The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Michael Yon needs some help identifying what looks like some type of rocket launcher or recoilless rifle:
I’m pretty familiar with the world’s weapons sytems, but I have no idea. I’m prepared to say it’s a hack job. I don’t think the Chinese or the Russians produce anything that looks like this.
h/t: Instapundit
Some photos of this weekend’s insane camping out in the cold and snow. We were on top of a mountain, about 2300 feet (which is high for Pennsylvania), so temperatures were close to 0 degrees F. I went with another blogger, who some of you might know, and met one of my coworkers and her husband up there. A few camping and shooting pictures here:
My coworker’s husband Steve packing the gear up at the end of the weekend. I owe him a Klondike Bar. I brought up a pack of them, buried them in the snow, then ended up skewering one of them with a bayonet as I poked around for them.
The best way to roast marshmallows is with a Mosin-Nagant bayonet. Nothing like mashmallows eaten with a hint of cosmoline and hoppes no 9. Mmmm.
Your host enjoying the last of his non-corrosive 5.45x39mm ammo fired out of the AK74. I have a whole crate that’s corrosive stuff, but, unlike with a surplus bolt action, you have to clean out the entire gas system, the flash hider, bolt and bolt carrier in addition to cleaning the barrel out. I had no idea they made 5.45x39mm with corrosive primers, and found out the hard way. I don’t win any fashion awards, clearly, but when in cold weather, if you’re going to shoot a commie gun, in a pinko caliber, you should wear a red army hat.
My AR-15 being shot by the mystery blogger. Maybe you can guess who this is?
I decided to take the Mosin-Nagant out into the cold so it could feel at home. Our mystery blogger had a lot of fun shooting it, despite the fact that the rifle brutalizes the shooter, much like the system that produced it. I’ve though about calling that soreness you feel the next morning after shooting that rifle “Stalin’s Revenge”.
The Brady’s and their ilk are sure to jump on this tragedy before the bodies are even cold. The press will want to play this up for the new Congress as well.
This highlights the importance of being armed where you’re legally able to be. Details aren’t coming out yet, but it looks like an armed off-duty police officer may have saved a lot of lives.
My new Macbook Pro arrived yesterday. I’ll be setting everything up tonight. Blogging will resume once I’ve configured my new toy the way I want.
Despite temperatures in the single digits, I did not freeze to death over the weekend. Pictures will be forthcoming once I get some time. I didn’t get back until late last night, so I haven’t thought much about things to blog about.
For some reason bloglines hasn’t been updating my feed for the past week. I’m working with them to resolve the issue.
I’m heading out to do some camping/shooting, even though it’s going to be well below freezing. Going with a friend and blogger you’re all probably familiar with, and meeting up with one of my co-workers for the camping, and maybe the shooting (if they want to come along, her husband has an expert weapons qualification badge from when he was in the 82nd Airborne). This is in the mountains of Northern Pennsylvania: the Ricketts Glen area. Going along is the 16″ barreled AR-15, the AK-74, my 44 Magnum, and one other rifle, but I haven’t decided what yet. These are the hard questions in life.
Going to have to do some hiking too, naturally. Anyways… off to freeze to death! Have fun folks.
I’ve heard a lot of theories over the past few days about what would motivate Marion Barry to propose lifting the DC gun ban. I think Gun Law News came up with the most probable sounding:
Having spent 35 years in the D.C. area, I always had the impression that Barry was running on about 20 watts – not the brightest bulb in the pack. My suspicion is that Marion has sourced a gun for himself and just wants to be able to register it. Unfortunately, he is probably a prohibitted person due to his criminal convictions.
I have to agree here folks, setting up people for later confiscation, or trying to eliminate standing for the Parker case, I think is giving the former Mayor way too much credit.
I’ve never been in favor of public financing of campaigns, because of one very simple reason:
Independents can also participate in the program, but would get less money.
And everyone thought that public financing will clean up politics. It will not.  It’ll just allow the current set of politicians and government bureaucrats decide who will get the money. That’s too much power to have in the hands of government anyway.
The desire to get special interests out of politics is a desire of those in power to insulate themselves from criticism, and not have to work as hard to hold their seats. Everyone is a special interest, and we have a constitutional right to lobby our government, and I do believe that means I have a right to give however much money I want, either directly, or through interest groups, in support of candidates who agree with me on the issues.
but can’t pass the LSATs?  Well, don’t try to bribe the LSAC employees for a copy of it.