Rehearsal

Air Force cadets lining Pennsylvania Avenue in the fog. From Sixth Street facing west.

That's Gonna Leave A Mark

This kid totally demolishes Piers Morgan.

So good you'll want to watch it twice.

via Sebastian.

Captured Taliban Firearms

This is a Martini-Metford cavalry carbine, with a bicycle chain as a sling.

Interesting article from the NYT.

Mayor Mike Makes A Mis-step

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has likened a teachers' union to the NRA:

Of all the polarizing things Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has said and done over the years, from banning large sugary drinks to supporting congestion pricing, few have generated the sort of viral backlash that has unexpectedly mounted after his weekly radio show on Friday.

The mayor had embarked on a lengthy stream of consciousness on the need to negotiate a new teacher evaluation plan with the United Federation of Teachers. Toward the end, Mr. Bloomberg, almost as an aside, likened the teachers’ union to groups like the National Rifle Association and others in which he said a few leaders were out of sync with large numbers of rank-and-file members. 

NYT.

This is the same union that was once headed by Albert Shanker. He attained immortality when he was the butt of a famous joke in Woody Allen's movie Sleeper. The hero is transported into a dystopian future. When he asks what happened to the world as he knew it, he is told, "Our history books tell us that the old world was destroyed when a man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead."

For his part, Shanker is said to have loved the joke.

Publish Or Perish

The New York Times has covered the controversy regarding the publication of the names and addresses of pistol-permit holders in Westchester and Putnam counties by the Journal News. The item in the Times generated a huge number of comments, evenly split between pro- and anti-publication.

Two of my favorites:

What has happened to the left that I used to be a proud member? This has nothing to do with protecting your children or helping public safety. This is pure revenge on a group the left despises … the NRA. The comments are beyond the pale in their stereotyping and demonizing these people. Just because someone might have a permit, doesn’t mean they have a gun or even belong to or support the NRA. Maybe the person is in law enforcement, maybe the person is an abused wife, wanting protection.

And:

We, on the left, objected loudly when the names and addresses of doctors who perform abortions were made public. Are our ethics so situational that we now embrace the tactics of our opponents? How sad for us.

New Year's Resolution

My New Year's Resolution: each time I read in the mainstream media a direct quote from a Democratic congresscritter/Senator suggesting tougher federal gun control laws, I'm going to mail a modest financial donation to the RCCC or RSCC, as appropriate. And I will include a letter explaining why I sent the donation. And I will send a letter to either the DCCC or DSCC, as appropriate, explaining that my donation to their opponents is on behalf of the Second Amendment, due to the statements of their party's officeholders.

Sen. Charles Schumer is one of the foremost proponents of tougher federal gun control, but he used to be an absolute maniac on the subject. He never missed an opportunity to step in front of the TV cameras and expound at length on the subject: "NRA, blah, blah, gun lobby, blah, blah, evil-evil-evil."

But after his stint as chair of the DSCC (2005-2009), he has calmed down quite a bit. He found out how sensitive the rest of the country (in that wild and desolate wasteland west of the Hudson) was to the subject of gun control. He found out how difficult it was to raise money for red state Democrats who were perceived as favoring new federal gun control laws. And he found out how effectively the other side could raise money on the issue. It may be a winner in MA, NY, NJ, MD, DC, CA and Chicago, but it's a loser just about everywhere else. And public opinion is moving strongly away from gun control and continues to do so in spite of the horrific murders two weeks ago.

Rahm Emmanuel is said to have experienced a similar revelation when he was head of the DCCC (2005-2007). Later, as mayor, it didn't stop him from defending Chicago's indefensible gun laws, but his stubborness cost Chicago's taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees - and that's just for the other side (our side) - who knows how many millions Chicago paid to its own legal team? Not much, I hope...it was a pretty pathetic effort.

A couple of red (or, maybe, purple) state Democratic Senators recently expressed a newfound willingness to consider renewing the failed AWB. They aren't facing re-election for another four to six years, and they think we won't remember. But a third of the Senate faces re-election every two years. So a financial contribution to the opposition's fund-raising arm sends a strong message. I can imagine the head of the DSCC phoning Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and saying, "Mark, do you know how hard you're making my job? Do you remember when you recruited me for this position? Do you remember promising me that you would do everything you could to help me? Do you remember that, Mark? Do you really? Then WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SANDBAGGING ME AT EVERY TURN YOU SONOFABITCH!? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SHOOT YOUR MOUTH OFF ABOUT GUN CONTROL? WILL YOU JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

One can dream, can't one?

One pundit said, "If Congress doesn't pass tough new gun control laws after this, they never will."

Make it so.

Kokomo Gun Show

The line to get in to the Dulles Gun Show was so long that the gun show in Kokomo, Indiana is actually closer.

Heading to Kokomo with Roberta X, Tam and Shootin' Buddy.

Sent from my iPhone

Record Number Of Americans Oppose Handgun Ban

Even with the killings in Newtown as a backdrop, a new Gallup poll shows 74 percent of Americans now support the right to possess a handgun, while just 24 percent would support a ban.

WaPo.
Sent from my iPhone

WaPo: Guns Are A Part Of American Culture

Link.

Almost unbelievable that they would publish this, but I think the WaPo's editorial calculation is that they are finally going to get Congress to confiscate guns (in strict compliance with the Second Amendment, of course!) so they can afford the appearance of fairness, after mercilessly slandering American gun owners for nearly half a century.

It's Official: 8,000 New Members A Day

ABC News:

NRA News anchor Ginny Simone said Thursday that in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, membership surged "with an average of 8,000 new members a day."

40mm Ruger

In the Washington Post:

Sarah Pike came in as the men chatted and purchased a 40mm Ruger pistol. She asked McGrady about courses that would teach her how to use it. He wondered about her accent and asked where she was from. France, she said, and then she wondered out loud whether she could travel abroad with such a weapon.

“Not internationally, but you can travel anywhere in the continental United States,” he said, except Washington. “Just stay off the Beltway around D.C.”

The U.S. Already Had a Conversation About Guns—and the Pro Side Won

Interesting article in The Atlantic. Excerpt:

There isn't anything wrong with gun-control advocates lamenting what, by their lights, is a public that's reaching wrongheaded conclusions on the subject and is trending in the wrong direction.

But too many pieces I've read make a mockery of robust debate in a pluralistic society by ignoring the fact that current policy is largely (though not entirely) a reflection of the U.S. public disagreeing with gun reformers. The average American is far more likely than the average journalist or academic to identify with gun culture, to insist that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to bear arms, to exercise that right, and to support various state concealed-carry laws. Perhaps persuasion can move the citizenry to favor a different status quo. That's always a hurdle to clear in a democracy. Yet the ability to engage and persuade fellow citizens is undermined when public discourse obscures rather than confronts the relevant disagreements.

The problem goes beyond the absurd conceit that a conversation about guns had yet to begin prior to this week.

I'll give you an example.

In an Atlantic Wire post titled "It's Time We Talked About Gun Control," my sharp colleague Jen Doll writes, "We're going to have to talk about this; we're going to have to form coherent thoughts; and we're going to have to stop simply cleaving to our agendas and our selfish little opinions of what we want and what we think we should have -- and when 'the right time is' -- if this is ever going to get any better." But that isn't a call for a conversation! It's an assertion that opponents of gun control are selfish, and that they (not "we") are going to "have to" change their minds. It's fine to make that argument. The problem is couching it as a mere call for talking, when it is in fact an assertion that the only reasonable conclusion is that the other guys are wrong. 

Bingo!

The Call of Snoophulhu

From boing-boing.

Target Practice

I put the eccentric inserts into the Burris rings to walk the scope into the bullseye. I'm closing in on it. The OnTarget software says that this is a 1.005" group, centered 0.538" to the right and 2.220" low. That's a big improvement over 5.5" right and 2.9" low. Ammo as before was the same lot of Remington Premier Accutip 55-gr, MV=3240, BC=0.242.

"But you're wrong," I said. "Hello? Is This Thing On?"

At Boing-boing is a story in which the Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert describes an interview he gave to NBC News on the day after the Columbine slayings. The reporter was looking for sound bites to support the theory that violent movies cause violence in society.

In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of "explaining" them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy. 

Link.

Fatal Vision

Probably the last appeal for former Green Beret doctor Jeffrey MacDonald, serving life for the 1970 slayings of his wife and two young daughters.

A terrific account in the WaPo:

Causation vs. Correlation

A New York Times columnist/blogger drones on with the usual nonsense about Bob Costas, the U.S. homicide rate, the Kellermann studies, etc., etc.

But hidden in the comments section was this nugget:

As a Canadian who's studied homicide stats pretty extensively, I have to tell you that I think you're barking up the wrong tree. My own home province of Newfoundland has a gun ownership rate of 45% of all households, almost exactly the same rate as the United States. Yet our homicide rate is a mere 1.4 per 100,000, compared to the US national rate of about 4.2 per 100,000.

However, looking back over the past decade, we cannot claim as low a homicide rate as North Dakota, which has been less violent than any Canadian province, and yet has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in North America, far higher than, say, Detroit (48.2 homicides per 100,000), or Washington DC (21.9 per 100,000).

The US homicide rate is about 2.5 x that of Canada. But 52% of US homicides are committed by African-Americans, who are only 12% of the US population. If you compare Canada with the other 88% of the US population, you will find that homicide rates are very close.

Likewise, comparing the 50 US states, 10 Canadian provinces, and 3 Canadian territories, the top three jurisdictions for homicide per capita are usually Louisiana, Nunavut (the Inuit territory), and the Northwest Territories, in that order.

Social problems and cultural attitudes drive homicide, and I say this not as an advocate for the gun lobby, nor as a believer in innate racial or cultural differences. I'm neither, just someone who respects what the numbers tell us.

Clark Brothers

This is a venerable Virginia gunshop in rural (although increasingly less so) Warrenton, Va.

Behind the store they operate a pistol-rifle-shotgun range, with rifle targets at 25, 50 and 100 yards.

This is the first five shots from the Kimber .22 at 25 yards. Ug-LEEE!

And after walking the shots in, here is the final group.

But to get that result, I had to dial the rear peep-sight all the way to the right, 54 clicks! And 42 clicks down. Something's wrong there. Obviously I need to learn how to use peep sights. I did have the foresight to keep track of how many clicks I turned, so that I could return the sight to center.

The AR-15 with the scope and the bull barrel came along, too. Here's a 100-yard group. The aiming point was the bullseye in the upper left! So the group center was 5.4" to the right and 2.9" low. My plan is to put 0.010" eccentric inserts into the front and rear scope rings, to shove the scope to the right. Just for curiosity’s sake. Before I touch the scope turrets.

Christmas Came Early This Year

Fedex just delivered, to my front door, this mysterious package from Anniston, Alabama.

Inside was this Kimber M82 rifle, caliber .22LR. 

 

That's Kimber of Clackamas, Oregon, y'all.

They said it was "rusty" but I can't find a spot of rust on it anywhere.

There was also this plastic bag...

...containing the bolt and these extraordinary target sights.

The barrel was sealed up with a full-length paper tube.

The stock appears to be in perfect shape. There are a couple of scratches on the other side. There is also an aluminum channel built into the lower surface of the fore-end, perhaps for a bipod? And an original manual.

To say I am pleased would be an understatement!

Thank you, CMP!

Range Report

After a 2-hour wait I was assigned to lane 9 and set my target out at 25 yards. I had a box of Federal XM193F, 5.56mm M193 Ball, 55-gr. boat-tail cartridges. I aimed at the target center and my first two shots landed 2 inches down and 2 inches to the right. That's disappointing, because it would be 8 inches at 100 yards, but at least I have some real-world results to ponder.

So rather than adjust the turrets I decided to "shoot a box": I turned the windage turret 64 clicks to the right and fired two more shots, then turned the elevation turret 64 clicks up and fired two more, then 64 clicks left windage and two more, then 64 clicks left and two more shots, then finally 64 clicks down and two more shots. I was shooting from a bag rest each time. The shots seemed to track the turrets pretty well. These turrets are 1/8" per click.

The second target was at 50 yards:

This seemed to be more like 3.5 inches to the right, or 7 inches at 100 yards.

I'm not really so concerned about the elevation because I'm so close to the target that the bullet is still rising to meet the line of sight; the scope is mounted about 2" above the bore.

The three shots above the bull were just to finish off the cartridge box.

The wind was really vicious today, so my plans to visit Clark Bros. in Warrenton had to be postponed. They have a rifle range with 25, 50 and 100-yard targets.

My goal is to use the adjustable rings to get the rifle on target at all ranges, for windage anyway, without adjusting the turrets.

I also fired eight magazines from the Ruger 22/45 with the red dot sight, and half a box from the Nagant "7-shooter". The Nagant has a formidable double-action trigger pull; I used single action. Nice shooter! Very quiet and very little recoil. Only 98-gr bullets.

The Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm compact sent some lead downrange, too, to test four new magazines (CTD has 'em in stock if you act fast).

Check out the unfired Nagant cartridge (far right) and the spent case next to it.

And I just noticed this: look at the unusual dimple in the primer. What do you make of that? 

And it wasn't just the Blaser, either. This one is Winchester White Box. It shows a dimple (at the 10 o'clock position) and a firing-pin "comma" (at 5 o'clock).