Month: November 2009

FBI Looking To Bust Somebody Up

So getting back into the swing of things has been slow. I’d apologize but hey this is my site and I can do as I please. According to The Firearm Blog the FBI is looking to acquire some equipment guaranteed to fuck somebody up.

The FBI is looking to acquire some 20mm cannons. For what? Who knows. But we do know one thing, 20mm of shell will hurt anything that gets struck by it. Maybe the FBI is looking into hunting dinosaurs.

Worst Deer Season Ever

Well I’m back, sort of. I took some time off to do some deer hunting which I really failed to accomplish. For the two day hunting span I only saw two deer. These deer of course were somewhere between 100 and 200 yards out (I lack depth perception and hence distance judgements are difficult) at a full run and I had a window of about two seconds in which to see and shoot them. I took the gratuitous pot shot and missed.

That’s all I saw. Within the group I was hunting with the owner of the property did get several shots off at three deer grouped together. He had a single hit leaving a blood trail which my party and I followed for about a mile before giving up due to oncoming darkness.

The property owners did say that this was the worst season they have seen in the 30 years they’ve been hunting. Great year to try deer hunting out again. I did learn something though if you’re going to be sitting in a deer stand for five to six hours bring a book.

Incorrect Response

Another story via Says Uncle today. This one is aggravating to say the least.

What was the official response to the Fort Hood tragedy? Allow our soldiers to carry on base so they could defend themselves should another nutcase decide to start shooting the place up? No. Instead we get this:

Soldiers assigned to Fort Hood will have to register their personal firearms with the director of emergency services, he added. Fort Hood is home to some 50,000 active-duty soldiers and 18,000 of the soldiers’ family members.

The lack of logic of that response leaves me dumbfounded. So the directory of emergency services will now know who on base owns personal firearms and who types of firearms they are. So if one of them decides to go on a shooting spree they’ll have a better idea of what gun was used after many of our country’s finest are slain in a gun free zone.

How the Hell is this going to help anything?

Banning Rights of Those on the Terrorist Watch List

There has been a lot of stink from the anti-gun crowd saying we need to close the “terror gap.” It’s funny how everything is a gap to these people. What they really mean is we need to deny constitutional rights to people without do process. I think everybody knows now that the terrorist watch list is a secret list of names that you don’t actually have to do anything to get on.

Well Days of Our Trailers did a great post about the terrorist watch list. From his sourced posted there is a 35% error rate of the names on that list according to a Department of Justice audit. Of course I’m sure the gun control crowd doesn’t really care about that. After all they’re only OK with you having the rights they think you should have.

Airsoft for Practice

Here is another article found via Says Uncle. I hear about the whole concept of using replica Airsoft pistols to practice shooting. Cheaper Than Dirt has a nice write up on their opinion of Airsoft and dry-fire practice.

I mostly agree with what is written there. Airsoft and dry-fire practice is good for doing first shot drills. The problem is neither of the two replicate the recoil of a real gun. This means if somebody spends all of their time practicing with either of the two methods they will lack the ability to properly do multiple-shot drills as those require compensating for recoil.

I do dry-fire practice quite often, usually when I’m watching a show. It helps build good muscle memory for proper trigger pulls. It also helps alleviate the flinch reaction some people (including myself before actually practicing) have. But I also go to the range as often as I can and practice with real ammunition.

I never got on board the whole Airsoft idea because I can’t justify spending as much for a replica gun as an actual gun. For just a little more money I can buy the actual gun, and then I have something I can use for gaining full familiarity with a firearm.

I also agree with the Cheaper Than Dirt post on holster draws and reload drills should be practiced a lot at home as opposed to dry-fire. Remember you can be the fastest and most accurate shooter on the planet. But if it takes you ages to get the gun from your holster to aiming at an attacker you’re screwed. Likewise if you run out of ammunition, or Odin help you you’re magazine fails, being able to reload quickly could make the difference (be in competition or a self defense situation).

But overall the key is practice. That fancy $500.00 gun is meaningless if you can’t use it effectively.

Web Scam From Formally Honest Commerce Sites

Further proof people are out there trying to scam you out of your money. I heard about this little fiasco a while ago but never knew who sites were helping in it.

This article on CNet does a good job covering the actual scam. But to sum it up in a small bit of information it’s this. When you go to a website signed up with a company called WebLoyalty a pop-up appears asking you if you want to receive a coupon for your next purchase. All they ask you to input is your e-mail address.

Well when you do that they begin charging your credit card every month. See the companies listed on the previous link give your credit card information to WebLoyalty who give that said company a cut of the monthly charge. The surprising thing are the names of the companies on this list. It’s not just a series of no-name retailers. Here is a list from the article linked:

Partners Paid Over $10 Million

1-800-Flowers.com
Buy.com
Classmates.com
Columbia House
Confi-Check
Expedia/Hotels.com
Fandango
FTD
Hotwire
InQ
Intelius
MovieTickets.com
Orbitz
Priceline
Redcats USA
Shutterfly
Travelocity
US Airways
VistaPrint

Partners Paid Between $1 and 10 Million

1-800 PetMeds
Adteractiv
Airtran Airways
Allegiant Air
Allposters.com
American Greetings
Auto Parts
Avon
Barnes & Noble
Bizrate.com
Bookspan
Boston Apparel Group
BuySeasons/Celebrate Express
Campusfood.com
Cendant Intercompany Agreements
Channel Advisor
Cheap Tickets
Choice Hotels
CollectionsEtc.com
Continental Airlines
Currents USA (123 Prints)
Custom Direct
Digital River
Dr. Leonard’s
Drugstore
eHarmony
eTix
eToys
Fareportal
FragranceNet
From You Flowers
FTD Florists Online
Gamestop/EBgames
Gevalia
Haband
Half.com
Hanover Direct
Hertz
HiSpeed Media
Infinity Resources
J.C. Whitney
Joann.com
Lillian Vernon
Live Nation
Marketworks
Miles Kimball
Musicnotes
MyLife.com
MyPoints
Pizza Hut
Potpourri
Restaurants.com
Riverdeep
Shoebuy
Simplexity
Spirit Airlines
Suresource/Americart
Thompson Group
Tiger Direct
TimeLife
True.com
True Credit (True Link)
Upsellit.com
US Search
Victoria’s Secret
Vitacost
WayPort
West
Yahoo

You may ask why this scam works since the charges appears on your credit card statement every month. It works because nobody checks those. This scam here is a good lesson to always check EVERY item on your credit card bill.

Of course now there’s talk of legislative action yadda yadda. Really it’s another pony show by legislators to make people think they’re doing something. In all honesty if you aren’t checking your credit card bill every month and disputing things you didn’t buy this is on your hands.

If You Build it Somebody Will Put Rails On It

Via Gun Pundit I have found another example of somebody needing to tacticool up old guns. BEHOLD! A Tommy gun with rails.

Actually what was used to design it is the true story. A web application called Pimp My Gun allows you to drag and drop different features on various guns. It’s rather cool (it would actually be cool if it wasn’t written in Flash). I think I could entertain myself for a couple hours with this.

Kid Suspended for Having Shotgun in Truck Off School Property

Here’s another story complements of Says Uncle that really makes my blood boil. A student has been suspended from school indefinitely for having a shotgun in his truck during school hours. But here’s the kicker, his truck wasn’t parked on school property.

The school officials feel they have the authority to enforce their policies off of their property now. Next up suspension for owning firearms, period. Here is something interesting:

Parisio said she will appeal the district’s decision to the Glenn County Board of Education. If the decision is upheld and her son is sent to a continuation school, Parisio said she would likely home-school Tudesko.

Personally if the school’s decision is upheld I hope the kid’s parents take that school to court. I did a quick jaunt through Google and it seems Willow High is a public school and therefore the kid’s parents are paying taxes to the school.