Month: May 2009

OK, Why Didn’t I Know This Before?

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OK, Why Didn’t I Know This Before?

One of the seminars yesterday was about “State associations.” One of the attendees, David Pehrson, started the Pennsylvania Firearms Owner’s Association, essentially a huge gunboard, and possibly the opening shot in how activism will be done in the future. The other attendees were from the California Rifle and Pistol Association, and the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association. The CRPA has associated with Calguns.net to take advantage of their web-savvy. California, of course, has a lot of bad legislation that they have to deal with, and thus the CRPA has a full-time lobbyist on staff.

In Arizona, things are a bit different. This is a very gun-friendly state, overall, and even our Democrats are generally gunnies. This is changing, however, as more and more people flee California. But why didn’t I know that the ASRPA existed?

Well, for one thing it only has about 1,700 members, and they tend toward the geriatric end of the scale. We don’t have a lot of anti-gun bills to fight here in Arizona, but I can see it coming. The concentration of the ASRPA is and has been toward competition shooting, but it’s becoming obvious that what we’re going to have to do, and soon, is work on new shooter recruitment and retention. So today I joined the ASRPA, and there’s a new banner on the left sidebar over there with a link to their web page. If you’re an Arizona resident and interested at all in hunting, shooting, and the right to arms, I strongly recommend that you join the ASRPA.

Arizona is a very gun-friendly state. As Sebastian (a resident of a suburb of Philadelphia) said this morning, “I’ve never seen so many people open-carry, and nobody cares!” We want to keep it that way.

Once You’ve Been Quoted in the CSM . . .

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Once You’ve Been Quoted in the CSM . . .

. . . I guess you’ve made it.

Last night at the meet-‘n-greet at Majerle’s I spoke at some length to Patrik Jonsson of the Christian Science Monitor. He was interviewing bloggers left and right for an upcoming piece. I guess now that the CSM has gone online-only there’s no six-week delay between deadline and the piece hitting the streets. His article went up today, apparently: A rifle in one hand, a laptop in the other. Behind the scene with pro-gun bloggers. I was even quoted accurately. Cool!

NRA Convention Update

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NRA Convention Update

The WiFi service in the media room is really excellent. Strong signal, 54Mbps. I just cannot connect to the intartubes with it, which kinda defeats the purpose. Oh well. I’m posting this from my brother’s computer before I head out for the second full day. Here’s a picture of a bunch of us schmoozing around and socializing:


Breda’s the delicate little thing back there in the white T-shirt. Or not so delicate:


She decided that with the unfamiliar heat, she’d just open carry. Apparently construction workers are dumbstruck by petite women toting pistols. Who knew?

I haven’t run across too many famous faces yet. Haven’t seen R. Lee Ermey, or Todd Jarrett, or Tom Knapp, or Jim Scoutten, but you might recognize this gentleman:


That’s Maj. John Plaster. I think he and Joe Huffman would have a very interesting conversation!

As it was last year, pink is very heavily represented by manufacturers again. A sampling:

While definitely not pink, I think I’ve found David of Random Nuclear Strikes his next 700-yard Boomershoot pistol. It’s a bit different from the single-shot break-open and bolt-action pistols he’s been using, but it will really make hitting those 3″ 700-yard swingers a challenge!


Yes, that’s a .45-70 revolver. Brass frame, reasonable barrel length, outstanding single-action trigger. Just the thing! Easily the most interesting item I’ve seen at the show so far, but I’ve only gotten through about half of it.

Ah well, more later if I can get connectivity at the site. If not, well, you’ll just have to wait!

At the Convention

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At the Convention!

It took me over an hour to A) find the parking garage, and B) get in and find a slot. It’s nuts. Now in the press room with:

Breda, LabRat and Stingray, Alan, Cowboy Blob, Denise and Yosemite Sam, & Thirdpower. We’re waiting for TD who just landed at Sky Harbor.

UPDATE: US Citizen just showed up.

The crowd waiting to get into the convention center is HUGE. I was struck by the thought that I’d never seen so many overweight white men in my life! As Alan said in response to that observation, “MY PEOPLE!”

I resemble that remark.

SitRep

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SitRep

OK, I’m in Phoenix. I’ve picked up my “media” package. I went to the meet-‘n-greet (and met Dick Heller – pretty cool!) and now I’m at my brother’s house, posting from his computer. Not much going on tomorrow that I want to attend until the meet-‘n-greet in the evening. It’ll be nice to have the day off, though.

I think now I’m going to go to bed and read. G’night!