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Quote of the Day – Marcus Luttrell (2/10/2013)

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Fear is a force that sharpens your senses.  Being afraid is a state of paralysis in which you can’t do anything.

…

I have found that the best way to get through tough times is to surround myself with positive people.  If you spend time around people who are weak or always feel sorry for themselves, it’s bound to rub off on you.  Always look forward, never back.

Marcus Luttrell – Service: A Navy SEAL at War, P208

[Yes that’s more of a twofer, especially since there was another great quote in-between those two but I felt them fitting when paired.  Why?  Let me remind of you A Girl’s post.

You, you who hate guns, you gave me nothing.

No hope.

No tools.

All that was offered me was a life of fear, of resentment, of bitterness, of dependance…

The gun community has offered me hope and strength, and courage.

They have taught me to have belief in myself.

They have asked nothing of me in return and, yet, I would give them my life.

I do really need to write up on my visit to Olympia a couple weeks ago because that second piece of advice was quite apparent.  The opposition only showed up with emotion and hysteria.  Quite honestly the first day was nothing more than a pity party, which was obvious as how they went about championing their bill.

Entertainingly after arguing for a similar bill in Oregon, Mark Kelly went shooting.  Because we all know how they support their ability to exercise the 2nd Amendment as being exempted parts of the political elite while they despise yours.

I believe this man here nails it quite well.

When you see someone arguing to take away your right to keep and bear arms and then go an do the exact thing they were arguing against, they’re a hypocrite.  Mark Kelly borrowed someone’s firearm and the bill he was arguing for in Washington would make that a felony.  He also went and attempted to buy an AR-15 after arguing for an AWB in Connecticut.

All the other side has is self loathing, pity, and hypocrisy.  See this most recent incident involving the New York SAFE Act.

He was a well-known face in the movement for the SAFE Act, the state law that made carrying a gun on school property a felony. He was also a familiar presence in the hallways of the city’s Harvey Austin Elementary School, where he worked in the after-school program and mentored students.

No one imagined that on Thursday he would show up at the school in possession of a gun, touching off an hours-long lockdown, search and ultimately his arrest on two felony charges.

Ferguson, 52, told WGRZ-TV that he frequently carries the gun, for which he has a permit, and did not realize he had it on him when he went to the school as part of the mentoring program.

Had it been any other person would the other side be so lenient? This is exactly the type of issue our side regularly brings up regarding these measures but we’re told, “That’s not the intent of the law.”  Well intent or not, that’s what the law says.  Book ’em Danno.  Don’t like it, take your ill conceived, forced through without debate law off the books and come back and behave like an adult.  Until then you can suffer under the law you helped instituted and create.

Worth a note, a bunch of us are still working on fixing the problem but you deserve to be punished for what you did more than anyone.  -B]

Well This Sucks…

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I’ve hated GE for a long while.  Well one of the biggest issues with GE is they are an overly large conglomerate that has their fingers in just about everything.  Well one of their conglomerate parts is doing something to make me hate them even more.

This month, Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Outdoor Store in Bay City, Mich., said he received a letter from GE Capital Retail Bank in which the lender said it had made “the difficult decision” to stop providing financing services to his store. Other gun dealers have received similar notices.

GE is at least the second big financial firm to retreat from the gun business following the school shootings, which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults in December.

Here’s the really bad news, you can try really hard but I doubt you’ll be able to fully escape the reach of GE.  That said, I’m going to try really hard, harder than I currently do.

If I could I would create my own financial institution specifically to fill the gap.  In this horrible economy there has been one section doing well consistently.  Seriously you would be daft to go bail on firearms or ammo manufacturers currently.  If you’re looking out for your company or your investors, other than BS government regulations, what threat is there to your product and market, none.

Given the fact that the market is seeing a sustained peak of demand, manufactures can not keep up, and stock prices keep going up how would this be a smart economical move?

If you said it wasn’t you’d be right.  The CEO of GE is a big Obama supporter and has received many favors for his support.  Obama I think just called in a favor.

Quote of the Day – John Klein (4/19/2013)

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They’re going to think I’m inactive at church.  I have an Appleseed this Sunday, Boomershoot next Sunday, and USPSA the following Sunday.  I think I’ve found a new religion.

John Klein – Instant Message

April 18th, 2013

[Yeah, I spend most of my Sundays doing something firearms related.  Be it shooting, cleaning, or working on the blog.  -B]

 

Quote of the Day–Chris S. (12/19/2012)

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Even my grandma is calling to ask about guns!

Chris S. – After Answering a Phone Call

[On my way home tonight I stopped by to chat with Chris and see how things were doing at my local gun shop.  Here’s how it looked as I walked in:

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I walked in as the last AR on the shelf was being bought.  The few remaining that look like they are are really just dedicated .22 LR.  The one sole carbine on the right is a 9mm carbine which was also liberated by the same individual who bought the last AR.  Notice how there are no Glock mags, AR mags, or just about any other standard capacity magazine.  Yeah the last of the P-Mags were leaving as I arrived.  They moved, in the middle of no where mind you, in a store that’s mainly known as a golf shop, over 50 rifles in the past 4 days they were open for business. 

So here’s what it looked like as I left from the purchase of a single individual:

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To give you an idea of how serious this rush is, he was asked if he had any SCARs or other high end rifles and was offered cash for purchase.  Think about that for a second folks, people were arriving cash money in hand to buy these.

I don’t think our opponents have fully realized what they have done.  I can guarantee you that those who have bought rifles over the past weekend aren’t planning on turning them in if they’re outlawed.  I went through all the pistols he had left.  Most were single stack or revolvers.  Every other normal capacity Glock, S&W, and XD was gone.

People are seriously afraid and I cannot say that the fear is ungrounded.  But as piece of good news I do think that Sebastian is right in this following statement:

This is not our last stand, it is theirs. If we beat them back now, if we deny them their agenda and keep the lawmakers in line, we will sweep these people from the field. They will, like Custer, have underestimated our numbers and our ferocity. We will dog our lawmakers. They will be sick of hearing from us by the time this is over. Obama’s historical legacy will be a lousy economy, and an ineffective and bumbling second term. It is our time to show the weak and pitiful Republicans how this is done, and how you beat Obama.

There’s no question though folks, this is going to be a fight.  Do not underestimate the power of our enemy, especially with emotions on their side.  Do not get cocky, do not think that magically we are just going to win this.  It is going to take work and effort.  Write or otherwise contact your legislators starting immediately.  If you’re not sure what to do, follow this write up from Robb.  Sadly again unlike our paid competitors I have to work for a living and I will be busy through the weekend.  My goal is to sit down Sunday afternoon or take the day off Monday and write up an improved form letter based off of Robb’s.  At the same time I’m going to work on creating a simple way to automate the whole process of contacting the necessary people.

Get everyone you can to start writing in as well.  We need to be heard and we need to show our voice.  There is no question that our opponents are dancing in the blood of the dead to merely further their political goals.  Their cards are shown when other politicians admit and explain that the laws they recommend wouldn’t actually prevent something like this from happening.

I offered my help to Chris on arming customers on the political front and got him hooked with with Sebastian’s primer.  My goal is to arm every last customer with the knowledge necessary to help win this fight.

Now is the time to fight.  To those that argue for a ban on assault weapons I say, “Molon Labe!” –B]

Quote of the Day – Say Uncle (12/13/2012)

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Anyway, the correct answer to why do you need an AR-15? is because fuck you. Or, the more politically correct version because I can. You see, Piers, you don’t get a say in what I own or what I do. End of story.

Say Uncle – “Shut up!”, he explained
December 13th, 2012

[If you’re wondering what he was talking about.  It was this show down between Alan Gottlieb and Piers Morgan.

This is the same Piers Morgan from this recent twitter escapade.

Yeah, that’s the tweet Alan was bringing up when Piers went off the deep end.

Mr. Morgan, I do not have to justify my purchase to you, the government, or any other person.  It is called the “Bill of Rights”, not the “Bill of Needs”.

Tell me Mr. Morgan, why do you feel the need to open your fat mouth and spout drivel that is tantamount to blaming gun owners as a whole for the actions of an individual?  Because despite what you may think, collective rights are B.S. and here’s a nice piece from Oleg Volk to help explain it.  Here’s the abbreviated photo version.

Your claims that some how the youth of America can go out and purchase firearms willy-nilly is false and smacks of someone who has never been through the process.  It is worthy of note that in this latest incident the rifle was actually stolen, not purchased.  You claim that you want to stop the violence but instead focus on the tool and not the person and the act.

The choice of a firearm actually is a blessing despite what many people think.  If given immediate and proper medical attention gun shot wounds have an 80% survival rate, regarding hand guns.  (I highly suggest watching this video as it is a wonderful view into the world of terminal ballistics.  If anyone knows where to find a better copy of it, please let me know.)  Rifles have a different statistic but currently I am unaware of the actual numbers.  The bottom line is you need to hit a vital organ to cause terminal damage.  Rifles while more powerful and capable of more severe tissue damage still suffer from the issue of needing to hit a vital area.

You seem to think that firearms are the only tool available for mass murder, except that is anything but true.  You know what is effective and honestly down right scary Mr. Morgan, fire.  Fire can be set and scheduled so the murderer miles away before anyone knows what happened.  If the Aurora shooter had used fire instead he could have killed every last person in that theater with a guaranteed success rate of 100%.  All he had to do was block the exits with fire first.

You complain about why would anyone need an AR-15.  You argue that there is no need for it.  Yet it is the most popular rifle in America.  Used for hunting, because we all know George Washington crossed the Delaware to get to his duck blind, sport shooting and even law enforcement uses the semi-automatic AR-15.  I use my AR-15 for competitive shooting as well as Boomershoot.

Ultimately though Mr. Morgan, I don’t have to give you any other reason than that of, pardon my language, “Because Fuck You, That’s Why!”  It is none of your business that I even have a firearm and it is not my responsibility to control the actions of others, much less be held responsible for their decisions or actions.  Besides, there’s a reason my feathers ruffle when you and your compatriots start banging on the war drums like you do.

Frankly Mr. Morgan I don’t give a crap what you think either because you’re nothing more than a gun grabbing Brit. Guess you missed the fact that gun crime went up 35% in Britain, that’s not including the overall crime rate.  Since you think that “Gun Deaths” are the only ones that matter.  The fact is that there is no correlation between civilian gun ownership and crime much less causation.  Which country has the positive slope on the trend and which has the negative slope?  Remember now, negative is better.  But as we can see in the video, facts don’t matter to you. -B]

Acceptance and an Ugly Truth

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Let me lead off on a quote from A Girl:

The reasons are many and complicated and are not the same for everyone, but to some extent I think for most it is simply because it is what we want to believe. Many of us are conditioned and many of us are naive, but there is more to it. I believe we accept these ineffective ways to keep us safe because they are what we want to be true. We want to believe that the world is basically a rosy place where bad things don’t happen to good people and when they do they are so rare, we need not worry about it. AND we want what is easy.

If you haven’t read her post, “I Believe, I Believe. It Is Silly, But I Believe,” it’s worth the time.  I point to her post because it, mainly that quote, is honestly what inspired the following train of thoughts through my head.

People naturally tend to rationalize away things they do not like, things they do not want to hear, or things that would otherwise bring them discomfort.  While every last one of those points are valid and extremely important it misses probably the most critical one of all. 

What could she have missed?  She has that bad exists in the world, some are naïve, and that ultimately we want those simple things to be true.  So what critical item do I think was left out?

A very ugly truth that not everyone can handle or accept.  That truth is this:

In the defense of my family or myself I may have to strike another human being.  Not only may I have to strike that person, but I may be forced to take their life in defense of my family or myself in order to stop the attack.

Many people cannot handle this.  We are brought up in a society where doing such a thing is viewed with great disdain and shunned, and rightfully so when life is taken for the wrong reasons.  Many people group all killing into that single group.  For them there is no acceptable reason to kill another human being.  Not even to kill them to prevent them from killing you.

Not only as a society is this shunned, but many people lock up at even contemplating the fact they may be force to take the life of another human being.  It is not entirely their fault either.  We are wired genetically to not want to kill each other.

There can be no doubt that this resistance to killing one’s fellow man is there and that it exists as a result of a powerful combination of instinctive, rational, environmental, hereditary, cultural, and social factors.  It is there, it is strong, and it gives us cause to believe that there may just be hope for mankind after all.1

No person really likes the idea that they may end up having to kill another, honestly most will do what they can to prevent it.  Many of us who do finally accept this ugly truth have spent hours agonizing over and finally understanding that the circumstances that lead to that situation are ultimately out of our control.  While yes we can do things to mitigate our chances of an encounter, ultimately the decision to start the conflict does not ride with us.  We know, understand, and accept this.  Not everyone is so willing to accept the reality of this fact.

Many will constantly rationalize that somehow they can avoid any conflict that might befall them.  They will falsely rationalize to themselves that if the aggressor gets what they want it will go no further.  They ignore and disregard the idea that some people don’t want anything other than to see someone in pain and die.  They do not understand how the other side ultimately views this situation.  They cannot comprehend the following so eloquently put by Malcolm Reynolds.

“I didn’t kill him, he killed himself. I just carried the bullet for a while.”

Yes, I make the decision to defend myself, and yes I make the decision on the level of force necessary to apply.  The most critical decision though in that whole chain though was the person who decided to victimize my family or me.  If he had not have chosen to attack, invade, or otherwise do something against my family or myself, I would have never needed to make either of those two decisions.  The second decision ultimately is also based on the aggressors decisions as well.  Ultimately though the first decision must be made in advance and the gravity and reality of the potential consequences of the second decision accepted.  Many people cannot do that, they cannot accept that, they cannot comprehend why contemplation would even be necessary.  Many of us look at the story of A Girl, or the excerpt in her post from “Armed and Female” and a roll of realization and acceptance flow through us.

Many who read this have already accepted the harsh realities A Girl points out in her quote, but we’ve also accepted the consequences of that truth.  It is those consequences I believe most people have a serious problem with whether they’re willing to admit it or not.  Without accepting those consequences there is not much left in the toolbox for survival.  The natural response then is to rationalize and attempt to hide the problem.

I have touched before on why I carry a gun, and some have argued and told me that people carry a gun out of fear and being afraid.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m afraid of criminals.  I don’t carry a gun because I think someone is out to get me.  I carry a gun because if and when the devil arrives at my door I have one mission and one mission alone: Assure that my wife and myself arrive home in one piece, no worse for wear.  The condition I leave the devil in is entirely up to him.  He may end up hospitalized, he may end up just scratched and bruised, he may even end up dead.  My decisions though center around my mission and I will do what I feel is necessary to guarantee that outcome.  If you don’t like it, don’t try and attack my family or me, it is honestly that simple.  However I have realized and accepted this ugly truth an the potential consequences that go with it.

1-Grossman, Dave. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Boston: Little, Brown, 1995. 39. Print.

Wounded Warrior Foundation Puts Foot In Mouth…

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So it appears the Wounded Warrior Project went and shoved their foot in their mouth with regards to a large segment of the population which graciously throws money at them.

“WWP does not co-brand, create cause marketing campaigns or receive a percentage or a portion of proceeds from companies in which the product or message is sexual, political or religious in nature, or from alcohol or firearms companies.“

Screenshot in case they memory hole the end statement.

In case you didn’t read the first link, this includes doing interviews with firearm related talk  radio.  Given that it would also prevent firearm events raising funds for their cause,  including donations of firearms to be raffled to raise funds.

Now they are free to do whatever they would like, just the same I am free to send my funds to groups as I would like.  I will say that refusing to talk on a radio show because they are gun related show isn’t probably the brightest thing to do.  In the grand scheme it certainly feels like a snub, especially when someone is going out of their way to give them free publicity.

So instead from now on when I would normally give to WWP I will instead send it to Soldiers’ Angels.  Honestly this is where I send most of my support anyway.  If you would like to continue donating to the WWP, that is your call and I am not knocking their cause or mission.  I will say I am offended that they would politicize a stance over a fundamental right and use their mission and purpose as a screen.  It appears that I’m not the only one thinking about cutting WWP off from their wallet either.

If the WWP wants to discriminate against gun owners or otherwise snub our overwhelming generosity to those who need it, especially those in uniform, we will find someone else who does want it.  It’s what we do.

I will say that Soldiers’ Angels was at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous this year and the fundraising was directed at them.  Patti Patton-Bader’s youngest son was there as a representative of the group and had a blast shooting steel and even got him interested in USPSA.  We even got him hitting the steel out at 950.

So at least it appears that Soldiers’ Angels has their head on straight and realizes that it doesn’t matter where it comes from, what matters is the mission and the cause.  It pains me that I even have to think about it, but they made the choice not me.  So, if you’d rather not donate to WWP but still want to support wounded troops, Soldiers’ Angels works, quite well I might add.

You don’t just have to donate money, there are many options from sewing to writing letters to support the troops.  Honestly, when you consider it, Soldier’s Angels has the benefit of being much more personal in their approach, especially for the wounded.

I’ve spoken my piece. Wounded Warrior Project will no longer get a cent out of my wallet.  Instead I will send that and more to a project fully focused on the mission of providing support to wounded warriors as well as their brother’s in arms.

So you want an AR…

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This isn’t as much a how-to buying guide but merely a disclaimer that right now is not the time to buy.

The most annoying thing about the post election panic is that it throws a wrench at planned purchases.  I was planning on buying more blasting ammo for Boomershoot, well when ammo started disappearing from shelves, that changed the time frame.  I did an inventory last night and confirmed, yes I needed more steel cased ammo. Since the new replacement ammo is lacquer coated steal rounds I picked up some P-Mags with it and had a nice long discussion with the owner since he’s also my neighbor.  Seriously, he lives 2 houses down from me on the opposite side of the road.

While chatting phones ring and emails come in.  The result of the calls and emails is that  I’m promptly helping them retag every AR in the place.  Now they weren’t gouging nearly as bad as they could, or probably even should.  But every rifle went up by at least an extra 100 bucks.  Now here’s why.  There is no replacement supply anywhere on the horizon, their friends were reporting they were sold out and couldn’t get replacement stock.  Their suppliers were sold out and back ordered for the foreseeable future.  Even manufactures are listing as back-ordered.  Given the sudden demand increase and a fixed supply, prices are going up.

So my advice is if you’re wanting an AR, now is probably not the best time to buy.  Prices will probably drop back now in 6 months and deliveries will move back to normal.

The same goes for ammo.  If you can survive on your current stock, do so.  Come spring thaw it will be back to normal rates and you’ll also have people trying to unload excess stock they didn’t need.  Right now a bunch of people are panicking and buying, but honestly if you wanted one for preparatory purposes, you should have done this a while ago.