Catching up on blogs a bit at a Panera in Oklahoma City, SayUncle shows us an article that makes some parallels between Parker and The Hughes Amendment.  We have to be careful not to jump the gun too quickly.  Parker is a great foundation, but a lot more construction will need to be done before going after the NFA.
Category: Guns
“Arrested” in Jayton, TX
Bitter and I had an interesting encounter with “the man”, namely the Kent County Sheriff’s deputy (and when I say the, I mean he’s the only Kent County Sheriff’s deputy).  Carrie and her mom wanted to use the library for a bit, so Bitter and I stayed out in the parking lot to wait, and took out our laptops to catch up on things. Well, it would seem some old lady in the library noticed the Maryland tags on the rental and called it in.  The deputy blocked us in, came up, and started asking questions. Since Texas is a notify state, I needed to inform him I was carrying, but he asked before I got it out on my own.  I turned over my driver’s license, Florida and Pennsylvania LTCs. He had me unload Bitter’s Sig 239 and hand it to him.  Bitter was unhappy that the deputy took her pistol, which is an understatement, as she immediately got on the phone to formerly Bitter Boy, who is an attorney. Technically, because we weren’t free to leave, it was a brief arrest, but it ended with my LTCs, our IDs and pistols being turned back, and the deputy couldn’t have been more polite and friendly.
Generally, I agree with Bitter that police officers shouldn’t seize people’s firearms, even for brief periods, once it’s known they have a LTC. But it goes on record as the only time since I’ve been carrying (which is about 5 years), that I’ve ever had to show my LTC to a law enforcement officer. I’m glad this one was more friendly than hard nosed, and the incident ended without feathers being too ruffled. I might blog about this later when I get back.
Guns & grammar
I’m willing to bet that at least some of the reading audience did not know that firearms have generated several turns-of-phrase that still of relative common use in today’s lexicon. We’re going to go over a couple of the ones you might have heard, and what their origins are.
One phrase I’m guessing everyone has heard, especially if you watch war movies is “lock and load”; which has graduated to the general lexicon. It’s current usage means “get or be ready” for whatever action may happen. With the M1 Garand, we wouldn’t have this handy phrase for overzealous business majors to use in class. The phrase was originally “load and lock”, which referred to inserting a clip (I don’t get to say that much…clip clip clip clip) into the M1 Garand, and locking the bolt forward. An alternate interpretation suggest that the phrase was originally “lock and load” and referred to locking the bolt in the rearward position prior to inserting the clip into the rifle.
No matter the origin, the phrase was immortalized by John Wayne in the movie The Sands of Iwo Jima; and was also uses later in both Platoon, and one of the Star Trek movies.
The next phrase is “flash in the pan”, which is currently used to describe bands, actors, or artists that have one hit and then disappear. Its usage is similar to “shooting star”, and “one hit wonder”.
This phrase has its genesis in the days of flintlock weapons. Back then, loose powder was carried in “the pan” of your weapon; which would in theory ignite the main powder charge. However, as flinters were and are notoriously unreliable, a “flash in the pan” would sometimes occur, where the powder in the pan would burn but not ignite the main charge. The result would be a pretty lightshow, and a very unhappy soldier.
That concludes today’s “gun induced grammar” lesson; feel free to add your own in the comments section!
Unarmed and useless
My industry is a perfect example of one of the real problems with guns. The wrong people have them and the right people don’t. There have been several strip club shootings in the news recently, the most recent occurring less than a week ago in Texas. Before that there was a high-profile incident in Las Vegas involving multiple celebrities.
Working around drunk people in any capacity can be pretty scary. Most of the clubs I’ve worked at either have metal detectors or (more commonly) “wand” patrons as they come in. At the ones that only wand people, I’ve only seen it done on the weekends and evenings. I understand the logic (basically it’s profiling) but it seems to me that a preventative measure that takes 15-20 seconds should be performed every time if it’s going to be used at all.
The real problem, though, is that bouncers are never armed. In most places security is a joke. A lot of dancers refer to them as “door guys,” because we can’t bring ourselves to say “bouncers” or “security” without an accompanying eye-roll. I would love it if every club had armed bouncers. The problem is that clubs don’t want to deal with the hassle of having every bouncer licensed, trained and background-checked. Not for a position that pays minimum wage plus tips. Most bouncers don’t stay in the industry very long, either, so it would be time-consuming and costly to jump through the hoops to arm each bouncer, only to have to do it again a few months later. Additionally, a lot of clubs are skittish of having too much visible security. According to this line of thinking, metal detectors and armed bouncers make a club look dangerous and scare away the “right” type of customer.
Before I started dancing in clubs I worked at a peep show. This was the only time I ever worked with an armed bouncer. The peep show was in a porn shop, and the bouncer was also a clerk. He was definitely a “gun guy” who always had his weapon on him, including at work. He carried it unconcealed. I never had a single problem with customers there when he was on shift. It didn’t seem to affect my money or the shop’s business. However, he carried his weapon because it was part of his lifestyle, not as part of the job. I guess the only conclusion I can reach from these musings is that if I were to ever open a club of any sort I’d want to hire “gun guys” for security. Opening a club is not in my ten-year plan, so for now I’ll just continue to work at places with metal detectors and avoid NFL players.
The Pink Pistols
If you’ve not heard of them, the Pink Pistols are a firearms advocacy group that also advocates gay rights. If you go to their website, the front page says “Armed Gays don’t get bashed” a phrase which makes me giggle incessantly whenever I see it.
I really like groups like the Pink Pistols, not just because they advocate for the 2nd Amendment, but because they give the radical lefties serious mental fits. They can’t comprehend how someone that “should” be “on their side” is advocating for a dirty “Republican” concept like RKBA. One of the biggest reasons that I like the Pink Pistols is because we need more groups like them. We need gun owners and 2nd Amendment advocates that don’t just break the media’s stereotype of gun owners, they smash it.
The biggest reason that I support the Pink Pistols (and any group that exposes the cognitive dissonance inherent in the radical left) is because they also display the deep seated hypocrisy in the “social progressive” movement. Think about this for just a minute: the marxists social progressives are constantly trying to “help the little guy” (generally with your money); however if they were successful in helping the poor not be poor, or minorities be treated equal, they would lose their mandate and by losing their mandate they would lose their power.
It is imperative to those in power (your Nancy Pelosi’s, Ted Kennedy’s, and Dianne Feinsteins) that the poor and disadvantaged remain poor and disadvantaged. Of course, they will make a big show of “helping” the little guy, but their help is little more than free handouts at the expense of the taxpayer – handouts that do nothing to actually help the poor and disadvantaged.
I sometimes feel that the Big Left has forgotten the simple proverb “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.”
Deja Vu All Over Again
In an earlier post, Sebastian described the story of a Philadelphia restaurant owner who shot two would-be robbers, killing one of them.
This follow up in the Philadelphia Inquirer describes a very similar story in 1993 involving the same man with the same results: two robbers shot, one dead and the other facing attempted robbery and aggravated assault charges.
The first confrontation was on Aug. 15, 1993, when two men walked into a grocery run by Lee’s family at 68th Avenue and Broad Street in East Oak Lane.
Police said at that time that the robbery took place about 8:30 a.m., and that Lee pulled his handgun and fired when he emerged from a back room and saw that one of the men had grabbed his wife by the throat.
A 30-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene from three gunshot wounds, including one to the head. The second man was found nearby with bullet wounds to the chest and thigh.
The best part is that the law never came down on Mr. Lee for doing the city of Philadelphia a favor. And they’re not doing so again.
1935 Beretta
I have recently returned from the range, and before I begin with reviewing the little C&R pistol I just shot, let me tell you it is nice to be shooting at an outdoor range again. With the exception of two ranges (the NRA HQ range and the range at USMA at West Point) I despise with indoor ranges with a fiery burning passion. Anyway, on to the Beretta.
A little history, first. The 1935 Beretta is a .32 ACP blowback operated semi-automatic pistol that was used as the primary sidearm of the Italian Air Force and Navy during WWII and up until the 1951 Beretta was adopted. Functionally, it is exactly the same as its bigger brother, the ’34 Beretta, which is chambered for the larger .380 ACP cartridge. During WWII, the ’35 Beretta was also found with German officers, and was popular with GIs as a capture item, who were fond of its light weight, simplicity, and durability.
I picked mine up off of Gunbroker, and my first impression was very favorable. Mine was manufactured in the 50s, so it’s collector value is low – but I didn’t buy it to have it sit on a shelf. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that this is the easiest firearm to field-strip that I have ever owned in my life. Drop the mag, lock the slide to the rear, pull the barrel out of the “Beretta” slot in the slide, then unlock the slide and pull it off the front of the weapon. Done. I can literally take it apart and put it back together again in under 20 seconds, it’s that easy.
So, off to the range I went with it. I wasn’t planning on carrying this gun for serious social work, as it’s got a very annoying safety that has to be rotated 180 degrees to bring the weapon into battery; the safety is also in an awkward position to manipulate. At the range I had a box of Speer Gold Dots (20 rounds), and a box of good old Winchester white box (50). All shots were fired at seven yards, due to the rather rudimentary sights on the old gun.
The very first round failed to feed from the magazine, it went nose up. The 50 year old spring was apparently still going strong – good for it. Once I figured out to just load 6 rounds, the gun ran fine on the WWB ammo. Group size at 7 yards isn’t really worth mentioning, however I was able to keep rapid fire strings in the A zone of an IDPA target. The only time the pistol failed to run properly was with the Gold Dots (which is too bad), as the hollowpoint nose would sometimes snag on the ramp. I could fix this if I wanted to carry the gun, but since I’m just going to use it for busting dirt clods on the farm, I’m not too worried.
Ejection was clean and positive; the extractor is located on the top of the pistol so empties would often land in my hair, a mildly disconcerting side effect for someone who shoots mostly revolvers. Recoil was mild to nonexistent, and once I figured out where to put my mitts on the thing, the slide didn’t bite my hand.
All in all, this gun is one of those guns that you don’t really own for any good reason, other than it’s a lot of fun to burn ammo with it. Which, when I think about it is more than reason enough. I did have one thought about the little Beretta, however. Due the fact that it’s very user friendly, accurate, and easy to field-strip, I think with one design tweak (that damn safety), this would make an excellent carry gun. Actually, I’d like to see that. Make the safety more like the type on your 1911s; chamber the pistols in either .32 ACP or .380 ACP and they would sell like hotcakes, I guarantee that. A pistol like that would be able to give the Bersa Thunder a run for its money in the “economy sub-caliber” market.
I’d buy two.
The Busy Professor
Eugene Volokh has been pretty busy taking the media to task for some pretty awful coverage of the Parker vs. DC decision. Keep scrolling.
Reasonable Regulations
SayUncle points to the Brady release that “striking down the District of Columbia’s handgun law is judicial activism at its worst.”
So let me get this straight, you guys don’t want to ban guns, you only want “reasonable regulations” on firearms. But getting rid of DCs near total prohibition on firearms is “judicial activism at its worst”?
If DCs gun ban is a reasonable regulation, then I’ll proudly be unreasonable.
Intro from Ahab
Hmm…it seems that I have been beaten to the punch by Christina; but for what it’s worth here’s my introduction. I’m Ahab, the author of What Would John Wayne Do, but most of you know that because I don’t think I have any readers that don’t read over here.
I occasionally update my blogs on weekends, but since Sebastian is out of town, I was going to post tomorrow. Tomorrow is a Shooting Saturday, and I’m going to be trying out my new (to me, anyway) 1935 Beretta. I’ll be forcing you to read sharing my results with you guys.