Category: Guns

Gun Rights Policy Conference 2020 Is Virtual

July 23, 2020 / / 0 Comments

GRPC is going to be online only. I was disappointed because it was supposed to be in Orlando this year. Yeah, I can still watch the panels, but that’s not the big draw for me. It’s the people I meet, the almost “family reunion” atmosphere, and the interesting side conversations. None of which can be reasonably replicated.

John over at Only Guns and Money relates an idea to help out the Second Amendment Foundation.

Since there’s no in-person Gun Rights Policy Conference this year, take some of what you would have spent there and donate it.

Friday Quote – Jeff Cooper

July 3, 2020 / / 0 Comments

The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely on the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized.

Derek’s Mildly Useful Movie Reviews – Tread

July 2, 2020 / / 0 Comments

The Wife and I decided on this film for our movie night viewing. I knew of the Killdozer story from the growing internet folktale of the event. I was curious to see how it was portrayed.

The documentary uses audio tapes made by Marv Heemeyer in the months leading up to the Killdozer event and interviews with his friends in the first act to bring Marv to life. The filmmakers use this time to help Marv build his case against the authorities in the town of Grady.

Then, the second act feeds in the counter narrative with interviews from members of the local government and parts of Marv’s tapes that were more, shall we say, ranting. By the end of the second act, I was a bit more ambivalent on whether Marv was fucked over by the town or Marv just had a persecution complex.

The third act was the Killdozer rampage. I learned a lot of details about how Marv built, armed, and drove the Killdozer. The last act is going to be shaded by how you come out of the previous two acts. Since I was feeling more ambivalent already, the rampaging done made me more ambivalent.

Summary – I thought this was a well-done documentary. I think anyone who champions the Killdozer as a myth of the common man against corrupt government should watch this. Then, after seeing this, do you think if the folktale holds, or should we discard this?

Friday Quote – W.E.B. Dubois

June 5, 2020 / / 0 Comments

A mob had raged for days killing Negroes. I bought a Winchester double-barreled shotgun and two dozen rounds of shells filled with buckshot. If a white mob had stepped on the campus where I lived, I would without hesitation have sprayed their guts over the grass.

Unpopular Opinions – May Riots Edition

June 3, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Time for another round of unpopular opinions:

  1. If that police officer isn’t guilty of at least manslaughter, then that was some weird deep-fake shit.
  2. If after watching that, you can’t understand why Black Lives Matter exists, you are too far up your own team’s ass to see clearly.
  3. If after watching that video, you don’t understand why the current qualified immunity standard leads to a horrific “only ones” attitude, then you’re too far up either Blue Lives Matter or the police union bullshit.
  4. If after watching that video, you don’t see how horrific it is for police unions to protect bad officers, then you are also too far up your own ass to see clearly.
  5. There’s part of me that wishes someone had been able to forcibly stop the cop, but I know that person would have been crucified. I think it’s high time that there should be a doctrine and cultural practice that if the populace witness the police performing an illegal act, we should be able to stop them. With all applicable force ladders.
  6. I understand and condone people gathering and protesting unjust actions to call attention to their plight. I may not agree with their assessment or opinion, but I fully sympathize.
  7. I can sympathize, but not condone, with attacks on government buildings by people outraged by atrocities committed by government agents.
  8. I will not sympathize or condone attacks on private businesses and homes. It don’t care if someone looting a store, throwing a fire bomb, committing arson, or even smashing a window during the course of a riot catches a bullet. Or multiple bullets. Or however many bullets it takes to stop them.
  9. It has been terrifying to watch how fast the narrative that the violence was mostly caused by white supremacist and fascist instigators and provocateurs spread across the inter webs. For fuck’s sake, if you’re correctly calling out the other side for their bullshit, at least have the common decency or consistency to call out the assholes on your own.
  10. If after watching how fast the riots – not the protests, the violent riots – spread to other cities, you do not understand why it should be normal for every willing citizen to have an AR-15 with a thirty-round magazine, then either you are too far up your team’s ass, or you do not want to get shot when you’re busy causing property damage.

Friday Quote – James Mattis

May 29, 2020 / / 0 Comments

My good reason to carry a knife is that God gave me rather weak teeth and rudimentary claws in an evolutionary trade-off. The hairy-armed person who figured out how to put an edge on a suitable rock made it possible for us to be recognizably human in the first place.

I wear a wristwatch whether or not I have an appointment to keep, and I keep a pen and/or pencil because I am a literate person whether or not I have a specific writing task ahead of me, and I carry a knife because I am a human and not an ape.

A knife comes in handy for all sorts of random tasks that involve separating matter. Like cutting a string, or making a sandwich, or opening a package. It can also come in handy in an emergency, which need not involve a human assailant, and emergencies are by their nature unforeseen, so one should carry a knife all the time.

And in a perfect world where nobody needed a weapon, I’d probably carry a slightly larger knife, because it wouldn’t scare people.

You Want To Know Why Black Lives Matter Exists?

May 13, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Let’s examine the case of Ahmaud Arbery.

These two asshats killed a man on February 23rd. Since the elder is a former cop, the original prosecutor recused herself. The second prosecutor also recused, but gave a lengthy, if bullshit, memo as to why they shouldn’t be charged. The third is finally taking this to the grand jury after two months.

Let’s dispense with the citizens arrest bullshit. They did not witness a crime, nor did they have reason to believe a crime was in progress. That latter is proved by them asking Ahmaud to stop so they “can talk with him.” This also wasn’t anywhere near self-defense. If anyone had a justifiable claim of self-defense if was Ahmaud.

Yet, it took three prosecutors before they were arrested and charged?

Was it racism? Most likely. Was it a former cop getting preferential treatment? Fuck yes.

So, why should a community historically treated poorly by cops, look at this and not feel threatened?

Friday Quote – Rosie Cooney

April 24, 2020 / / 0 Comments

There’s only two places on earth where wildlife at a large scale has actually increased in the twentieth century, and those are North America and southern Africa. Both of those models of conservation were built around hunting.

Gun News

April 23, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Well, after being down in Manatee County for about eighteen months, I think I have found my local gun shop. It’s actually over in Sarasota, but it’s a small mom-and-pop retail and repair place. I found it because I needed a place to take my Beretta Tomcat.

The Wife and I stopped in to take a look. We had some spare money from the sale of my Tampa house, and The Wife had been encouraging me to use some of it on a gun. She doesn’t like them, but she supports my hobby.

I didn’t end up buying a gun. I bought two. They had a sweet deal on a Ruger SR1911 Lightweight Commander. They also had a Steyr L9A1 in the case. Both are pistols that I’ve wanted for a while, and The Wife just looked at me with indulgence as I did the mental calculations.

For the record, the Steyr has some of the best ergonomics I’ve ever had in a pistol. Getting holsters and magazines is going to be interesting. The 1911 is a 1911. Good in the hand, pretty to look at, and fucking annoying to take down.

As soon as we’re able to go to the range, I’m going to start in on their thousand round trigger jobs.