Opps

Snowflakes in Hell points out that the Joyce Foundation, everybody’s favorite foundation, pretty much laid out what they think. They dropped a granted to Johns Hopkins with the following description:

For support of research on policies that can more effectively restrict firearm ownership to law-abiding persons.

As Sebastian points out it’s probably just a poor choice of words. But it most certainly would fit their standard operating procedure.

Crossbreed Holster Service

For daily carry I use a Crossbreed SuperTuck in the waistband holster. Over my time with a carry permit I’ve purchased three of their holsters; one of the XD, one of the Glock, and one for my 1911. As I mentioned a while ago a crack developed in the Kydex on the XD holster. Well I sent it in for service and finally received it back.

First when I say finally I mean nothing ill, I sent it a week before Christmas. I wasn’t expecting it back until after the holiday season. Well it came back to me last week. I was rather impressed when I opened the box and it contained an entirely new holster.

I was expecting them to simply replace the Kydex. Once again when I say this I wasn’t think any ill, I figured the leather was still good so why not just swap out the broken part. Either way I have a new holster and they even send me a roll of Lifesavers. Anyways this is more or less a post just stating that I’m very happy with their service. Their holsters are a touch expensive but if something goes wrong it’s not my problem which is well worth the additional cost.

You Can’t Trust a Spy

This is a lesson the CIA should have learned by now but if you find somebody willing to betray their country for your cause there is a good chance he’ll betray you as well. A CIA double agent apparently working with them to find out information on al Qaeda went and killed several CIA agents in a suicide bombing. You can’t trust a spy, period.

Target Yemen

Well Blow Hard the She Bitch *ahem* I mean Hillary Clinton is rattling some sabers over Yemen:

“It’s time for the international community to make it clear to Yemen that there are expectations and conditions on our continuing support for the government so that they can take actions which will have a better chance to provide that peace and stability to the people of Yemen and the region,” Mrs Clinton said.

And:

Speaking in Washington, Mrs Clinton said: “We see global implications from the war in Yemen and the ongoing efforts by al-Qaeda in Yemen to use it as a base for terrorist attacks far beyond the region.”

Translation: “al-Qaeda is in Yemen soon so shall we.” Now I’m not against taking out al-Qaeda, they attacked first. What I’m against is how the United States has been going after al-Qaeda. We seem to have a habit of arriving under the pretense of being after al-Qaeda and then raging war against the country itself or a neighbor.

Remember when the terrorists were in Iraq? Oh wait never mind we sent after them because they had weapons of mass destruction. Oops I mean we went in to free an downtrodden people. Or was it to take down a ruthless dictator? I forget. And of course we have to be in Afghanistan because of the terrorist threat there. Of course Pakistan is close.

And these wars always seem to start with saber rattling such as Blow Hard the She Bitch is currently doing. I’m betting we’re going to be flooding Yemen with troops, hopefully I’m wrong. I just don’t want to see more of our finest being killed needlessly attacking a country and government instead of those actually responsible for damaging our country.

Too True

I found something I agree with strongly on View From the Porch:

You know what bugs me? Serious fighting pistols with high-dollar price tags that have obviously never been used for anything but holding down the carpet on the gun safe shelf. Colt Gunsites and Les Baer Thunder Ranch Specials that have obviously never been to Gunsite or Thunder Ranch; HK USP Tacticals with the “Hostile Environment Finish” that have never been exposed to an environment more hostile than the trip from the car trunk to the indoor range. With guns like these, “Not a scratch on it!” is something of which to be ashamed, not to brag on. I hereby resolve to call these “Minnie Pearl Guns” from now on.

It always amuses me when somebody spends big bucks on a defensive handgun. Although my reasons are slightly different than mentioned in the linked post.

First this opinion is based around concealed carry. If you want to use an expensive gun in competition that’s fine. But I find carrying an expensive gun to be a poor idea. My reasoning is several fold, but I have one main concern. God forbid you have to use your gun defensively you need to realize there is a very high chance the gun will be confiscated by the police for the investigation. Also realize there is a chance, a great one in some states and/or cities, that you will never see that gun again.

If you’re carrying a Glock or XD you’re out a little over $500.00. It sucks but it’s not the end of the world. If on the other hand you have a very nice tricked out 1911 you stand to lose a $1,000 or more investment. That doesn’t jive with me well. Of course somebody may decide to say I’m promoting the idea of carrying the cheapest gun possible, that isn’t true.

I’m advocating carrying a gun you know will go bang for a fair price. Reliability is key and there are many reliable guns for reasonable prices. Glocks, XDs, M&Ps, snubby revolvers, and the list goes on. They are very reliable and don’t cost a $1,000.

Anyways it’s just a side note I thought up when reading the linked post. When carrying a firearm you should consider the affect effects if you need to actually use your gun defensively.

I’m Predicting a U.S. Invasion of Yemen

Put this down as a bet I’m almost willing to put money on. The crotch bomber apparently originated in Yemen. And there has been a lot of talk about Yemen and U.S. involvement there in recent history. Well now the U.S. has shut down their Yemen embassy amid threats of bombings.

I’m betting we’ll be sending a fairly large number of troops or private contractors to that country soon. Of course it will be to fight the terrorists. Well it could be because of Yemen’s weapons of mass destruction.

This Week in Security Theatre

Welcome to Security Theatre. Join us this week as the TSA, regulars here, establishes more rigid rules and regulations that do nothing to enhance security but make people believe so. In this thrilling show the TSA establish further screening producers for all flights going to or coming from 14 listed nations. Some of the countries are:

Travellers from Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Cuba will be among those facing body pat-down searches and carry-on baggage checks.

But the bad guys are one step ahead of the TSA yet again. They have developed a plan so diabolical only any person outside of TSA could see it coming. They are planning on flying into and out of America from different countries! This week promises to be as thrilling and exciting but also completely meaningless as always.

Advantage Arms Conversion Kit in Cold Weather

Here is yet another post dealing with my Advantage Arms .22 conversion kit for my Glock 30SF. On Saturday my friend, his father, and I went out to the range. This of course may sound like a bad idea to those who were in Minnesota and know it was about -10 (Fahrenheit since I’m a mangy American). But if you can’t deal with those temperatures then you don’t get much trigger time in January and February here.

As most people with .22 conversion kits know they generally work on two basic principals; hope and prayers. Because of this less than ideal situations may cause issues and issues were caused on Saturday. When I first slapped on the conversion kit it was banging away pretty well. The long it was out and thus more exposure to cold it received the worse it started working.

Towards the end I’m not exaggerating when I say I experienced about eight feeding failures per ten rounds. That means only two rounds in the magazine successfully fed into the gun. Just racking the slide was enough to tell you the problem, it was friggin’ cold and the conversion kit wanted none of that.

I’m not knocking the kit at all. It was ten below zero and these kits are notoriously sensitive to everything. They’re made for cheap practice not cold weather use. But it certainly is something to note if you live up in the northern half of the planet.