8/28/2004
Something New for My Wish List
Does this look like something that would just piss DiFi off to no end?
That's a semi-auto 12 gauge shotgun based on the Kalashnikov action. It's called the Saiga-12K. Also available in 20ga and .410. Unfortunately, they're not imported, thanks to Bush Sr's '89 Import rule. I think it'd be great for 3-gun. And that means it has a 'sporting' purpose. So it should be allowed.
Now, I wonder if this conversion would work with the shotguns? And would any more U.S. made parts be needed to avoid running afoul of any laws?
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8/27/2004
CFC Time Again
For those of us who are employed by Uncle Sam (thank you for paying your taxes folks), the Combined Federal Campaign has rolled around again. I have filled out my donation slip and selected my worthy causes. I mention them here because I believe them to be worthy of support.
The Boy Scouts of America-the link is to the national organization, where you can find links to the Scout council in your local area.
The USO-serving our troops until the last one comes home.
The Military Officers Association of America Scholarship Fund-provides interest free loans and grants to children of enlisted and officers for college education.
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Battling Law Enforcers
In an op-ed a few days ago, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske wrote in favor of renewing the AWB (my comment on Kerlikowske's op-ed is here).
In today's Seattle P-I, King County Sherriff Dave Reichert comes out in opposition to the AWB. What makes this so interesting is that Seattle is the biggest city in King County.
Reichert said, "My whole point has always been holding gun owners responsible and accountable and always focusing on those people who were committing crimes with guns. ... I've never felt that the banning of certain weapons has really done anything at all."
Why the difference in opinion from to law enforcement top dogs from the same place? Reichert is right on target:
"He's an appointed chief, and I'm an elected sheriff," Reichert said.
Kerlikowske has to kowtow to the liberal Seattle pols who appointed him. Reichert is elected (and is now running for Congress) on his own positions.
All is not roses on the RKBA front with Sherriff Reichert, however.
But Reichert admits his support of allowing the weapons ban to sunset is based on only part of the legislation -- the part that bans particular semiautomatic weapons.
He said high-capacity magazines are the real problem for law enforcement. "I don't like the idea of someone having a magazine that can carry 40 rounds and point it at me, as a police officer."
Restricting the magazine capacity to 10 rounds of ammunition gives his men a fighting chance, he said.
Well, Sherriff, if DiFi (and her allies from Washington state, Senators Murray and Cantwell) ever get their way and vote to take my guns away, I don't want to be outgunned by the stormtroopers. The citizens have more right to be safe from the government than the government, and any agents thereof, have to be safe from the citizens.
Reichert does go on to state that he would not propose any legislation renewing any part of the ban. So he seems to be kind of squishy on the RKBA issue. Not sure about any of the other Republicans he's running against for the party nomination, but I'd probably vote for Reichert over any Dem that's running.
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Conspiracy Theory
Watching the slow implosion of John Kerry, I began to ponder a conspiracy theory...
Everybody knows that the Clintonistas (McAwful, et al) still run the Democrat party.
Everybody knows that Hildebeast wants to be President, preferably starting in 2008.
President Kerry would probably preclude Hildebeast from running in 2008.
Is it possible that the Clinton minions knew of these skeletons in Kerry's closet, and deliberately engineered Kerry's nomination, as well as his idiotic campaign strategy, with the intent that Kerry lose the election?
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Another Salvo from the Swift Boaters
John O'Neill, in today's OpinionJournal. Key quote:
"Mr. Kerry, we ask you not to repeat the same mistake you made when you returned from war: Please stop maligning your fellow veterans. Dealing with us should be easy. Just answer our charges. Produce your Vietnam journal and notes, and execute Standard Form 180 so the American people can see your complete military record--not just the few forms you put on your website or show to campaign biographers."
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8/26/2004
Modern Pentathlon
File under: Cool trivia I didn't know.
Was sitting in the waiting area at the Audi dealer today, waiting for them to replace a faulty turn signal relay, watching the Olympics. The equestrian portion of the pentathlon was on. The competitors were wearing standard equestrian attire-riding boots, white pants, various colored jackets, and helmets. Then it came the turn of the second American competitor, Chad Senior.
Make that First Lieutenant Chad Senior, United States Army Infantry. Wearing his dress blue uniform jacket, ribbons, badges, Infantry cord and all, along with blue riding pants with a gold stripe on the sides. Seems it is customary for pentathlon competitors who are members of their nation's military to wear their uniform for the riding event. 1LT Senior was the only soldier I saw.
Very cool. You learn something new every day.
UPDATE 1LT Seniors bio can be found here. Other Army Olympians, including CPT Anita Allen (women's pentathlon) and a bunch of shooters, can be found here.
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Seattle Police Chief's AWB Editorial
Gil Kerlikowske, the Chief of Police of McDermottland Seattle, editorializes in favor of renewing the AWB in yesterday's Seattle Times.
Through the tireless efforts of law-enforcement leaders and concerned citizens over many years working to rid the streets of dangerous assault weapons, the assault-weapons ban was finally passed into law in 1994. Congress passed this landmark legislation with the support and approval of Presidents Ford, Carter and Clinton. The assault-weapons ban has been successfully in effect for 10 years, but it seems that our success is coming to an end.
So, um, the approvla of the only man never elected as either President or Veep, along with two known gun-grabbers whose administrations were pretty much failures is supposed to make the unconstitutional law OK? How does that work? And where exactly do you get the "successfully in effect for 10 years" bit? Especially after both the CDC and NIJ found no evidence of any reduction in crime due to gun control laws?
Starting Sept. 14, our law-enforcement officers and the general public will face a more dangerous environment in our communities. It appears that President Bush and Congress are going to let the federal assault-weapons ban expire. This makes no sense.
The ban was passed for very practical reasons. Prior to 1994, criminals were armed with enough firepower to outgun the police, making them nearly impossible to subdue, and allowing them to wreak terrible havoc in public places. The ban kept military-style assault weapons out of the hands of criminals. Since the passage of the ban, federal crime statistics show a dramatic 66-percent drop in the incidence of assault weapons traced to crimes. Given that, I can't think of a rational reason not to renew this law.
The ban was actually passed for a couple of reasons, one very stupid, and one quite sinister. The stupid reason was because it made the blissninnies feel good because they were "doing something" about "gun crime." Nevermind that two government studies by two different agencies have shown that the law didn't really do anything at all. The sinister reason is part of the gun grabbers larger agenda: to simultaneuosly condition the average citizen that certain "evil" types of firearms can be banned, while at the same time chipping away at our rights as protected by the Second Amendment.
Chief Blissninny then asserts that prior to 1994 the goblins outgunned the cops, implying that now, thats to the Evil Black Rifle Ban, that is not the case. This is even though the ban did not remove a single 'assault weapon' from the hands of a single criminal. And by the way Chief, if your officers are outgunned, maybe you should talk to city council about buying some better weapons for your department.
Gun grabbers like to quote the "dramatic 66-percent drop in the incidence of assault weapons traced to crimes" when talking about the EBR ban. This in spite of the statement from the BATFE that "[F]irearms selected for tracing do not constitute a random sample and cannot be considered representative of the larger universe of all firearms used by criminals, or of any subset of that universe. As a result, data from the tracing system may not be appropriate for drawing inferences such as which makes or models of firearms are used for illicit purposes."
The "dramatic drop" in EBR traces is easily explained by a couple of factors. One is that 'assault weapons' are used in a very small number-less than 2%-of all crimes involving firearms. Any time you have a small sample size, statistics can move very dramatically on very small actual changes. Second is that violent crime overall has been dropping for over a decade. So naturally, the number of crimes involving 'assault weapons' is also going to drop. And finally, by ending the production of 'assault weapons,' the law increased their rarity, and thus their cost, pushing criminals (who, by the way, aren't legally allowed to own guns of any sort) to use less costly alternatives. Simple economics (although economics tends to be a subject where liberals display a stunning lack of knowledge.)
Police across the nation face danger on the job daily. Why should Congress and the president be allowed to increase that danger? None of us — in the law-enforcement or civilian community — should have to face military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
As noted above, very rarely does anyone-police or average citizen-find themselves on the hostile end of an 'assault weapon.' And just so you know, Chief, the magazines these firearms are designed to use-whether the 15 round magazine for a Beretta 92 or a 30 rounder for a Kalashnikov-are standard capacity, not "high capacity." High capacity is something above and beyond the intent of the weapon's designers.
Law-enforcement officers, for the most part, take pride in the ability to maintain the peace with a sidearm. If this ban is allowed to expire, our nation's law-enforcement leaders will be faced with the reality of having front-line officers out-gunned by every street gang, drug trafficker and common criminal with access to the neighborhood sporting-goods store.
Since Chief Kerlikowske's department was singularly ineffective in stopping unarmed criminals during the WTO protests and the 2001 Mardi Gras riots, I can understand why he fears for their safety should they actually have to face armed criminals. But it should comfort him to know that since the supply of semi-automatic, magazine fed rifles and pistols was in no way interrupted by the EBR ban, the expiration of said ban will not result in Seattle's criminal class suddenly being better armed than his officers. Unless, of course, those criminals develop a sudden and unforeseen obsession with bayonet drill.
The reality is, when the family firearm becomes an AK-47 or Tec-9 assault pistol, it also becomes the easy weapon of choice for would-be school shooters and other violent teens. How many more lives will the gun lobby put at risk to sell more assault weapons?
To the best of my knowledge, the only school shooting involving a weapon covered by the 1994 law was the Stockton schoolyard shooting in 1989, five years before the national ban and several months before the California state ban. Columbine shooters Klebold and Harris used a copy of the TEC-9, the DC-9, that is legal under the 1994 law, along with several other guns not covered by the ban.
We know that our best defense for public safety and homeland security is the ability of law enforcers to provide a degree of safety and security without having to engage criminals armed with assault weapons. As law-enforcement professionals, we must demand that our lawmakers help by keeping in place proven legislation that reduces crime and keeps our communities safe from violence.
"Amendment II: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
Can you read that, Chief? An armed citizenry is essential to the security of a free state. At least, the Founding Fathers thought so. So why are you trying to disarm us?
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8/25/2004
My $0.02 on Kerry & Vietnam
Thus far I haven't said anything on the whole hulabaloo involving Kerry, his claims about his time in Vietnam, and the Swiftboat Vets. There's plenty of commentary elsewhere, and I don't have anything original to add. My only comment is that Kerry could end the whole thing by simply releasing his service records and his journal to the media.
Except I've noticed one other thing: while the controversy for sure isn't helping Kerry's campaign, and Kerry and his media minions keep trying to make it go away, it is actually accomplishing one thing: it is delaying, perhaps indefinitely, any close scrutiny of Kerry's record during his time in elected office. Given that Kerry doesn't appear to have done much during almost two decades as a Senator beyond showing up (and not even that for the last year or so), and to my knowledge hasn't held any major party leadership posts or headed important committees, I'm sure Kerry doesn't really want his record of non-achievement looked at too much, which is why he's running on his 4+ months in Vietnam (if you're in a swing state) and his anti-Vietnam war activism (if you're a hard core Dem) in the first place.
UPDATE: Allan at BMEWS reached the same conclusion about 30 minutes before me.
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A Cop Goes Off
Officer Henry "Snake" Bowman goes off on cops who don't support the Second Amendment.
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Another Disgusting Leftist Dimwit
I had to make an emergency run to the supermarket last night, because we were short a key ingredient for dinner. In the parking lot was a car festooned with a collection ofsocialist left-leaning bumper stickers. Most were nothing I haven't seen before, but one caught my eye for it's utter pointlessness and below-the-belt attempt at being funny.
"Jenna Bush Stole My ID"
Excuse me, but how is that supposed to be relevant to anything at all? Is it a commentary that you can't come up with anything logical and coherent to argue about why her father is a bad president, so you resort illogical and lame jibes at his daughter in a pathetic attempt to hide your lack of a point behind humor? So what, the girl got caught using a fake ID to try to buy a drink, what, two years ago? It's nothing that doesn't happen to thousands of college students every month (a result of our nation refusing to treat legal adults like, well, adults when it comes to alcohol.) In fact, if her father wasn't who he is, she probably never would have been caught.
Even the man you lefties most revile, the patron saint of all that is wrong with media, Rush Limbaugh, left Chelsea Clinton alone. Is asking the same courtesy for the Bush twins too much to ask? The election is about George Bush, John Kerry, the War with Islamofascists terrorists, a bunch of other issues. It's not about Bush or Kerry's daughters.
Do me a favor. Take your stupid childish attitude, along with that smug smile you're wearing because you think you're assinine sticker is so damn fucking clever, and grow the hell up.
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8/24/2004
Why Dem Ex-Presidents Won't Go Away
A while back, in the comments section of some blog, I don't remember which, I wondered why Democrat ex-Presidents like Carter and Clinton can't keep their noses our of current affairs, while GOP ex-Presidents (Bush I, Reagan, Ford) tend to keep low profiles. For the record, I don't consider Bush I's appearances on the History Channel and Carter's Habitat for Humanity work to be sticking their noses in current affairs. Clinton came back to for an encore performance at the Dem's convention, right after releasing his paperweight autobiography. Carter runs around doing all sorts of annoying stuff, from brokering worthless treaties with North Korea (that promptly get violated) to certifying as legit elections in Venezula despite contnued evidence that something odd was afoot with the voting machines.
Yesterday, it finally hit me why Carter and Clinton won't go away: their administrations were failures. Carter's failure was big enough to limit him to one term. Clinton's produced some good things-NAFTA and welfare reform foremost among them-but those were largely pet issues for the GOP, not Democrats. And at any rate, those issues are overshadowed by the Lewinsky affair. so what they're trying to do is overshadow their failure in office with their actions afterward.
Please, gentlemen, just go home, sit by the fire, watch football, have a beer, and shut the heck up.
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Who Knew?
Via Stix:
Apparently, Alice Cooper is a Republican, and he's not to hip on the anti-Bush concert tour planned by Mellencamp, Springsteen, et al.
"To me, that's treason. I call it treason against rock 'n' roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics," says the 56-year-old Cooper.
...
If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."
I was listening to Denis Leary's "No Cure for Cnacer in the truck this weekend. Not sure if Denis is a Republican, but he had a similar take, regarding REM, et al:
"Hey hey hey hey! Pull that bus over to the side of the Pretentiousness Turnpike! I want the Shiny people over here, and the Happy people over here! I represent angry, gun toting, meat eating fucking people!
Don Henley's going to tell me how to vote...I don't fucking think so."
The Canadian article also mentions Britney Spears, Toby Keith, and Ted Nugent as big name music industry GOP backers. Might make an interesting concert of their own, along with Cooper, although I don't think you'd find to many people who enjoy all of their music. (I, for one, will only watch Spears' videos with the sound off. Very nice to look at, but not much musically.)
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Weekend Range Report
OK, all weekend with no posts. We graduated a batch of soldiers last week, so I actually had the whole weekend, plus Monday, off. We pick up another group tomorrow, back to 6 day, 80+ hour weeks.
But couple a weekend off with my Mom visiting (and thus able to babysit Jr) and I actually got to go to the rifle range, for the first time since March. The shoot was a get together with a couple of other guys from The High Road at the Mid-Carolina Rifle Club. Several sunny hours spent turning gunpowder into noise with various rifles is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I got a chance to shoot some rifle/carbine types that I'd never shot before, which was really cool. A few random thoughts:
-a FAL clone is now much further down my Gun Wish List. It's still there, because it's an EBR, just a lot further down on my list. The rifle I got to shoot was a homebuild featuring a SAW buttstock, StG58 front end, and a muzzle comp. I just didn't find it that pleasant to shoot, and I've already got a .308 battle rifle (M1A) that I like shooting more.
-a Kalishnikov clone is now very high on the wish list. 3 of these were present: a MAK-90, a SAR-1 with a (pinned) TAPCO folder stock, and a pre-ban Chinese underfolder in .223. All were great fun to shoot, and they have an extremely high Blissninny Hyperventilation Factor (BHF). The Rolls Royce of AKs, the KTR-03S, is still the ultmate dream, but an inexpensive Romanian that I can put evil black accessories on will be fun.
-3 of the 4 of us present brought Yugo M59/66 SKSs. God these are fun to shoot. Cheap ammo, light recoil. Only problem is that it's almost impossible to get all the cosmoline out of the wood, and it starts smoking after you fire it a bit. My C&R license applies to Russian, Romanian, and Albanian SKSs, and I plan to get at least one of each of those, eventually. One of the Norinco SKS-D models would be fun to have as well.
-Clay pidgeons are dang tough to hit at 100 yards. After hundreds of rounds expended, I think we only actually managed to kill less than 10 of them. The rest just got buried. Next time we need to bring some #10 cans.
One of the guys who was there brought a digital camera and took pics. I'll post a link when he puts them up. And of course, I'll send some to DiFi just for laughs.
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