Chronicling the depravities of the State.
Although I’m usually not a fan of quote of the day type posts I couldn’t pass this one up:
Forged in the fires of Mount Doom by the hands of Sauron himself, the HK is the greatest implement of destruction known to man. HK’s plastic frame isn’t made from petroleum that came from inferior plants millions of years ago, rather the petroleum used for HK’s advanced polymers comes only from the fiercest of T-Rexes.
OK ladies and gentlemen episode 3 of the Truth About Guns podcast is posted. It should appear on iTunes within a few hours. This episode covers California assembly bill 962.
Just to you know I posted Episode 2 of the Truth About Guns Podcast. It’s available here.
Because one barrel isn’t enough somebody decided to bring two to the table. Behold the double barrel pump action shotgun.
Hey just a heads up for those of you in Minnesota, specifically the Twin Cities area. There is a gun show at the Education building located on the State Fair grounds. It’s being done from the Minnesota Weapons Collectors Association.
It goes from 9:00 to 17:00 tomorrow and 9:00 until 15:00 on Sunday.
Found this one via the Smallest Minority. Some moron proved once again why you never handle firearms while under the influence of drugs, even alcohol:
Sheriff Glenn Boyer said that on Friday, deputies responded to 4307 Rock Valley Court in Imperial for a shooting. Investigators found 40-year-old James Looney with a gunshot wound to the head.
Wait for it:
Deputies believe alcohol was involved.
Seriously any time your drinking Darwin’s ghost is going to be hovering over your shoulder just waiting for the proper time to strike. The second you decide to drink while driving or wielding a firearm he’s most likely going to make his presence known to you in the only manner he knows how, natural selection.
A great article found via Says Uncle reminds us that just owning a firearm isn’t enough in a self defense situation.
The article covers a few things. For instance the important question is asked, if you locked your gun up will you be able to get to his when you need it most? But most importantly are you prepared to use it. In a self defense situation your adrenaline will skyrocket and your fine motor skills will plummet. Things that are simple is a calm situation will become exceedingly difficult in a stress situation. For instance something as simple as reloading your pistol may become next to impossible when your under stress, and I’m not even going to mention the massive drop in your accuracy.
The only way to overcome these things is making the operating of your self defense weapon a reflex. The only way to make an activity a reflex is to practice, practice, and practice some more. Further you should practice under stress conditions if at all possible. This can be accomplished by practicing under something like a shot time to time yourself on drills such as failure and reloading drills. The idea would be to perform a failure drill or reload the gun than shoot at the target while timing yourself.
Another thing I like to point out is knowing your self defense weapon in and out. There are two types of people when it comes to gun owners, those who own many and those who own few. The ones who own few generally know those weapons very well and those who own many usually known each weapon in a general sense. The trick is to known at least one or two weapons very well. If you’re like me and own multiple firearms designate one or two as self defense guns and practice those every time you head to the range. For instance every time I go to the range I practice with my carry guns (My primary is a Springfield XD in .45 auto and my backup is a Ruger LCP). When at home my defense weapon of choice is a Remington 870 Marine Magnum shotgun. Finally my go gun so to speak is my M-14 SOCOM 16. Yes that’s more than two but I always put my focus on my carry guns since those are what I’ll most likely be using and they work for home defense situations as well. Knowing your defense guns is critical, knowing your other guns is just nice.
Another rule I like to practice is to keep things simple. My carry guns are bare minimum. They have no additional attachments that need to be operated. I simply pull them and shoot them. If your defense gun has things you need to do before shooting practice that. For instance I sometimes carry my 1911 which has an external safety. Although I always keep the gun cocked and locked in my holster I never engage the safety. Yet when I practice drawing it I always move the thumb to disengage the safety. If it’s already disengaged nothing happens but if it become engaged somehow I will instinctively disengage it under stress. You need to make every action needed to bring the gun into firing order pure reflex so keeping things simple is the best bet. Another thing to keep in mine is laser sights. They are great on self defense guns because they allow you to make quickly acquire the target and shoot. The downside is they use batteries. So if you have a laser equipped gun practice using it without the laser so you can operate the firearm should the battery die in the laser sight. Always know how to operate your weapon in it’s absolute bare bones setup.
But most importantly you must be willing to use your firearm should you need it. Many people have the mindset that they could never harm another human being. This is really a load of crap because most people have a self preservation desire that can override their moral standings. In other words you will harm or even kill somebody to protect yourself or those you love. The thing is you need to realize this because if you don’t you may hesitate at the time self defense is needed most. Even a second thinking you don’t want to harm that person can cost you your life so get over that mindset immediately. I’m not advocating saying you will wantonly kill anybody for anything, just engrain the idea that you will harm of even kill somebody if they posed a threat to your life or the lives of your loved ones.
Simply owning the gun isn’t enough you need the practice and mindset to use it. Always keep that in mind, it may save your life someday.
Funny and sad news. In the post directly below this one I posted a link to Rob Allen’s guide to firearm identification for the mass media. It stated everything except the AK-47 was an AK-47. Apparently somebody read it and took it to heart.
Somebody called 911 when they thought they saw somebody walking around with an AK-47. Five officers were let loose in the area to find the hypothetical offender of decency. Well they found nothing but were lead to believe storming the Bungie studio was going to find their weapon. Bugie, the creators of the Halo video game franchise, and police swarming their building. So what did they find?
A prop gun from the Halo video game series. Yes somebody spotted somebody from Bungie carrying a replica of the game’s sniper rifle and decided it was not only a real gun by an AK-47 to boot.
Robb Allen made an updated media guide to firearm identification. It would be funny if it wasn’t also true.
I know I usually don’t post on the weekend but I thought I’d do it just this once (and probably again). I got back from four and a half amazing hours at the range. Several groups came and went with all but the last one letting me keep their spent brass. Needless to say I came home with a ton of 9mm and .40 brass.
But there was one older couple who showed up. This is where I got irritated. I was irritated because the husband was being a prick to his wife. See when talking to them they said they just got into shooting. The hearing protection my amazing girlfriend bought me have microphones, which means I could hear their conversation clear as day.
Well the conversation was more the husband belittling the wife because she didn’t know what to do with the firearms. I’m sorry but I get pissed when somebody belittles another just because that person being belittled is inexperienced. Well they had a Ruger MK. III that the extractor broke on. It broke while the wife was shooting it and the husband was having a hissy fit and getting mad at her for breaking it. Now she didn’t break it, it just broke. My guess being it was a new gun is that the extractor was faulty to start with. Then he belittled her for not hitting the target with their other pistol.
This kind of shit needs to stop. Not just in the shooting community but everywhere. But being this is a gun blog I’m going to say it needs to stop in the shooting community because new shooters aren’t going to enjoy a sport when they are getting tore into all the time. I did my part by walking over there and giving them some advice, but I didn’t tell the guy to knock it off because I didn’t want him to know my headset had a microphone and I could hear them. After showing the woman how to shoot she started doing better than the man there. That really upset him and that’s about the time they left.
Needless to say that guy was a total prick and I really wish he wasn’t at my range. Shooting should be enjoyable for all, not some reason to make your wife feel bad.