Shooting – Page 8 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Positive Kids & Shooting Coverage

If you’re looking for some positive press for gun ownership and use in your area, make sure you do your homework on who you pitch at a local paper or other outlet. The same group that published an op-ed mocking the idea that guns can be used to defend families also ran an article promoting 4-H’s program to teach youth how to shoot safely.

In the article, they note that at least two parents who have brought their kids up through the 4-H shooting program at Branch Valley Fish Game & Forestry Association have claimed that their child’s grades improved as a result of the concentration they learned in the shooting sports. I love this quote:

Jordan Bell, 12, of Chalfont, said she signed up when she learned her friends were going through the program.

â€œI really like it, on Friday I canâ€™t wait for school to end because I know Iâ€™m going to come here,â€ Jordan said. â€œI like being able to improve â€” trying to outdo myself.â€

That’s pretty much an anti-gun advocate’s worst nightmare. A 12-year-old girl who decided to try shooting because her friends did it and is now so hooked on the sport that she’s going to spend her summer on the range. I feel like someone will need to get some smelling salts up to Joan Peterson if she reads this story.

Even better, the article closes by telling parents how they can get their children involved with the added note that it’s only $3 a week to cover the equipment and ammo expenses.

More on Ammo Shortage

Some have speculated that the ammo shortage is a result of market manipulation by the government. I think the shortage is a social phenomena largely the same as a run on banks. All it takes is an initial panic to get it started, like say, the government threatening to steal 10% of deposits, in the case of banks, or the government threatening a rash of new, draconian gun laws, in the case of ammo. Once the initial panic buyers clear the shelves, then other people start to join the panic because the shelves are bare. Most gun owners don’t shoot all that often, and tend to buy ammo as they go rather than stockpile. If all those people decide they need to stockpile, because they don’t know when they’ll see another box of .223, the panic feeds on itself. Add to that the fact that you hear a lot of talk of coming civil wars in gun circles these days, and you have a recipe for bare shelves for quite some time. Are the huge government orders affecting the supply? I don’t know enough about the ammo business to speak to that, but it’s certainly not helping the panic.

One Million Customers

Midway USA has a million active customers. This is one of the companies that the gun control crowd claims funds NRA:

Please note that NRA “Round-Up” contributions come from you, our Customers, and each week since 1992 we have sent your contributions directly to the NRA/ILA National Endowment for the Protection of the 2nd Amendment. Our Customers should get all the credit for that, we just collect and remit your money. Now, in March of 2013 came another milestone to celebrate – one million active Customers – Customers who have ordered from MidwayUSA during the last twelve months. For a country kid from Missouri, that’s an amazing milestone.

Midway is one of NRA’s largest, if not the largest corporate donors, but it’s all done voluntarily by the customers… the one million customers. Like I said, the gun control proponents go through great lengths to convince themselves they aren’t battling millions of real people, but that would make them kind of awful, wouldn’t it?

It’s hard for me to think of any activity or past time people engage in that I find horrible enough that I think it ought to be taken away from them. Even though I will admit I like being able to go out without having to deal with cigarette smoke, as a general principle of freedom I remain opposed to public smoking bans. That’s about the closest thing I can think of. It’s hard to think of anything else that doesn’t involve aÂ tragedy of the commons issue. I guess I just don’t have any Carrie Nation type moral crusading tendencies. I have enough going on managing my own life. I definitely don’t have the time to manage anyone else’s.

On Armalite

People are getting angry at Armalite for refusing to stop selling law enforcement firearms that civilians can’t own. I have a post-ban Armalite M15A4 AR, which I bought back in 2001, and I’ll give you another reason. I’ve always been convinced something has always been slightly out off spec with it. My Bushmaster XM15-E2S (back from Bushy’s Maine days) runs flawlessly with a wide variety of ammo. The Armalite is very picky about ammo. The factory 10 round magazine works flawlessly, but it’s jam-o-matic time with a lot of other magazines that function just fine in my Bushmaster carbine. Now, when 2004 rolled around, I converted the rifle to a “no-ban” configuration by grinding away the muzzle compensator and replace it with a birdcage flash suppressor, and adding a bayonet lug, but the trouble preceded me touching it. My theory has been that perhaps the magazine catch is slightly not where it should be, which causes a lot of the jamming issues when combined with certain kinds of ammo.

One thing I have not tried in the M15A4 are Magpul PMags, but I’ll get to that experiment once I can get over the fact that dumping a few mags of .223 these days is dinner and drinks at the local steakhouse. Even though I didn’t pay that much for that ammo, it’s still in the back of my mind.

College Pistol Team Ammo Bleg

I received this via e-mail. If anyone can help these guys out, leave a comment:

By way of introduction, I am a member of the Oregon State University pistol club and a follower of all of your blogs.Â Since you all strike me as being somewhat connected in the firearms community, I am coming to you with a plea for help.Â Our club is one of the few remaining collegiate shooting clubs in the nation, and I view it as important to continuing the introduction of shooting sports to young people.Â However, given the current industry situation, ammunition is difficult to come by (but you already knew that).Â We might have enough ammunition left to last until the end of the school year in June, if weâ€™re lucky, but that would be the end of all of our supplies.Â As such, I am coming to you asking if any of you know of people or dealers who have access to bulk .22LR ammunition.Â I recognize that it is unlikely that anyone does these days, but weâ€™re pretty much desperate.Â Our club has been in operation pretty much continuously since 1948; I do not want to see it die due to an ammunition shortage.Â If you can help at all, if you have any information, I would be eternally grateful.

I’ve been very concerned about the effect the current ammo shortages are going to have on the shooting community. If anyone knows where they might find ammo, can you point them in the right direction?

A Little Happy, Feel Good Gun News

The Lancaster (Pa.) Sunday News features this 950+ word article on the success of area school rifle teams. The focus is on how these are well-balanced kids who compete in other activities more commonly associated with high school, such as cheerleading, soccer, drama club, swimming, and field hockey. Yet, they use firearms in a safe and lawful manner, and their sport doesn’t get the same kind of cheering and high five response from a crowd when they do well. But they keep doing it because they enjoy it. (h/t @patrickhenry2nd)

Another Blogger Gets a Bug-a-Salt

I got one a few months ago, and suffer from the same problem as Uncle; there are few bugs around in winter. But I’ve had a few flies. Rumors on the Internet that it doesn’t have decent fly killing power is unfortunately true. If you shoot it at your hand, it smarts a bit, so it’s a testament to how strong a fly’s exoskeleton really is. Thinking some larger shot would help, I decided to try kosher salt instead of regular table salt, and I found that de-winged the fly pretty well, but it still look a few follow up “Die, bastard fly! Die!” shots to finish him off. I have not yet tried it on stink bugs, but I’ve seen none around the house. I need to take it to work, where we have plenty.

Photo Sleuthing

Dave Hardy takes a look at the Skeetgate and wonders if Obama was even on the skeet range, comparing a picture of JFK on the range from years ago. It could have been taken next to the skeet range along side the road, but the ground there looks pretty open on satellite. The picture to me looks more like “Hey, I want to try out this shotgun,” rather than shooting skeet. I’m still kind of baffled why the White House even made this an issue, because it’s silly. No one expects Obama is a shooter. The photo is pretty obviously not shooting skeet, and he’s pretty obviously either not a shooter, or a real novice at it. And that would be fine, if it wasn’t for the fact that he was using a, “Hey, I’m one of you,” to pull the wool over people’s eyes so he can successfully divide and conquer.

NSSF has some advice …

… for a new shooter.

Barry’s Gun Picture

I’m kind of with SayUncle on Skeetgate. I can’t get too worked up over it. Everyone knows the guy isn’t a shooter. The real problem is that Obama was trying to disingenuously signal that he’s really one of us, which strained credulity even for the sycophantic press corps. Note that the shotgun being fired is compensated, which is a new “evil” feature. It’s not just about flash hiders anymore.

I’ll give John Richardson the last word on Skeetgate, because that’s just funny.