Category: Carrying / Self-Defense

United is planning on replacing all their flight manuals and charts with iPads. I’m not surprised by this, as there are quite a number of apps for aviation, and the numbers seem to keep growing. Many of the apps are expensive, but it’s a small price to pay for eliminating all that paper.

Two counties recently went shall-issue in California, thanks to pressure from the CalGuns folks. Both those counties have experienced an increase in the number of permits issued. To date I have not heard any reports of the streets of Sacramento running red with blood from permit holders going off half-cocked and shooting people in arguments over parking spaces. But still, UC Davis professor Garen Wintemute is making excuses:

“There are a lot of steps between loosening a policy and seeing something different in the ER,” said Wintemute, an emergency room physician.

Research doesn’t clearly support changes in crime rates, up or down. “We don’t know,” Wintemute said.

This story has been repeated over and over again, and they’ll never just admit they were wrong.

This article on how armed security are helping fight piracy off the coast of Somalia hits on many themes, such as the police (or navy, in this case) can’t be everywhere at once, and how difficult it is to distinguish between fisherman and pirates (the ones shooting at you are the pirates, but by then you’re already under attack):

That means the warships can only react to attempted hijackings, racing to intervene after the sea bandits attack. It isn’t enough. Apparently harmless vessels can turn hostile in mere minutes. With more than 2 million square miles of ocean to patrol and 25,000 commercial ships a year to protect, the 30 warships are spread thin — and are usually too far away to respond in time. No wonder successful hijackings of large vessels held steady at around 50 per year for three years, despite the escalating naval patrols. “These guys [pirates] are making more money, we’re spending more money,” lamented piracy expert Martin Murphy.

In addition to pursuing a doomed military strategy, the world’s governments dragged their heels on what seemed like the common-sense approach to beating pirates. A few armed guards should be sufficient to defeat a pirate attack, but allowing weapons on board civilian ships requires new regulations, which governments were slow to write.

And surprise, surprise, it’s worked. Read the whole thing, as the article is quite good. The problem is most world governments are more concerned about the pirates human rights than they are about stopping them. Ships under attack can actually start making piracy hazardous for the pirates, by killing them in self-defense. Piracy was stamped out in the 19th Century, as it previously was Royal Navy practice to hang pirates. As the article concludes “Self-defense succeeded where the world’s navies failed.”

The evidence continues to pile up that our opponents are completely wrong about the utility of armed self-defense as a deterrent to crime.

Hat tip to Chris from AK for the story.

A California City Councilman was killed when he and a co-worker, who were both involved in forest land management, stumbled onto a marijuana field. This didn’t happen in a National Park or National Forest, but these kinds of grow operations happen there regularly.

Dennis Henigan is getting hysterical about Rick Perry awful early:

Perry recently was asked if he is armed while campaigning. He didn’t respond by saying the question is ridiculous. He didn’t say that in the close quarters of a rope line, with a multitude of people pulling and tugging at him, a gun could easily drop to the ground or be taken from him. He didn’t say that an armed candidate would be a nightmare for the Secret Service. He didn’t say any of those things. Instead, he smiled and refused to say whether or not he carried while campaigning. He added, “That’s why it’s called concealed.”

He seems to have an issue with the fact that Perry is out and proud as a gun person, and then proceeds to let his imagination run wild with all the horrific things that could happen if candidates pack on the campaign trail.

Personally, if it were me, I’d be happy with the secret service protection, and would not carry on the campaign trail. The only stipulation I’d have is that I be allowed to play with their submachine guns. Dave Kopel has an interesting analysis as to whether the President can legally carry. It would seem the answer is yes. Dave also notes that Teddy Roosevelt carried a pistol on the campaign trail, and noted it didn’t seem to have any negative impact on his security. Well, it didn’t stop him from getting shot on the campaign trail by a deranged saloon keeper. Fortunately, his would be assassin didn’t bring enough gun to kill Teddy, or even stop him from delivering his speech.

An interesting addition to Beretta’s pistol line-up. I have some experience with their compact pistols, as my friend Jason has a Tomcat in .32ACP. The ergonomics of their smaller pistols are pretty good, as small pistols go. But it’s not quite as good for pocket carry as, say, a P-3AT or an LCP. This looks like it may work well in a pocket holster. I’ll be anxious to see.

I know plenty of gun folks get all giddy when they see a newspaper-written editorial headline like this. “Gun control: Misfire” And then to see that the piece goes on to talk about how gun control advocates are completely unwilling to admit they are wrong on the blood in the streets predictions no matter how much evidence is thrown in their face – that’s just happy dance territory.

I guess the pessimist in me just had to come out and play. Because it seems rather odd that the newspaper staff would condemn anti-gun groups & politicians for not being willing to concede when they are wrong when traditionally the media has been wrong on this, too. Google, being my friend, helped me out in quickly finding an editorial in the very same paper pulling out the lethal mix rhetoric.

In Virginia, those who possess concealed-carry permits cannot possess their weapons in establishments that serve liquor or beer. Some in the state legislature believe it’s time to scrap that restriction. Yet guns, booze, anxiety, and stress can combine for a deadly mix.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the side they are taking today. I don’t expect them to publicly lash themselves for engaging in the same kind of rhetoric they now condemn. But, just remember that if you’re doing the happy dance now, they could bring back the blood-in-the-streets rhetoric depending on who mans the editorial desk.