Empty Shelves

KevinLeave a comment

Empty Shelves

So, I went to the funshow yesterday at the Tucson Convention Center specifically to look for primers. I got there before the doors opened, but not before about 150 other people lined up in front of me to get in. It was, as these things go, not a big show – I’d say less than a hundred tables, though I only saw one jerky vendor, and absolutely no Beanie Babies. (There were, however, two Nazi memorabilia vendors.)

Here’s what I found in the primer department, initially:


Sorry about the crappy cell phone photo, but they don’t like cameras in the show. Here’s a closer view:


Yes, that’s one (1) box of Remington 9½ Large Rifle Magnum primers. The rest of the table consisted of quite a few bags of range brass of different calibers.

I continued perusing the show. These are the only other primers I found:


Those are CCI 450 Small Rifle Magnum primers, and a box of Winchester something-or-other.

I was very thorough. That was it at the show.

Afterward, just for grins ‘n giggles, I went to the local Sportsman’s Warehouse to see if they’d gotten anything in. Here’s their shelves where they normally keep powder & primers:


I don’t know if you can see all that clearly, but there’s one one-pound cannister of VV powder, and no primers at all. Zip, zilch, zero, nada. Usually the top shelf is lined with 8-lb. kegs, and that middle empty row is full of every primer known to man.

So, when is the primer fairy going to return?

Seen this?

KevinLeave a comment

Seen this?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJkXl4wG2eU&hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=344]
(Embedding has been denied, and the only version available runs seven minutes. The portion of interest – well, of greater interest, comes at about 3:30-4:30.)

I am so confident in the superiority of the public health care option that I think he has every reason to be frightened.

I’m certainly frightened. P.J. O’Rourke nailed it long ago:

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.

Rep. Schakowsky said it out loud:

This is not a principled fight.

Indeed not.

I’m reminded of another quote, Henry Louis Mencken this time:

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

BOHICA

Quote of the Day

KevinLeave a comment

Quote of the Day

You’re a product of the public system, they say. You turned out all right, so it must be…..

No.

Stop looking for outside influences as the root cause of problems. I drank, I smoked, I slept with girls and went to parties and ditched class and got into trouble. I also realized that the school systems are a joke, and learned to work that in my favor. Yeah, I learned…how to skirt the system, just as these jokers today are doing. But in my case, I had a genuine hunger for knowledge.

I read ceaselessly outside of school. I worked on chemistry and physics stuff at home, because I liked it. I did computer science classes at the JC. I learned…just not in that system. I played catch up in college for it, but that was easy. For me…not them.

So, no…the problem is the system.

But…

No.

The kids are getting dumber.

I have data to support this statement. It is not an opinion.

Every. Single. Year. It happens. The graduating class scores lower on their tests than the year before, and the next year is lower, and lower, etc. All this while classes are being cut due to budget constraints, schools are tightening admissions requirements and looking for higher and higher test scores and GPA’s.

They’re still being filled up, but not by local kids.

Local kids are failing. They start college level math, something for which they should be prepared, and then throw their hands up in defeat because they never learned the foundation materials.

You can’t do quadratics when your teacher let you watch TV in class instead of teaching you the order of operations.

Do you understand?

I’ve got a girl here, born in the US, schooled here to 13 years in this system, ready to receive a diploma from this system. I give her a test on college level material, and she does so poorly THE COMPUTER ASSUMES SHE MUST NOT SPEAK ENGLISH!

Does that not concern anyone else?

Ballistic Deanimation – Dumbing Down

READ THE WHOLE THING. It even has illustrations!

OK, So, I Lied

KevinLeave a comment

OK, So, I Lied

I said a couple of days ago that “normal blogging would resume” shortly.

OOPS!

I took the rest of this week off, and figured I’d use the time to write and reload. WRONG! Instead, I’ve been reading and vegetating – plugged Serenity into the DVD player Thursday and thoroughly enjoyed it for the nth time, finished reading S.M. Stirling’s In the Courts of the Crimson Kings yesterday, then went to the book store and picked up some more books, saw Wolverine yesterday afternoon, then blasted through John Scalzi’s Zoë’s Tale last night (first time I’ve done a non-stop cover-to-cover read in quite a while).

I’ve got stuff I want to write about. (Specifically, I want to finish my final reply to James Kelly, but I’m having problems working up the enthusiasm to actually do it. Sorry.)

I guess you could say I’m enjoying my vacation.

And now I’m getting ready to go to the gun show downtown to see if I can find any of that elusive prey known as primers. Wish me luck.

Agenda? What Agenda?

KevinLeave a comment

Agenda? What Agenda?

Eugene Volokh reports:

So I thought that the Ninth Circuit’s holding that the Second Amendment binds state and local governments (via the Fourteenth Amendment) was a pretty big deal. It was the first federal court of appeals decision to so hold. If followed, it would invalidate the Chicago handgun ban, plus perhaps some other broad state and local gun restrictions, such as New York City’s ban on all gun ownership by 18-to-20-year-olds. And it might well trigger Supreme Court consideration of the issue, since there’s now a split between the Second and Ninth Circuits on the issue.

But here’s the odd thing: I couldn’t find any articles about this in the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune, or the Washington Post. (I searched for second amendment or bear arms or nordyke or gun show.) There was early coverage on CNN and in the San Francisco Chronicle, but nothing else in any newspapers in the NEWS;MAJPAP file on LEXIS. Am I missing some stories that just didn’t happen to use the keywords I searched for? Or is the court decision just not worth even a brief mention?

There’s more, but is anyone really surprised?

Exclusion

KevinLeave a comment

Exclusion?

David Codrea reports that the 2A Blog Bash has become . . . exclusive, and not in a good way. By all appearances, anyone who does not meet Bitter’s unpublished criteria won’t get blogger credentials at the NRA convention. Please do read the whole thing.

I left this comment at David’s:

Of course it’s an NRA public relations stunt. What do you think, they want news crews to tape a shouting match between the Prags and the Threepers?

Honestly, how many of you here think that mixing those two groups would result in Reasoned Discourse™? We already know what it does on the intarwebs.

And I think we’ve had this discussion before – in the Civil Right to Arms movement, the Prags play MLK and the Threepers play Malcom X. The opposition talks to the Prags, because otherwise they have to talk to you.

Don’t act all surprised and butthurt. This is the role you’ve embraced.

And this addendum:

Note:

I’m speaking for myself here. I don’t know that Bitter has done what you’ve accused her of, but I wouldn’t find it surprising, for the reason I gave above.

I’m not happy about it, but it’s her party. And no, I really don’t want to get into a shouting match with Mike Vanderboegh in the hall in front of cameras. That’s a public front I’d rather not put forth.

Discuss.

Quote

KevinLeave a comment

Quote

We are not your sons and daughters, whom you must protect and defend. We are your sword and your shield. We are men and women who volunteer to place our lives on the line so you do not have to. We do not decide when or where we will be sent. We go. You are our advocates, not our parents.

—

I, as a soldier, am personally insulted when debate about war becomes not about policy, but about deaths, because it implies that my service is at best uninformed or ill-conceived, and at worst valueless.

I know my life is in the hands of others because I choose for it to be that way. I am not your daughter, a child who must be guided. I have made my choice and pledge my honor to it. I will thank you to remember that because we serve our nation, none of us dies in vain, regardless of the cause; end of debate.

Sarah Albrycht – Letter from a Soldier in Afghanistan

Via Dr. Sanity

READ. EVERY. WORD.

I’ve got dust in my eyes . . .

BOOMERSHOOT!

KevinLeave a comment

Man, it’s nice to have reliable broadband service again! (And a solid night’s sleep!)

Let’s start off my (excessively long) 2009 Boomershoot report with a video: The Anvil Launch!

http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/Boomershoot029.flv
As noted previously, my shooting partner and I departed Tucson on Wednesday morning about 06:30 and didn’t stop until we got North of Boise, ID Salt Lake City, UT. We left bright and early Thursday, and arrived in Orofino a little after 4:00PM – too late to join the other Gunbloggers up at the range, but we did manage to find the local Ponderosa restaurant (not the chain, an independent) for dinner at 18:00 that evening for an informal get-together. I met Ry Jones, Earl Dungey of Just the Library Keeper, Alan of Snarky Bytes, Matthew of Triggerfinger, the original South Park Pundit (now blogging at Ballistic-Deanimation. I got to see Derek of The Packing Rat, George of Rivrdog, David of Random Nuclear Strikes, and Bonnie of Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease again, too, and (of course) Joe Huffman, our host. I know I met more bloggers than that, but my memory is faulty.

Friday we slept in, and at Joe’s invitation we moseyed on up to the range about lunch time. Gene Econ was running the first day of the long-range clinic, so we stopped over at the lunch wagon and got a burger & fries, and when everybody else broke for lunch, we headed up to the Taj Mahal where the Boomerite gets made. We met an interesting couple riding a Ural motorcycle with a sidecar (2WD!) that drew a lot of comments all weekend long.


When we first met I asked him what he did for a living. “I lie” was his reply, to which my response was “Oh! You’re a journalist!” I was right. Turns out that he’s Jack Lewis, freelance writer and frequent contributor to Motorcycle magazine, and his passenger is his wife and photographer. My shooting partner is a rider, and works for the University of Arizona doing esoteric technical stuff supporting the local observatories, so he had a lot to talk about with them about – bikes, riding and photography! Anyway, shooting partner and I spent the rest of the afternoon helping out a little, folding cardboard boxes and helping clean up, but where there was a break about three in the afternoon, we headed on down the hill.

We decided it would be a really good idea to get our rifles zeroed for the shoot on Sunday, so we went back Saturday morning, got signed in for “field fire” and set up our shooting position – #74:


That little blue half-tent was our windbreak and sunshade. Not quite big enough, but it sufficed. The temperature was in the low 40’s, and the wind was just a bit brisk, too, so we layered up and took a look at the range itself:


We were on the end of a little hillock. The treeline you see in the middle distance is the 375-yard berm. The bottom of the hill way out there in the distance?


Yes, 606 yards, by my rangefinder. The top of the hill measured 717 yards. On Saturday, steel targets were scattered all the way from the base up to the top. We sighted in on one at about 640 yards. I hit it with both the Remington 700 and the long-range pistol, so I figured I was ready for Sunday. There is something . . . rewarding about repeatedly smacking a 4″ steel target that far off in a stiff breeze.

Late in the afternoon the crew set up some Boomers at the 375 yard line for the precision rifle clinic people to shoot, and then those of us who were shooting “field fire” got a crack at them. My shooting partner got a couple, and then offered me his 7mm Magnum to take some shots. My response? “Oh hell yes!” That done, we packed up our rifles, left our shelter and bench set up, and headed back into Orofino to get ready for the evening’s banquet.

There was an excellent turnout for the dinner, lots of prizes raffled off, and Joe raised $1,085 for Soldier’s Angels plus an anonymous donor gave an additional $300 to be passed on. I didn’t win a thing, and neither did my shooting partner. Bummer. But Alan won the best prize there. (The 50% off a Nightforce scope was #2. I dropped the better part of $60 trying to win that, but wasn’t even close in that competition.)

Joe had all of the blogger/livejournalist attendees stand up and introduce themselves, and there were many. Hopefully he’ll post a complete list some time. I got in a couple of wisecracks, myself.

Sunday was the Big Day, and turnout was good. I’d estimate that there were 175 or so shooters and at least another 50-75 spectators. I saw four empty spots, which surprised me, but I guess given the economy some people just couldn’t make it. Bonnie actually had to head back home Sunday morning, so she didn’t get to shoot on the big day, plus somehow she broke her nose on Saturday (I’m still waiting to hear how that happened.)

Alan has a very good picture of what the side of the hillside looked like populated with Boomers. Firing commenced about 10:00, and there was much Sturm und Drang. With my partner spotting for me, it took me nine shots before I got my first Boomer at about 615 yards, but I rapidly got eight more – at one point three-in-a-row, which has major ego-boosting powers, let me tell you! The call of “TARGET DOWN!” is very cool, followed immediately by a distance-delayed “BOOOOM!” We switched and I spotted for him for a while. I think I was a lousy spotter, because he burned a lot of .30-06 ammo to not much effect for a while. He ended up dropping to the 375 yard berm and finally scored a hit. He concluded that the next time he comes (this was his second trip) he’ll have better equipment. At the least, better optics. I switched to the pistol and put about 40 rounds downrange, but only managed to score one 7″ boomer at about 640 yards. (Scared a few, but only just.) Still, that’s not bad for my first attempt at really looooong range handgunning.

We broke for lunch about noon, so I took my camera and walked the firing line to see what the others had brought.

Whoa.

There were a couple of “minimalists,” like this guy who brought a sniper KAR-98 Swedish Mauser M41B:


and a scoped Mosin


I have a feeling that picking out tiny little 7″ squares at 600+ yards with WWII-era sniper optics was a challenge.

Of course, David brought his long-range pistols:


Lots of people had better sun and wind protection than we did:


These guys had HEAT!


But there was some serious high-dollar hardware on site:


Lots of high-dollar optics for the spotters were in evidence.


I definitely need to upgrade to a better spotting scope/tripod. What I’ve got is fine for seeing bullet holes in paper at 100 yards, but it’s not so much for trying to see bullet “trace” on its way out to 600 yards.

But THESE guys:


I was tempted to ask if those things were self-propelled, too.

Anyway, the weather weenies were wrong (again) and the winds were lighter on Sunday than they had been on Saturday, so it seemed warmer. It didn’t rain or snow, and the shooting was excellent. All in all, it was a great trip – but one I don’t think I’ll be doing next year. Over the week I put 2990 miles on my truck, the overwhelming majority in four long days behind the wheel. I need a shooting friend who’s a member of AOPA. There’s a nice airstrip right next to Orofino. It’s got to be better than 50 hours of windshield time.

But I was grinning the whole way home . . .

Another Public Educator Teaches “Critical Thinking”

KevinLeave a comment

Another Public Educator Teaches “Critical Thinking”

Speechless about covers it. Sebastian has the video of Cam Edwards interviewing a New York High School HISTORY TEACHER about the gun control bills that teacher is pushing er, encouraging his students to travel to Albany to support.

Yes, our opponents are that bigoted, ignorant, misinformed, obstinate, and dishonest. “Look who’s teaching,” indeed. I wonder if Mr. Esposito is a member of MEChA.

HOME!

KevinLeave a comment

HOME!

Everything’s unloaded, my shooting partner is on his way to his own domicile, and I’m wiped out. Just over 12 hours on the road today. Coming back through Nevada was not noticeably quicker than going through Utah. We saved maybe an hour.

Regular blogging resumes tomorrow.