Robb Allen is trying to help a friend of his who is looking to buy his first firearm, only problem is, his friend’s wife thinks its dangerous to keep a gun in the house. My advice is to seek out training after you make your decision. If home defense is really what you’re looking for, a shotgun may be more competently wielded by beginner than a pistol, and a shotgun has far greater stopping power. If kids are part of the picture, a shotgun is less accident prone. If you really want a pistol, a quick open safe is recommended if there’s kids in the house. Trigger locks are dangerous. If one comes with your gun throw it away and find a better way to secure it.
Month: April 2009
Gillibrand Sponsors Lautenberg Bill
JR reports she’s listed as a consponsor on the bill, and adds:
Isn’t this the same Kirsten Gillibrand everyone was sending money to because she was such a pro-gun Democrat?
I will admit I was thoroughly wrong about Kirsten Gillibrand. But at the time I was her advocate, there was no evidence to doubt Gillibrand’s fidelity to the issue except for a lot of cynicism. Sometimes cynicism turns out to be right, and this was one of those cases. But cynicism is also destructive if taken too far.
But prior to her elevation to the Senate, she signed on to everything NRA ever asked her to, including co-sponsoring ATF reform, signing into the Heller brief, and voting for DC gun rights. Do I regret supporting her? Yep. But hindsight is always 20/20. You have to take chances sometimes. They won’t always work out. I’m taking one with my new State Representative. Taking a back seat and seeing how things turn out is not going to be effective, because politicians don’t come to your view through the righteousness of it, they come to it by being influenced. I don’t see any logic in standing outside of that process, and automatically cede that ground to our opponents.
Nonetheless, if you were a hoodwinked supporter of hers, I would encourage you to make your displeasure known to her here, as I have done, especially if you’re a resident of New York. I would also note that even if her Republican opponent is anti-gun, you’d at least be helping put the Senate back in charge of lawmakers who will support us.
Blue Trail Range Update
Blue Trail Range has been out of the news lately, but it looks like it’s still operating with its safety improvements. We’ve blogged about their trials and tribulations often here. Reader TacDriver ran some ballistic calculations on the range, based on topographical data. As results indicated, the house that complained about being hit is in the ballistic shadow of the mountain.
This is good work, I think, and I’m glad TacDriver took the time to do it, and share it with us.
4,000 Self-Defense Incidents
Clayton Cramer has managed to document over 4000 incidents on his Civilian Self-Defense Blog.
More Rally Coverage from Yesterday
The Allentown Morning Call has coverage of the event here. Apparently they checked 63 guns in total. Mine would be among them. NUGUN also has some coverage here, here, some great photos here, and finally here. What’s really interesting is that NUGUN got a photo of the reporter interviewing the Grumbines for the article above. I noticed him because we follow his blog.
Feeling the Itch
I think it was Eric Raymond said that “Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’s personal itch.” Last week, Dave Carpenter, our Silhouette Director asked me about using database software to keep track of our matches. That’s where the itch started. As if I don’t yet have too little time with all that I’m doing, I’m thinking of starting a new Open Source software project.
It wouldn’t really be all that hard to program all the scoring parameters into software for the various NRA, IPSC, IHMSA, IDPA, and whatever other governing bodies you can think of, into a LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) system that keeps track of people’s scores, averages, personal bests, and be able to track how shooters are moving in the rankings, and is able to generate match reports in either HTML, PDF, or whatever other format you can think up, and there is PHP code for.
I think this could be a great help to match directors, as compiling scores can be time consuming. But is there anything else out there that does such a thing? Dave currently uses spreadsheets to do it all, but it gets complicated in spreadsheet software. Plus, I’m thinking of clubs could easily and quickly integrate match results into their web sites, that could be a fantastic way to keep people interested.
What do you all thing about such an idea? Any match directors out there want to comment?
Wisconsin Issues
In addition to Wisconsin considering microstamping legislation, it looks like Ed Rendell’s buddy, Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, is pushing some of the same issues. He’s suggesting local communities be allowed to pass their own ordinances regulating firearms. The attorney general recently issued an opinion reminding law enforcement officials that carrying firearms openly was lawful in the State of Wisconsin. No matter though, the Milwaukee Police Chief says he’ll just ignore it.
“My message to my troops is if you see anybody carrying a gun on the streets of Milwaukee, we’ll put them on the ground, take the gun away and then decide whether you have a right to carry it,” Flynn said. “Maybe I’ll end up with a protest of cowboys. In the meantime, I’ve got serious offenders with access to handguns. It’s irresponsible to send a message to them that if they just carry it openly no one can bother them.”
How many gang bangers, shooting it out on the streets of Milwaukee, are openly carrying their gat? It’s a lawful activity, and Wisconsin’s recent right to bear arms constitutional provision, passed in 1998, protects that right from local interference.
If the City of Milwaukee wants to deal with multiple federal civil rights suits, under Section 1983 of Title 42 of the United States Code, they’re welcome. In fact, I dare him to do what he’s suggesting. I would remind Cheif Ed Flynn that Section 1983 allows a plantiff to sue you personally, not just you in your official capacity, for violation of civil rights. So if you want to end up paying for a gun rights activist’s ammo supply for the rest of his life, I’d urge the City to get Flynn on a leash now, while this can still be handled cheaply. Once faces start hitting concrete, all bets are off.
I would urge open carry activists in Wisconsin to laywer up. Get good ones who know how to handle 1983 suits. Plan this out. Don’t just tell every yahoo to open carry in downtown Milwaukee and then end up creating a mess.
Lautenberg Update
His bill is worse than a mere ban on private sales:
- gun show promoters to register with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), maintain a list of vendors at all gun shows and ensure that all vendors acknowledge receipt of information about their legal obligations; and
- federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to submit information, including the manufacturer/importer, model and serial number of firearms transferred at gun shows to the ATF’s National Tracing Center (NTC). No personal information about either the seller or the purchaser would be given to the ATF. Instead, as under current law, FFLs would maintain personal information in their files. The National Tracing Center would request personal information from an FFL only if a firearm becomes the subject of a law enforcement trace request.
This would likely overwhelm ATF’s trace system, and make data from it nearly useless, in terms of patterns of traced guns. I wouldn’t be surprised to see ATF come out against this. Of course, it could mean they need to hire more staff, and get a nice shiny new tracing system, so the perverse bureaucratic incentives could work out in its favor too.
Ooops!
The Four Corners monument is apparently off by 2 1/2 miles. The initial survey that established the borders of those states in 1868 was off. It would seem that all the maps would be off too, in that case. If that’s true, I would imagine the bigger story is probably that some folks who believed they lived in one state will now find out they live in another.
I imagine this is going to have implications for water rights, considering the San Juan river now is going through states it wasn’t originally thought to be going through. There’s an old saying in the west that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fightin’. If this survey is correct, I would say Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah are going to be fighting for some time.
UPDATE: Actual location of the border is centered on this map here. There’s going to be a lot of people affected. Several towns.
UPDATE: Looks like the controlling law here was the Arizona Organic Act of 1863.
That all that part of the present Territory of New Mexico situate west of a line running due south from the point where the southwest corner of the Territory of Colorado joins the territory of New Mexico.
There would then have to be an act declaring what the border between Colorado and New Mexico territories was supposed to be. I’ll see if I can find that.
UPDATE: Yep. Congress passed “An Act to provide a termporary Government for the Territory of Colorado” passed in 1861:
That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the following limits, viz: commencing on the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, where the twenty-fifth meridian of longitude west from Washington crosses the same; thence north on said meridian to the forty-first parallel of north latitude; thence along and parallel west to the thirty-second meridian of longitude west from Washington; thence south on said meridian to the northern line of New Mexico; thence along the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby erected into a temporary government by the name of the Territory of Colorado.
Washington is located at 77 longitude west, so that would indeed put the southwest corner of the Colorado Territory at 109 longitude west.  Hell, even Google Earth says it’s off. Looks like Arizona and Utah just got more territory, and New Mexico and Colorado will lose some. Of course, I don’t doubt this matter will go to court, and be settled there, but from a cartological point of view, the border seems to be wrong.
UPDATE: Very interesting Wikipedia entry on public land surveys.
Lautenberg Pushing Private Transfer Ban
Frank Lautenberg held a very Brady press conference yesterday, saying he’ll introduce legislation to end the “gun show loophole,” which is code speak for making it a federal crime to sell or give a gun to your shooting buddy or family member. Since we were in Harrisburg yesterday, we didn’t get a chance to report on this while it was breaking. Virginia Shooting Sports Association has a pretty thorough rundown.
I would also point out that we have a ban on private transfers on handguns here in Pennsylvania. It is impossible to legally obtain a pistol without a background check. Yet Our gun laws are constantly touted as “ineffective” and “insufficient” by those pushing for more.  The exceedingly high crime rate in Philadelphia is always pointed to as an example of that. It’s too easy to violate the law, and too difficult to enforce it. It will only be obeyed by those who know the law, and are interested in complying with it. Which is to say, not the people murdering police officers in Philadelphia.