I’m still debating whether to take the Glock along to St. Louis.  I’ve never checked a firearm before, since I don’t travel much by plane. I’ve always been kind of worried about getting a clueless ticket agent or TSA drone, and having complications and missing the flight.  Or, even worse, have them lose my luggage.
Category: Guns
NRA Safety Program Hits St. Louis
Looks like St. Louis Today is trying to say nice things about the NRA in advance of the upcoming convention which I will be attending and live blogging:
The NRA says fatal firearm accidents among children in the Eddie Eagle age group — preschool through third grade — have dropped 80 percent since the program began 19 years ago.
Good. But from there:
No local figures are available, but earlier this year, two children shot and killed two others in separate incidents. Timberlyn Terrell, 2, died in January when a child under 5 found a loaded handgun and shot her in the head in a Venice apartment. A few days later, an 8-year-old boy found a shotgun under a couch at his home in Edmundson and killed his 3-year-old brother.
Throw in a little local anecdotes to cast doubt on the claim. And of course, our friends at the Brady Campaign:
On average, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a young person was killed by a firearm once every three hours in 2002, the last year for which statistics were available.
That year, the organization said, guns were involved in the murder, suicide or accidental death of 2,893 young people.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady group, credited the NRA for promoting gun safety. But he criticized the gun group’s tactics.
“It’s their version of Joe Camel,” he said of Eddie Eagle.
Because Eddie Eagle is all about making kids buy guns, right? How can someone even say that with a straight face? Overall this is at least a decent attempt at a balanced article. But the media should not take either the NRA or the Brady’s numbers at face value. The Brady’s have been caught counting people up to 24 years old as children, and here they throw statistics on murder and suicide in to obscure the fact that gun accidents among children are exceedingly rare.
I’m not arguing that murder and suicide of young people is not a legitimate social problem, but it’s not one likely to be solved by any of the Brady’s prescriptions. But why debate that when it’s easier to jumble statistics together to create an impression that accidents are a bigger problem than they really are?
Apparently I’m a Suicide Risk
A gun in the home leads to higher suicide rates. According to The Harvard School of Public Health:
“Removing all firearms from one’s home is one of the most effective and straightforward steps that household decision-makers can take to reduce the risk of suicide,” Miller said.
“Removing firearms may be especially effective in reducing the risk of suicide among adolescents and other potentially impulsive members of their home,” Miller added.
So this is a new article. But I’m pretty sure this study came out a while ago. The question is, then, why is the media rehashing it now?
While just 5 percent of all suicide attempts involve a gun, the person succeeds in killing himself or herself 90 percent of the time.
People use drugs to attempt suicide in 75 percent of cases, but actually die less than 3 percent of the time, the researchers said, citing other surveys.
What about success rates for slitting wrists, jumping, or throwing oneself in front of a train? It would seem to be that if someone were hell bent on suicide, there are many substitutes. By this logic, we should tear down the Golden Gate Bridge, which is the number one location in the world for people jumping to their doom. I’ve always wondered whether people who use drugs aren’t really all that serious about getting the job done.
Wishful Thinking?
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, it’s high noon in the battle over gun control.
The effort comes at a time when the number of slayings in Philadelphia is edging painfully upward – 105 at last count, the majority of them at the point of a gun. At least 15 bills are back in the pipeline; Gov. Rendell has turned up the volume on his pleas for stronger gun-control measures, and Democrats now control the state House. All this comes at a time when a new poll suggests a majority of Pennsylvanians are willing to accept handgun-sale limits.
Because we can see how well one-gun-per-month in Virginia, and strict handgun regulations in Maryland reduced violence in Washington DC.
Rep. Dan Surra (D., Elk) said that while he sympathized with residents living in high-crime areas, he could not support any gun-restriction bill because in certain quarters of his district, a hunting stronghold in the north-central part of the state, guns are a single-issue item at the polls.
“They will vote you out on this,” Surra said.
Why yes, we will.
“The feeling out here is that proposals that deal with firearms in general are inched toward the precipice, and once you start eroding Second Amendment rights, it’s a cascading effect,” Surra said.
“Guns are part of our culture, too. The difference is we don’t shoot each other,” said Surra, who recalls teaching students to build guns in shop class.
Man. I wish he taught my shop class. All I got to make was a damned stool.
And although Evans is determined to get the one-handgun-a-month bill to the floor this year, Caltagirone, the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, does not think he can deliver it. “I don’t have the votes at this point in time,” Caltagirone said, adding that he hopes to work on a compromise that could pass.
Compromise? I don’t see where there’s room to compromise on “shall not be questioned” you loser.
Pennsylvania “is a priority state for us,” said Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence, which teamed with other gun-control groups to form the coalition Pennsylvanians Against Trafficking Handguns in 2005. “We believe there is enough political ability in the legislature to enact change.”
Let them have one-gun-a-month, they won’t go home happy. It’s important to fight this. There are already laws on the books for tracking multiple handgun sales both at the state and federal level.  The only reason they want this is to open the door to further restrictions on guns in the commonwealth.
Sounds Like My House
According to Paul Helmke my penchant for assault rifles could lead me to become violent:
A new 21-page Federal indictment charging the shooter’s father describes a house where there were at least “20 guns, including assault rifles, a semiautomatic shotgun, two semiautomatic rifles, bolt-action shotguns and semiautomatic pistols†along with “more than 2,500 round of ammunition.â€
Ignoring for a second the fact that real AK-47s are effectively illegal, this sounds a lot like the contents of my safe. I have a lot more than 2500 rounds. I don’t quite have 20 guns yet, but it’s good to have goals. I’m very much in favor of getting guns off our streets (and into my safe). Just for this, Brady Campaign Folks, I’m going to buy another so called “assault weapon” with my tax refund check. It’s a little “screw you” from me to you ;) I’m thinking maybe a Robinson Arms XCR in 7.62x39mm.
The Danger of International Arms Control
Whether we in the United State like it or not, some regime of very strict international control on small arms is probably coming down the pike sometime soon.  Kim du Toit talks about the drying up of South African surplus ammo. I got a few bags of the stuff, and it was good. I’m sorry to see it dry up. Kim tells us:
Of course, maybe the reporter just got the thing wrong—yeah I know, reporters never get gun facts wrong—but it’s still clear that Armscor’s fine 7.62x51mm, even though not specifically mentioned in the report, will soon disappear, because the ANC government of South Africa are turning into a bunch of quivering gun-fearing wussies. The move to end “small-arms proliferation†is no doubt inspired by a desire to forestall the day when some embittered group might be angry enough to rise up against them.
We may be winning here at home on the gun issue, but the rest of the world has a consensus that ordinary people are not to be trusted with arms. Most of the cheap surplus ammo that’s available to shooters on the US market comes from overseas sources. These sources are all vulnerable to pressure from international gun control organizations like IASNA. It’s a strong possibility we could lose them. Imagine trying to shoot Kalashnikov, SKS, or your Saiga hunting rifle without a cheap source of ammunition from Wolf. Russia has fought these treaties so far, but there’s no guarantee that things will stay that way.
Consider this too, C&R collectors, where are most of the interesting pieces coming from these days? Century and a number of other importers that cater to the C&R market would be out of business in a heartbeat if overseas sources of surplus rifles were to dry up because the international consensus is that surplus small arms be cut up and melted down.
But it gets even better.  All the candidates that the military has been considering to replace the M16/M4 system have been European companies, namely Heckler & Koch and FN Herstal. As it stands right now, H&K doesn’t seem to want to sell anything that looks politically incorrect to civilians. Try getting a semi-auto G36. They stated if the XM8 were adopted, there would be no civilian sales.  Same for the 416. H&K, a German company, already doesn’t care about your gun rights.  FN has been very kind to the domestic shooter market, and has introduced the PS90 and is working on a semi-automatic version of the SCAR. They definitely aren’t concerned too much about political correctness. But FN is a Belgian company, and they will be subject to pressure from their government and subject to the treaties it signs.
Even consider the Glock that I own is produced by an Austrian company, and you’ll see why I think, as shooters, collectors, and people interested in lawful self-defense, we probably have it better today than we will in the future.  Eventually I expect an international arms treaty to shut down the export of these items into the United States for civilian consumption. We can win all we want at home, but I don’t see us winning internationally. Spend just 5 minutes talking about the gun issue to a European, and you’ll see what I mean. Guns are evil to most of the rest of the world, and certainly that’s the prevailing attitude among the European political elite.
That’s why at the NRA convention next week, I’m going to be taking a serious look at Smith & Wesson’s new offerings. Their M&P line of pistols looks good to me on paper, and I’d like to handle one.  I’ve seen a few of their ARs at gun shows, and while I’ve never shot one, what I have heard from others is they are making a solid product. Smith & Wesson is American owned, and we don’t have to worry as much about people like Rebecca Peters lobbying them to shut down civilian sales. In this country, at least for now, we can tell people like her to go to hell.
CCRKBA Doing it Too
From Alan Gottlieb:
“The murder of Rebecca Griego was a horrible tragedy that did not have to happen,†said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb. “Unfortunately, liberal politicians who dominate Seattle government feel more comfortable trying to harass law-abiding firearms owners than looking for dangerous illegal aliens in our midst. Rowan was a prime example of why such ordinances should be abolished. It is because of policies like this – that protect people like Rowan – that honest citizens want to arm themselves.â€
Immigration may have something to do with crime, but it has nothing to do with gun rights. Let’s keep it, and other right wing issues, out of the debate.
Stick to Guns Guys
I have to second Bitter’s statement that the NRA-ILA needs to lay off the unrelated-to-guns political statements. The NRA is about gun rights, it’s not a clearing house for various other kooky or non-kooky right wing thinking. Do you really want to alienate the more progressive gun rights folks? It’s not good politics for our issue, and whoever is doing it needs to stop.
Knife Talk
Ahab has a good post up on Knife Carry:
With regards to the self-defense needs of carrying a knife, I do still carry a knife when I’m not carrying a pistol. However, carrying a knife changes my self defense strategy quite significantly. While a knife certainly qualifies as a force multiplier, it also requires me to get right up on top of my attacker. If my attacker is armed with a knife, we are both going to get cut. That’s what happens. You always get cut.
I carry a Leatherman on me at all time, which has a 3 inch blade. I don’t carry it with self-defense in mind, though I suppose it could be used that way in a pinch. When it comes to force less than a firearm, I prefer Fox OC spray. I don’t carry OC all the time with me either, but it’s useful to have options all the way up the force continuum. I’d much rather OC an attacker than get into a knife fight. Faced with a knife wielding attacker, and having only my Leatherman, I think I’d take Ahab’s run like a little girl option.  I’m not too proud for that.
Good News for the NRA
Pew released their latest poll:
Each year since its occurrence in 1999, the April 20 anniversary of the Columbine High School tragedy renews debate about the desirability of stricter controls on firearms. Recent surveys, however, find Americans less disposed to gun control than they were in the years surrounding the shootings.
For example, Americans have a better opinion of the National Rifle Association these days than they did in the mid 1990’s. Over this same period, public calls for stricter gun-control laws have also quieted somewhat. A recent Pew nationwide survey found a 52%-to-32% majority of respondents holding a favorable opinion of the NRA, which will hold its massive annual convention on April 13-15 this year in St. Louis. While this is the first time since 1994 that the favorability rating of the group has crossed the 50% mark, positive views of the NRA have been inching upward in Pew polls in recent years.
I’m not generally one for touting poll numbers, because you can make a poll say whatever the hell you want, but at least according to Pew, the NRA seems to be doing something right. Read the whole thing.