Category: Uncategorized

Better to Have it and Not Need it…

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A young Palmview, Texas woman is now glad that her husband insisted on getting a handgun, and also insisted on her learning how to use it:

She told us she heard a man banging loudly on her front door while another walked around to the back.

“I’m a young woman, I’m pregnant, I’m home alone. I’m not going to answer the door – I mean, I know better,” said Alex.

Alex said her husband had just left 20 minutes before. Immediately, she knew something wasn’t right and made the split decision to grab her husband’s handgun.

“By myself with 911 on one hand and the gun on the other and I’m just a nervous wreck. I don’t know what to do …I yelled and I told the 911 ‘Oh my gosh, he broke in!'”

Alex said she’s never felt comfortable with the idea of using a gun.

Still, her husband insisted on showing her how to use one just a few months ago.

“Nervous…It took me a very long time to pull the trigger and he said, ‘when you’re in a situation like that- you’re not going to think twice,'” recalled Alex.

She said that exactly what happened.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pgwpYWPUEY?rel=0]

It could have ended very badly.  It did not, because she had a gun and was willing to use it.  I wonder what Piers Morgan would have to say to her.  (Not really.)

“How Much for the Blog Little Girl?”

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So, a few weeks ago, several bloggers received the same email from a David Smith at GunAuction.com, with the header “We want your blog”:

My name is David Smith and I work for GunAuction.com. Your website, http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/ has sparked our interest. Recently we have realized that we are in need of high ranking blogs about guns. Our company is working to build a blog network that will be seen by millions. With gun rights under attack, we want to create an effective network for letting the public know about current legislation, and new gun products. We’ve started some blogs from scratch, but as you know, it will be months before they develop a following. With the work you’ve already done, we would like to acquire your blog so that we can release our content quickly and effectively. In order to maintain your page rank and not alienate your reader base, our intention would be to keep the content of what you have – just use your blog as a base to release even more gun related material.

If you are willing to utilize our content or even sell us your blog, please let me know. Depending on your ranking and quality of blog we would be willing to compensate you accordingly.

David Smith
GunAuction.com

This, as you might imagine, did not go over well in the gunblogosphere. The general reaction was as if the question were this one:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZgwtpPmLY?rel=0]
My personal response was short and to the point:

David:

No.

Shortly thereafter, a follow-on email arrived:

Dear Kevin,

Thank you for your response to our proposal. GunAuction.com respects the major contributions that the gun bloggers have and continue to make to Gun Culture 2.0, bringing important new viewpoints and an entire new generation into the broader gun community. Your efforts have allowed the gun community to step beyond “preaching to the choir”.

We support your hard work and we want to help it have even more impact. With the tools below, including our content writers and content exchange with our online gun magazine GunNews, we think we can help your blog grow and you can help our online presence grow at the same time.

We are working on offering more options to bloggers and are open to suggestions. We’ve already identified some options (below) that may work for you. Call me and let’s talk about what works for YOU.

• Banner Ads or Text Links
– We offer this option as a per click program. (I.e., a fee paid for each click-through to GunAuction.com) but are willing to discuss annual lump sums in special cases. We will provide both artwork and guidance on setting the text or art up so you will be compensated.

• Content Sharing
– We provide, at no cost, relevant gun content for your blog, helping both parties build ranking. You would retain editorial control – any financial agreement would need to be individually arranged. This also includes mutual content sharing as an option, where we would exchange articles with you.

• Recruiting Partnership
– We provide a steady income stream for recruiting new users to gunauction.com

• Purchase of blog
– We leave all previous content the same including URL and use our in-house content writers to build readership and online visibility. (Our content writers would post on it daily). Depending on the agreement, you would continue as a contributor.

If this interests you, give me a call. I will also be at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous with the GunAuction bowling ball mortar, leading the Frosty Beverage Initiative in the evenings. If you can’t attend GBR or we’re not able to meet in person, know that I am grateful for your efforts in helping to protect our gun rights. Please contact me through email or phone!

David Smith
GunAuction.com

My response remained the same.

However, GunAuction.com was a sponsor of this year’s Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and so I promised to speak to Mr. Smith if he was one of the attendees – and he was.  He’s the young gentleman standing here, next to the bowling ball mortar his boss brought along to the event:

photo c972b509-78d5-49e4-8500-a9a521edc8c9.jpg
As you can see, he’s a young(er) guy, and after talking with him I think I can say confidently that he was hired for his enthusiasm and search-engine tech savvy, and NOT for his experience and feel for the blogosphere – the gun blogosphere in particular. He had a hard time understanding why those of us who had gone to all the trouble to create our blogs would not be interested in selling them!

“How much for the little girl?”

I am convinced that no insult was intended (that was pretty much a given, anyway) but the tone-deaf nature of the email and its follow-on was precisely that: tone-deafness. He really didn’t get it. Isn’t the internet for making money? So, while Linoge has sworn an oath to the third generation of GunAuction.com’s descendants, I’m willing to cut the kid a little slack. Everybody’s new at their job once.

9/11 – Does it Seem Like Twelve Years?

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Twelve years ago, I was in a car traveling to the Ford plant in Hermosillo, Mexico when the first airliner struck the World Trade Center.  When we arrived at the facility and entered the lobby, a security guard came up and asked if we were aware of “what is going on in the States?”

Needless to say, our meeting that morning was cancelled, and we immediately headed back for the border.  During the entire drive we kept trying to tune in radio stations to get more information.  We heard the report of the Pentagon impact, and then the collapse of each WTC tower.  We weren’t sure if we’d get across the border that day, or even that week, and since we’d only planned on a day trip, this wasn’t encouraging, but by the time we arrived, the border had reopened.  The line was an hour long, but it did move, and we got home.

My reaction was surprise that it had taken as long as it did before we were hit, and shock at the effectiveness of the attack.  I knew that the reaction to the attack would be swift, and probably severe.

I did not expect a decade-plus of war.  I certainly did not expect said warfare to extend into the second term of our current President, much less expansion of that warfare.

Last year’s attack on the Benghazi consulate?  Not a shocker, but the total lack of reaction from Washington was.  “What difference does it make?”  Seriously?


And now Obama wants to strike Syria?


Awhile back on Facebook, someone asked for a one-word description of the Obama presidency.  Most all of the responses were derisive, scatological, or merely angry.  My response was descriptive:  “transformational.”  After all, the man said in October 30, 2008 that we were “five days away from fundamentally transforming” the United States.  Five years into his Presidency, I’d say that’s the one campaign promise he has most definitely kept. 

Play with the Bull, Get the Horns

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It looks like Colorado’s recall efforts have been successful.  The Denver Post is reporting that Senate President John Morse has been unseated in the recall election.  State Senator Angela Giron lost her seat by an even wider margin.

Looks like Bloomberg wasted a bunch of money. The linked Mother Jones piece from Monday states:

The idea that bucking the NRA meant an almost-certain political death has always been a myth. With all eyes on Colorado, people might just finally take notice.

Not so mythical after all.  Perhaps now more politicians will take notice.

Good on ya, Colorado!

Home Again

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Got home about 4PM.  Another great Rendezvous, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Completely.  There will be a couple more updates once I get all my pictures and the (very) few videos I took uploaded, but let me start you with this one – the four fastest times from the steel shoot on Saturday, at least from the people who actually turned in their score sheets:


Jaci and Robert were drawing from the holster, Derek was drawing from CONCEALMENT. I was shooting from low-ready, but I was shooting a REVOLVER.  Yes, I am VERY happy with how I shot the Smith that day.

The guys from Gunauction.com brought professional-quality video and still equipment and there promises to be some really good coverage from them on the GunNews.com site that I will be stealing borrowing or linking to when it goes up.  I’ll also be writing about my conversation with David Smith, the guy from Gunauction who wrote that “We want your blog” email that caused such a fuss.

However, tomorrow comes early and I have to drive 101 miles back up to Phoenix in the morning, so this is it for me today.

0-For-8

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Gun Blogger Rendezvous VIII is winding down.  The pizza dinner and prize raffle was last night, and once again I didn’t win a gun.  However, Crimson Trace really came through in the prize department this year.  I got one of their Railmaster universal-mount green lasers, and a certificate for anything in their catalog.  I also found out that I had the best aggregate time in the steel shoot for the day (the two actual competition shooters either didn’t shoot the course, or didn’t turn in their timesheets.)  Not bad for an old guy with an iron-sighted revolver.

I’ll have much more to report, pictures and links later after I get home.  Now I need to finish packing, go get breakfast, and then launch some bowling balls WAY the hell downrange!

Seriously, y’all need to come to this thing next year.

GBR Day 3 – And a Blast is Had by All

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Just got back from the steel shoot, where I’m quite pleased how well I shot my S&W 327. I loaned my new(er) Kimber Target Match to the guys from Gunauction.com, along with my 3/4 full .30 caliber ammo can of reloads. The three of them burned through around 400 rounds, and the gun ran fine all day except for a little bit of user error on the part of one of them who is new to all of this (but is a natural, once he got the idea).  An empty ammo can later, and lots of smiles all around.

I’ve got time for this post, a quick shower, and then it’s time for pizza and door prizes, and the raffle benefiting Soldiers’ Angels.

Now don’t you really wish you were here?