Good ol' Mencken.  Can always count on the sage of Baltimore until he got too old and bitter in the 30s.

Anyway.  Yes, the union and big blue wall is a bad thing, and qualified immunity they back to the hilt is easily abused too.  But take them things away you get new problems.  If you kill off the public union then public/politic management has to have the cops' backs.  SOMEBODY has to back stop them, or they'll get eaten alive.  And I'd not trust a politician to do that.  The only thing worse than a crooked cop is any politician that thinks you stand in his way at the ballot box.  And they'll throw bad cops and good cops and victimized constituency over the transom in a trice if they threaten the pols phoney-baloney job. 

So, my distaste for abusive cops is tempered by my greater distaste for the political class above them. What's that... a dirty cop is still acting like a good guy 80% of the time? Maybe. I dunno. But a good pol is only good, what? 50%? Servants indeed.

Plus, they are bad for zombies

Shotguns.  No bueno.  In many people's heads the be-all end all of home defense.  Both folks that believe all the myths, and folks that no.  This is the counter argument.

Ok, discounting the people that don't know anything about shooting.  Shotguns are sub-optimal even for people that are intermediate shooters.  And the article goes into that.

But shotguns are what n00b people in Maryland are buying the most of, in the panic, if they can get their hands on one.  Because of myths, because of the laws, it is now the go to home defense iron

10+ years ago?  They were buying revolvers for nightstand guns.  Or something cheap like a Hi-Point.  So amateurs are going to get less than ideal shooting irons no matter what laws are in place.

So what SHOULD they get to protect hearth and home?  Well, training, of course.  But I can wish in one hand and poop in the other and come to think of it I am slacking on more training my ownself

I don't like shotguns, myself, but I have less training and practice with them compared to an AR or, especially now, a pistol.  If I could go back to when I was shotgun-less and advise myself what to get, I'd tell me to learn how chokes work and get a couple doubles.  For simplicity.  Because you aren't gonna shoot em much.

But say I had the training, and manual of arms was second nature with a proper 'tactical' style shotgun.  The comparison of positives (raw power) and negatives (long, bulky, clumsy indoors, low capacity) still makes me eschew the platform.  But that's just my opinion.  Right now.  Jeez, but, I know I can change my opinion over time.  I learned to like how Glocks work for me, after all.

I Loved Larry's Post

And plenty of others have linked it and commented.

They, the 20-something prog wienies, think the cops and Guard are oppressing citizens right now in the response.  They are being every so gentle, actually, comparatively.  What's the body count up to?  Single digits?  Tell me when the stormtroopers have shot 100 rioters, then we'll start bandying about words like "Oppression."  Tell me when some riot ringleaders have committed "suicide" by jumping off of tall buildings.

You know.  Russia/China type stuff.

You want gun owners to come downtown and help you?  How?  By shooting you, or shooting cops?  Gun owners that want to do that, right now?  Eager to join in, killing folks downtown, Blue, Red, Black or whatever?  I don't trust them any further than I can throw them.  Like Larry, I cannot see ANY possible future outcome that is positive if that happens in this particular goat rope.  Maybe it's calming down now.

The Mainstream Media Won't Show You This

I don't think about Metrocons much anymore

Urban conservatives that are conservative about everything except.

All the latest events the last few years have shown that they aren't just anti-gun.  They are anti-conservative.  A shame really.  Influential thought leaders that were never really in agreement with me on much of anything.

Oh sure, there are still on or two over at National Review that are in tune with my political sensibilities.  But you gotta turn elsewhere.

It makes one cynical.

That's the thing about Trump.  We all know he isn't REALLY conservative.  But he's been getting stuff done of the relatively correct bent.  Cleaning the Augean Stables a bit.  I mean if W did a quarter of his de-reg jag we'd be a lot better off today.  But W wasn't so much a conservative either, was he?

I just wish Trump was more pro-gun.  Or had more pro-gun action, at least. 

Anyway, there are few metrocons now.  Real one.  But I do worry about James Lileks in Southwest Minneapolis.  He's a little guy, and I bet he has no firearms to home, and HE is good people.

And his town is F-ed, and unlead.

6th

Regret

Dismantle the Po-po!  That will will bring nigh utopia, according to Ellison

He doesn't realize what the police do to protect him.   HIM personally.

Notice the riot cops aren't going all Kent State on the rioters?  If you didn't have the riot cops there wouldn't be anyone protecting the rioters

Yes, cops are protecting the rioters.

But, you know, maybe Jeremiah wants escalating warfare in the streets.  His proposal is knocking a leg out from the rule of law.  Just like if you took the president out of the federal three branch system.  You'd regret that pretty quick.

 So mob rule comes next.  And mob rule goes both ways.  Vigilante mobs will rear their heads along with the run of the mill barabarian mobs we are seeing right now.  But Leftists do have a problem thinking beyond the next stage. I don't want either kind of mob.  I've always wanted reform.

Reform.

But Marx will tell you that Reform is the enemy of Revolution.  (or was that Pliny the Elder?)  And 'they' want Revolution, not Reform.  But Reform:

There are plenty of police reforms that could be enacted from a libertarian perspective that would improve matters. Qualified immunity reform is libertarian. Holding police accountable for misbehavior is libertarian. Reducing the power of police unions is libertarian. Getting rid of overtime and pension abuse is libertarian. Banning no-knock raids is libertarian. Reducing bloated police department bureaucracies is libertarian.

Leftists oppose and Libertarians flail, so we probably won't be lucky enough to get adequate reforms.

"What about the GOP, T-Bolt?"

They're the 'heavy.'  You knew that. 

-

Gun store

So, the range is also a gunstore.

And it is in Maryland, so getting something like a heavy barrel hunting-AR or a pistol requires extra hoops, cuz you need a license to purchase.  New gun buyers find that hill ahead of them, slowing down their purchase schedule. 

"So what can I get sooner than a month from now, since I am a first time buyer?"

Well, shotguns and bolt action rifles.

When the WuFlu Lockdown started 2 months ago, our gunstores in the state were open and essential.  And lots of them disconnected their phones because every 10 seconds they said "Sorry, we have no more shotguns for sale at this time."  Land office bidness

Re-supply for the disease panic hadn't really happened before this second Riot and the Cop Ain't Comin to Help Panic started up.  Land office times two?  The counter is going to burst into flames from all the friction.

So, boomstick inventory was noticeably sparser than EVER was what I witnessed at the range.  I mean more than any other panic.  There were some pistols because of the speed bumps, but not as many as usual.  The wall of Fudd long guns was done.   Couple HBARs was it.  Again, speed bump to take one of them home.  

Ok, NOW pass laws restricting guns on these new gun owners further.  That'll be interesting to see how that turns out.

Deer

Throughout my life I've seen plenty of deer.

Probably an equal number alive as dead.  Struck by cars, of course, them dead one.  And most of the live ones I have seen while I was also sitting in a car.  Not all.  Call it 40% road kill, 40% alive but I I spied em through car glass.  The other 20% in parks and hikes and hunting and whatnot.  Out walking around.

That's probably pretty typical.  We moderns cover a lot of ground in our cars.  Hard to spot deer sitting in a cubicle at an office 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

With the hundreds of deer I have seen in my life, I rarely see deer with antlers.  I think older bucks are more wily, except when they are horny.  And of the antlers I have spotted, none are truly spectacular racks.  Either big racks are rare, or deer able to grow em are smart and reticent of roads or a combination of both.  I see a lot more does with yearlings

But yesterday morning was the first time I saw a buck with antlers that had velvet on the antlers.  It was standing on the shoulder of an off ramp and though better of crossing the road so ducked back.  He was maybe a two year old?  Three?  The antlers got a few inches past maximum ear length.

SPLC

The Southern Poverty Law Center?  They went from noble civil rights group, to hustlers, to pure Lefty Pinkos.  And since these riots are sparked by racial issues and promulgated by commies they, of course, are gonna blame White Supremacists for instigating and provoking all the riots.  All them white folks handing out bricks, they'll say Aryan Nation types.  I am sure.

What?

They didn't?

They aren't blaming them?  The opposite.

Well, no shit.

Just when you think you know something about someone...

(you already knew they weren't them icky racist groups.  none of the various flavors EVER go around in skinny jeans.)

Wait for the police

They'll be there any second now.  Any second.


But don't take the law into your OWN HANDS!

(On an totally unrelated note, do you want a wake before your funeral, or something exclusive to just family and solemn and low key?)

Finally

Some recoil therapy.  My range opened up.  They are keeping it to half capacity and please wear a mask.  Commodity plastic stiker fired 9mm.  8 yards at first.

1. Not bad for a first magazine after MONTHS.  
2. I was rushing on purpose  The lower right is an experiment to GRIP---trigger.  But I gave up when it gave me low and right and went to a more relaxed grip I was training with for years.  I'll give that some more attention and more rounds, just not now.
3. Getting tired, getting sloppy.  Too many rounds were MakeGunGoNOW trigger pulls instead of good ones, but I was pleased to get ANY good shots at all.  Some bad shots were called, some not.  I need to sharpen that skill with practice, too.
4. I pushed the target trolley out to 50 feet.  Only that one REALLY bad flyer.  I can't see that far so was pleased about this one too.  Considering.

Just glad to do something.  It had been too long.  Blow the cobwebs from the rafters.

I was told it was White Nationalists?

Barr: It is Antifa.
Cops: It is Antifa.
Protestors: It is Antifa.
Antifa: It is us.
Blue checks: It is something else.

— Andrew Beck (@AndrewBeckNYC) May 30, 2020

Follow the Money

I wonder who funds Antifa types?

I wonder if the FBI will redouble their efforts about them, now?  Seems that would be a good use of DOJ resources.  I always assume that if a buncha Klan yahoos get together, all 14 of em, that at least half of them work for the Feds in one capacity or another.  From occasional CI snitch on up.  But the FBI has been working on the Kluxers since the 1920s without much let up.

They took their foot off the gas pedal with the Reds a bit, evidence suggests.  The worry is over-reaction.  Which always happens.  But how much?

After all, The FBI do play dirty though, don't they?  Unleash them and they you have to deal with the overreach later.  And we are still dealing the overreach from 10 years ago now.

The news media tried to convince me all weekend that is was Russia and MAGAs funding and organizing and provoking all the riots.  But they've lied a lot to me lately, and some of them are in Antifa, based on their past actions, so I take stuff they with a grain of salt.  Bout this size: