Category: Shooting

Joe Huffman relays a funny story about working with the Pink Pistols in Idaho, and a fun sounding IPSC match meant to make fun of Fred Phelps .  It just goes to show what a bunch of backward queer hating rednecks we all are doesn’t it?  Joe says:

The big lesson I would like for people to learn from this story is that gun owners can get favorable press. Boomershoot with all the potential hazards of  “assault weapons”, “snipers”, “sniper rifles”, and “bombs” has been successfully pitched to the public as what it really is. People from all walks of life who are, in essence, having an early 4th of July celebration of freedom. In the same way with all the hazardous of “vigilante justice”, “cowboys”, and “angry red-necked white guys” potentially associated with a pistol match where people shoot at human shaped targets we were able to get it portrayed, as it actually is, just ordinary people having fun and practicing to defend innocent life from bodily harm.

It wasn’t that hard, it didn’t take that much extra work, and the positive media coverage reached 100s of thousands of people.

It gets the message out, and hell, maybe people might even think it’s fun and give it a try.  Be sure to read the whole thing.

The gun fearing folks out there are going to be cleaning out their pants quite a lot this week.  First we have a young lady who can field strip an AR-15 faster than most of us could, and now Breda finds another one who is an aspiring young practical shooter.  A Glock is a lot of gun for a girl that size.  I would have recommended a Walther PPK/S or some other single stack small frame automatic.

UPDATE: Apparently they are both the same girl.

Wake County, North Carolina school system is looking at relaxing its zero tolerance gun ban to allow for student marksmanship teams, and approved firearms competitions.   Good.

Don’t forget to vote for me, to go to Blackwater to learn all kinds of cool stuff with Todd Jarrett.  Be sure to check the box to enter a chance to go along yourself.  I know you might be tempted to vote for other bloggers.  I am not as loveable and charming as SayUncle, and I can’t match Dave Hardy’s legal acumen, but a vote for me will make Paul Helmke cry.  Don’t believe me?

There you have it.  If you want to stick it to the Brady Campaign, you have to vote for me!

ParaUSA wants to send ten lucky bloggers, from among attendees of the Second Amendment Blogger Bash, to a weekend training session at Blackwater (Aug 22-24, 2008) with Todd Jarrett.  Follow the link for details.  I certainly hope that you will go and vote for me.  If you do, you’ll also be entering for a chance to go yourself.

I really want to thank ParaUSA for doing this for us.  Not only because it’s uber cool to be offered the chance to train with a World Champion IPSC shooter, but also because it shows that blogs are being taken seriously, and our potential is being recognized.  That’s a good thing for all of us, even if we don’t get to go.

UPDATE: Don’t listen to this guy.   A vote for Snowflakes in Hell is the only one, true vote.   Do not be tempted by a false prophet.  A vote for me is your best chance to go to Blackwater yourself!

Michael Bane has a great post up about how the shooting community is changing, with hunters and shooters ending up on a more equal footing with each other in terms of numbers, and the effect shooters are having on the industry:

We could not continue, much less go into another election cycle, with everyone, including Congress, acting like “hunting” and “shooting” were synonymous, so all anybody needed to do to suck up to us was conserve some wetlands and talk about ducks!

I guess someone forgot to tell Bob Ricker and Ray Schoenke.

Mr. Completely’s club banned the Taco Grip for bowling pin matches after he apparently won too much:

Last Fall it was finally coming together, and although still not as fast as other techniques, having few misses made up the slack. This year I won the first three of four matches of the season. The “Rule Maker” decided that my shooting style should be banned, and he changed the rules, banning the way I shoot. There is no rules committee or any rules oversight of any kind, so he can do whatever he wants, and there is no appeal process to his decision.

There are a lot of jackasses out there, unfortunately.  The guys I shoot IHMSA and Indoor Silhouette with at my club all seem to be nice folks to shoot with, so I’ve been lucky in that regard.  They’ve all been encouraging and have helped me out.

But there are a lot of clubs out there that are run by jackasses.  I’ve heard lots of stories from folks about various problems like this, or other things, such as black rifles being frowned on, or various definitions of “rapid fire” that tend to boil down to “we don’t like the way you look so you’re rapid firing, and we don’t like it.”  Basically, it’s a lot of crap that’s going to destroy the shooting community.  Shooting should be fun, and the goal of any club should be to maximize people’s enjoyment of the shooting sports.  Yes, clubs need rules, and we can’t comprimise or cut corners on safety, but if your club is driving people away, you need to start looking at ways to change the leadership.  The future of the shooting sports depends on a healthy and welcoming club culture.

A pretty balanced article about Philadelphia area shooting ranges, and some of the issues surrounding range safety.   Seems one of the clubs had a round get lose and end up hitting a house.  Range operators have to be cognizant of how their range is designed, and should seek help from the National Rifle Association on ways to improve range safety.  Kudos to the resident who’s house was hit for his attitude here:

Harbert lives just a mile or so from Wicen’s, a long-established range where shooters have been firing since 1928. He and his neighbors insist they don’t want the range closed but they do want stronger safety measures.

I think that’s a reasonable request, and a lot better attitude than the ninnies who just want to come in and close things down.  There are ways to make a range perfectly safe, even in a population dense suburban environement.  Noise can be abated as well, though not perfectly, since the federal government heavily regulates supressors.  It can be hard for smaller clubs that don’t have the money, but the NRA does offer grants to clubs for range improvements, and is something clubs should definitely consider using if they find themselves in a situation where their safety measures are deficient, and they have to shape up or face being closed down.

Over at GunPundit, the high school girl’s rifle team from Central High in Washington DC, circa 1922.  I’d be doubtful any of these ladies are still alive today.  He asks:

What’s with resting the rifle on the left-hand fingers? Just to pose for the photo? Or is/was that an accepted shooting stance?

I’ve seen people shoot like that.  To get the elbow down onto the hip if you have a long torso.  One of our best female indoor silhouette shooters shoots like that.  Any stance is valid if you can hit with it, I’d say.  I find I have to extend my fingers in such a manner to get my elbow on the hip bone, but I find it to be too unstable with fingers extended.

An article from an Ancorage newspaper on high ammo prices:

Just ask members of the Alaska Machine Gun Association, who practically breathe bullets.

“That same ammo that we bought for, say, 6 cents a round three years ago is now 35 cents a round,” said Dave Arieno, president of the club.

Arieno says a United Nations effort to limit the sale of surplus military ammunition, combined with war in Iraq, have boosted some prices. High fuel and freight costs don’t help — especially in rural Alaska.

I can’t imagine the Philly media covering how hard high ammo prices are on machine gun shooters.  Alaska is a different place.