Crime is Down.

Crime is down.  Why?  More guns equals less crime?  Yes, I like to believe that, but the data so far isn't conclusive.  It's definitely correlation, but causation hasn't been proven.  The corrallary that anti-civil-rights folks posit, that "more guns equals MORE crime" has been put paid to.  And it's a foregone conclusion that more guns equals more freedom, and THAT is a good in itself.  It would be valid and called for it more guns DID equal more crime.

No, I think this drop is crime we've been on, this twenty year downward glidescope, is because the soap dodging hippies are getting old.  The are naturally violent, this breed of hippies, and are a blight on the more upstanding members of this generation.  But they are nothing if not self-centered.  They'd hate to hurt their precious extra-special skin.  Now that they are aged they worry they'd break a hip on one of their unlawful sprees.  They don't care if they hurt others, but to hurt themselves?  Can't have that. 

Just a personal theory of mine.

[Bonus question:  Is the correlation between more guns and less crime a stronger case for causation than all the fraudulent data proffered up to show a carbon forced anthropogenic change in climate?  Climate study is a more complex beast.  And it doesn't help when you fudge near everything and can show a tempurature increase over time plugging the same years data every year for a 50 year graph...]

Update:  There could also be less crime because there is less lead paint in the environment.

and Remember

Tam says it best.

NRA Idear

Today's is my mom's birthday.  She's hard to shop for but a voracious reader, so my fall back gift idea was always Amazon gift cards.  But I did THAT for Mother's Day.  I moment of inspiration was provided by the NRA convention and she ended up getting the ceramic carving knives a bit early.  She LURVES them.  Thanks, NRA.

And What Inch What?

One of the guns on Archie's ship in the war was a 5" 38.  It also had 3" 50s  He had no idea what that meant so he asked me.

I told him it was like the .45-70 used in a Trapdoor Springfield.  Or .30-40 used in the Krag.  So a 5 inch 50 was a five inch diameter shell propelled by 38 grains of powder.  Naturally.

No no no. 

Thanks to the glory of the internet, we confirmed a theory I had that was more... uh...  true.  The 5 inch is the diameter of the shell, the other number was the barrel length in number of that diameter.  So this gun was 5 x 38 inches long.  190 inches.  Almost 16 feet.  A 3" 50 has a 150 inch barrel. 

I didn't want to go into the British system of measuring their guns as "X Pounders" referring to shell weight and dating back to front stuffers.  Our privateers in the War of 1812 preferred 9 pounders mounted forward that were longer than usual and called Long Toms.  Though the moniker Long Tom ended up getting pasted on many types of artillery.

Archie coming home

He's a tough old bird.  I'm going to the hospital to bring him home.  I'd have expected him to be laid up another day at least.

Now if only I had a post queued up for tomorrow...

KI

I know they probably don't read this blog...

But all the people that bought Potassium Iodide off of eBay for $100 a tab because the Fukushima reactor was going to go all Jane Fonda on us...  How do you feel about that economic decision, now?  Wise use of your finite resources, was it?  Better safe than sorry, or better assauged and impoverished?

Looks like the most hazardous, toxic, thing emitted from the reactors that reached our shores was Media Panic.  And when you add up the final reckoning attributed to the disaster in 50 years, and it's impact on this continent...  Yup, Media Panic will still top the list as the most damaging factor.  I'd bet the farm on it.

Archie

Taking Archie to the hospital for surgery.  Back later.


----

Just got home.  It's after 7.  He got through ok, but is nauseous, groggy, and grouchy (not more than usual, on the grouch part).  I'll check on him tomorrow.

...and off the ledge

Success!  Work buddy wants the 700 Target Tactical now.  Another note... he is moving to Hawaii.  I recommended he get the rifle BEFORE he goes.  This is a bad state for firearms, but the CW is Hawaii is worse.  You need a permit to purchase or transfer ANYTHING it looks like.  He'll need to register his rifle when he arrives.

I am in a bit of a sticker shock on that model and I don't know why it's price is so high.  I am used to perusing the $700 left hand rifles, and wonder why THAT one is $2k.  It's not a $1300 stock, right?

He may settle for, and be happy with, a Remington 700 VTR, instead.  $800 for the rifle, $400 for the Leupold scope.  Plenty of goodness to settle into.  By the time he shoots the barrel out he'll know what $6000 rifle he wants.

And, my work here is done.

Zombie Homeowners

Oh, Crap.

I admire his moxie, but...

I'm trying to talk a guy at work down off the ledge.  He wants to buy his first rifle.  He wants a Barrett M107A1/M82.  And he lives in Maryland with the expected Maryland quantity and sized rifle ranges. 

He's shot rifles a bit, but has never owned one, so it's less ridiculous than it sounds.  And Barret is very fine manufacturer, sure.  But still. 

I recommending shooting other people's Barretts for a hundred rounds or so before plunking down, what?  $6000?  Or, alternatively, take that money and buy a Remington 700 tricked out like an M24 and get a great scope from Leupold and a bunch of match ammo and have lots of fun shooting it and still have money left over for a sizable downpayment on a new car.

I just think it a bit much.  For a first rifle. 

Range 2 Days Ago

Guess which one is me with a 1911, and which is Saucy Trollop with a S&W .44?  Typical.

Got nuthin

All my NRA convention stuff is about bingo, and I need to find the Muse again.  She usually is down in the cistern in basement, trapped, putting lotion on her skin when I tell her to.  I make up little rhymes...

Steel Helmet

I watched Steel Helmet this weekend.

Made in 1951, it's a 'WWII movie' set in the Korean conflict.  Know what I mean?  It has that feel to it.  Like Hollywood had the whole war movie thing down from the previous war, so to make a new movie on the latest war on the Korean peninsula, they just replugged tab A into slot B and ran with it.

A lost squad runs across a grizzled old warhorse of a top sergeant and a tag along South Korean kid (named 'Short Round') on the way to establishing an OP at a Buddhist temple.  They fend off the enemy there until relieved.  

The enemy acted like WWII movie Japs, sniping from trees and skulking about and such.  The weapons were mostly WWII types.  Ok, Korean war weapons were mostly WWII types, but you could tell that the studio hadn't had a chance to upgrade it's prop armory.  There were several Tommy Guns and no Grease Guns is what I'm noticing.  And no M2 Carbines.

It''s clearly filmed in California, but that's OK, because Korea and Californian topography are actually pretty close to each other.  It was one of the advantages of the state when they filmed all those seasons of MASH. 

One of the updates to reflect modern times (a mere 6 years after the end of the previous war) is an integrated Army.  There is a black medic and a Japanese sergeant/bazooka-man.  A North Korean prisoner even tries to sow discord in the squad by working the "your country doesn't appreciate you, you aren't white" angle.  And the lieutenant is mentioned as not trusting his Japanese sergeant because he is Japanese and that's how the squad got lost in the first place.  Wrestling with this issue on the silver screen only 3 years after Truman ordered integration. 

There is also a subplot not perfectly explored about a conscientious objector and how he comes around to become a hero manning a machine gun against human wave attacks.

That was another nod to later post WWII tactics.  The human wave charges with oodles and oodles of enemy.  Americans had faced charges before, naturally, but the 'oodles and oodles' part was a new thing to see.  And that war happened at a fast pace, relatively.  It started in late June of 1950 and the beginning of 1951 the Red Chinese had already entered, pushed the UN forces back south of the 38th parallel, and the war was settling into a hard slog of trench warfare, so the makers of this movie were up to speed, releasing this movie after the war had become pretty static.  

A bit ham-handed in spots, but still a good movie to see. 

Z1N1

I picked up Z1N1, another zombie novel.

I like to give books a chance, and can dial my head back to lower reading levels for the ease and entertainment, but this book, I just can't get past the writing. 


I'm not saying I'm better.  If I had a plot to flesh out and self-published a book, it'd probably be of this quality.  But at least I haven't foisted my meager talents onto an unprepared and innocent public in the form of book length fiction.  Yet.


"Show, don't tell," was what anyone that tried to teach me writing said.  This is mostly 'tell.'  And not a noun goes by without modification by at least one adjective.  Good way to pad the word count, I guess.

I'll try to give it one more chance.

Zombie Autopsies

Recommended by a co-worker.  Zombie Autopsies.  It presents the investigations of a doctor sent to facility to investigate the virus that has killed 2/3rds of the world population and has probably infected the final third.  Tick tock, the clock is ticking.

This particular zombie virus is nasty.  It's not just spread by bite wounds from the infected, but by respiratory droplet.  It's probably a man made virus and the base is an new infuenza strain that no one has an immunity to when it is released into the wild.

Flu isn't zombie-instigating, so whoever developed this bio weapon got OTHER bugs piggy backing on it.  Prions that attack the higher brain functions, leaving only the deep lizard-brain areas intact.  There is a theory there is a third nasty on the flu virus that actually protects vital systems like the heart and the lower brain, but the Doctor only gets close to solving this problem.

It's a bleak portrayal, and hopeless.

That's Not Your Mommy Anymore...

Zombie Survival Guide for kids.

Karl Maunz

So I met this interesting exhibitor at the NRA convention.  His booth was on the lower level, towards the left as you walked in.  It was Karl Maunz of Maunz Match Rifles. 

Mr. Maunz was an armorer for the Army during his stint, and had a couple pictures of him with his unit, including his work with the US Army Shooting Team in a photo dated 1960.  He lives in Ohio and has shot competitively at Camp Perry since 1954, when he was 15. He still lives near Camp Perry).

You all know my fondness for older rifles, particularly stuff with a John Garand provenance.   And especially my fondness for the M1A.  Note the year Mr. Maunz was in the Army?   The thing that caught my eye as I strode past his booth was an M1A/M14... only it wasn't...

What I was looking at had a non standard flash hider and a big box magazine, so an M1A at first look.  But it also had a Garand style walnut forend, the front hand guard.  This detail stopped me in my tracks.  Could this be an example of Garand's T20 prototype?  A Garand adapted to fire with BAR magazines?  The floorplate had a steeper angle than what I was used to with the M1A/M14...  And maybe the bolt was a bit longer than .308, though I wasn't sure...  And I certainly wasn't going to snatch it off the rack and start field stripping it right there.

It was at this point that Mr. Maunz engaged me in conversation.  It turns out he MAKES them.  And made them.  He was involved with the original M14 development as a young man.  One of the many gunsmithing services he had done over the years was convert Garands to fire with a M14 magazine.  Now here is a man that speaks my language.  Somehow the chat drifted over to bolts, and I lamented that M1A bolts were as rare as hens teeth and the guy I bought my M1A from said if I ever see one I can expect to pay $350 or more for em, and I had given up my cursory search for them.  Maunz scoffed and told me I can still get one for around $150, and that I was misinformed.  Wonderful!  Now I have a chance to get spare, somewhere.  Pretty much the only thing I don't have a spare of, now, is the receiver and barrel.  And that's just fine.  

He had a sample of a scope rail for the M1A, made of stainless steel that he makes himself.  Yes, that is serious foundry work.   He casts his own receivers, too, and has done forged receivers in the past.

I noticed he had old boxes of .276 Pedersen, and that way found that he too wished MacArthur had switched to it as military standard back in the Depression, too.   He, as a SHOOTER, loved what the .276 could do.  All the "what might have beens" involved with that round.  Aside from getting us a 10 round Garand.  It's nice to find someone that thinks like I do a bit.  And it confirms my suspicions that the .276 is a sound round ballistically.  (That poor Pedersen.  He came up with some ingenious innovations but they so rarely took off to stratospheric popularity.)

He makes rifles that shoot that caliber.  In fact he is working on some new developments even now, and I can’t wait to see what’s up his sleeve in that regard.

The receivers he displayed didn't say Springfield, and then a big long serial number.  They said "Maunz".  His name.  This guy is the real deal.  He makes these things, too, and that is the coolest thing ever.  Walking talking history of my favorite rifle.

He shoots left handed not because he is left handed but he is left eye dominant, and he is thus sensitive to the needs of lefty shooters.  He was aware of the tendency of a Garand to eject brass toward 4:30 and hit a lefty in the temple. so he’s adjusted many of them to shoot forward to the 2:00 position.  Just like my own M1A does.  He says if you hold your rifle right you can set a hat out in front of your prone shooting position and all the brass can end up in the hat.  If you’re good.  

He is closely involved with the American Shooter's Union, the M14 Club, and the Garand Club.

Archie, the WWII veteran up the street from me, is a great old neighbor, but his thing is cars and boats and archery.  I love chatting with him, and I always learn new old things from him.  But.  Imagine if Archie had been more like THIS guy, Maunz.  All the things I could have absorbed.  Instead of getting my car fixed in Archie's garage (valuable enough, certainly) I'd have learned how to make my own rifle by now.

And, at 70 some years old, Karl Maunz is still innovating, with plans for rifles and ammunition on the boards, soon to be released.  It was a pleasure the time I have to meet up and speak with him on the convention floor.

Metrocon Vs. Terrists

Writing an article for the Metrocon fortnightly, Cliff May doesn't have a problem with denying firearms to terrorists suspects on the Watch List.  He concedes the issue that there is a problem with lack of due process, but is not dissuaded from supporting such a restriction.  He is also convinced that once wrongly placed on the list, a person can easily, with time, get off the list.  Somehow.  So a right is "delayed but not denied."

He knows the counter arguments, but is unpersuaded.  He says he supports the 2nd Amendment, but in this case wishes to err on the side of caution.  He also doesn't think these denials will be abused by bureaucrats.

At least he is honest about his line of thinking.

I disagree with him.

The commenters universally take him to task, so far.

You know what this is?

You've heard the News.  The world is ending.  Saturday.  Some religious sect has been finding hidden codes in the Bible that indicate a calendar.  And 21 May is the Day of Judgement.  6PM Eastern to be more precise.

I had let all that slip by me as another false prediction of the end of the world.  It's happened so many times that you can't help but get a little jaded. 

Then I heard part of an interview on the radio from a representative of this End of Times group.  He said, "according to the Bible, the dead will rise from the grave..."

Oh dear.  OH DEAR! 

Zombacalypse!!!  I am NOT ready.  I'm crossing my fingers I get taken up in the Rapture, but at this point in my life?  My chances are a bit slim, I admit.  The God I know is prettu impressive and I'm sure he has high standards of excellence in his selection.  I doubt I'll make the cut.  I wasn't the kind of kid that got picked LAST in kickball or dodgeball, but near last. 

But to remain behind with the walking dead.  I am not NEAR ready.  I better stay sober Saturday evening, just in case.  There are 2 VERY large cemetarys 2 miles from me.  One to the north, the other to the northwest.  The northwest one even has my grandparents in it.  How ironic would it be to be treed by Zombie-Granma? 

It could be a long summer for those Left Behind.

And some of you scoffed at me for my Zombie Prep.  Who's the man, now, Dog?

William Vs Maryland final argument due...

Or is it Woollard v. Sheridan?

Did it come out today?  Was the State's response laughable this time?

~90 day waiting game from now for Judge Legg or Chasanow to issue a ruling.  Middle of August?  By Labor Day.

Update:  Link on this page to the pdf. 

Probably will need a ruling from SCOTUS reiterating that the right does indeed extend past your home's threshold.