Blog
Made in the USA
'Real' Leather
In this day and age of plastic this and plastic that, the smell of new leather has become a premium sensation, not unlike that 'new car' smell, or the smell of pine tar and marline around an old bosun' locker; a new leather holster or belt is a real treat for both eyes, and the nose as well.
Growing up in the midwest years ago, I can remember when the area 'farm stores' included a saddlery and/or tack shop. It was an enjoyable place to hang out, just because of the aroma.
If you have ever wondered how leather gets from the field to the craftsman's table, the Hermann Oak Leather Company in St. Louis, MO has produced an educational video of the process. They are still doing it the old fashioned way.
Lens Caps
Butler Creek 'Sidewinder Flip Cover'
For anyone prone to losing those pesky lens caps, here is a dandy option. MSRP about $22
Recall Notice
Product Warning And Recall Notice: Winchester® 5.56mm M855 62 Grain
Olin Corporation, through its Winchester Division, is recalling
one (1) lot of its 5.56mm M855 62 Grain PENE centerfire rifle
ammunition.
Symbol Number: ZGQ3308
Lot Number: WCC10M106-004
Through extensive evaluation Winchester has determined the above lot of
5.56mm M855 ammunition may contain incorrect propellant. Incorrect
propellant in this ammunition may cause firearm damage, rendering the
firearm inoperable, and subject the shooter or bystanders to a risk of
serious personal injury when fired.
DO NOT USE WINCHESTER® SYMBOL NUMBER ZGQ3308 LOT NUMBER WCC10M106-004
5.56mm M855 62 GRAIN PENE AMMUNITION. The ammunition Symbol Number and
Lot Number are ink stamped on the outside of the 900-round shipping
container, and on the outside of the 30-round carton as indicated here:
To determine if your ammunition is subject to this notice, review the
Symbol Number and Lot Number. If it is Symbol Number ZGQ3308 and Lot
Number WCC10M106-004 immediately discontinue use and contact Winchester
toll-free at 866-423-5224 for free UPS pick-up of the recalled
ammunition. Upon receipt of your recalled ammunition, Winchester will
ship replacement ammunition directly to you.
This notice applies only to Symbol Number ZGQ3308 with Lot Number
WCC10M106-004. Other Symbol Numbers or Lot Numbers are not subject to
this recall.
If you have any questions concerning this 5.56mm M855 ammunition recall
please call toll-free 866-423-5224, write to Winchester (600 Powder Mill
Road, East Alton, IL 62024 Attn: 5.56mm M855 Recall), or visit our
website at www.winchester.com.
We apologize for this inconvenience.
WINCHESTER
Good Evidence
Thousands of armed vigilantes takeover Mexican town
An extrapolation of corrupt government is well defined in Mexico, as evidenced in the article linked here. This is exactly why sinister politicians and corrupt government administrations seek ways to covertly disarm the citizens without a fight. And, it is exactly why free societies should resist any and all schemes to disarm citizens. The fact that a few nut cases, in a free society, can get their hands on a gun is an entirely separate issue.
-fl
Freedom
Protect What Makes Us Strong!
When it comes to fighting for what is right, nothing changes much over time. Fifty years ago, the March 1963 issue of Guns magazine carried an article by James Serven titled "Protect What Makes Us Strong!" The first page of the article displayed a cartoon, by Vaughn Shoemaker, that had appeared in syndication sometime earlier in the decade. The cartoon pictured a Bible alongside a gun; the Bible was labeled "Faith of Our Fathers," and the gun was labeled "Courage of Our Fathers." The title of the cartoon, "WE NEED THEM BOTH."
A half century later, we still do!
Serven began his article with the reminder of an old saying that "you can insure against loss by fire and theft, but you can't insure against loss by legislation." He went on to point out there are, however, steps that can be taken to prevent or mitigate the loss by legislation. One of those steps, an absolutely necessary one, is to learn the truth about the issues, and another is to let our legislators know our opinion on the issues. As Serven pointed out, "Many unwise proposals have been enacted into law because a majority of the lawmakers were misinformed." Who is really to blame for that?
-fl
NICS
Denied: Gun Store Owner Refuses to Hand AR-15 over to Mark Kelly
As an FFL gun store owner, what do you do when the evidence is clear that a purchaser has lied on the 4473 form? Tough call, but the only one that is legal.
-fl
2nd Amendment
PBS interview regarding the Civil Right to Bear Arms
PBS correspondent Kwame Holman recently spoke with Second Amendment scholar Joyce Lee Malcolm, a professor at George Mason University School of Law.
Malcolm spoke about how the Second Amendment came to be and what research suggests the framers of the Constitution intended.
She said that the assault weapons ban was unlikely to move to the Senate floor because it seems to ignore recent Supreme Court decisions that establish an individual right to own guns [that] are commonly used for protection.
"I don't really think the idea that you can ban them or reduce the magazine will really pass constitutional muster," Malcolm said. "If your standard is common use, these are all in common use for lawful purposes."
Leupold Optics
This is interesting
I don't recommend this as a way of testing your favorite scope, but when you're out in the boonies, it's nice to know that your optics are built with components that will withstand this kind of treatment. Now if it just stays watertight to boot....
Folly
Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Darryl Derbigny on Thursday dismissed the charge against one felon, but took his decision a step further than another judge faced with a similar decision earlier this month.
Derbigny ruled that the entire statute -- RS 14:95.1 -- was unconstitutional after voters last year approved by a sweeping majority a constitutional amendment backed by the National Rifle Association. That bill made gun ownership a "fundamental right," on the same level as freedom of speech or religion.
Let's see now, we have politicians who want to disarm law-abiding citizens, and judges who want to arm the outlaws. What could possibly go wrong with this rationale? You can't make this stuff up! Is it any wonder that respect for government continues to erode.
-fl
Activation
Colt Employees Remind Lawmakers
About Jobs, History
Samuel Colt's legacy is alive and well. Workers, 550 of them, from the two Colt operating companies, successors of the Colt Armory that once made iconic Colt Peacemaker revolvers, boarded buses that brought them to the Legislative Office Building, part of the state Capitol complex in Hartford. They came to make their presence felt and to participate in a General Assembly committee hearing on a large number of gun-control measures under consideration.
Politics
Too Common
Anyone can tell from looking at the criminal record of Colorado Rep. Rhonda Fields (D-Aurora) that legal concepts have never been too high of a priority in her life. Now, she has her name on a bill that could inadvertently turn law-abiding citizens in her home state of Colorado into fellow criminals. This fact doesn't seem to concern Rep. Fields; either that, or she is in so far over her head that she can't quite grasp what is going on — which seems to be an all too common affliction in government today. A comment posted on one of the blogs sums up the Rhonda Fields genre nicely.
I really don't much care about her traffic tickets, and her past criminal behavior is only indicative of a lack of character and common sense which pervades the personalities of anyone who [today] votes Democrat. What I do care about is the fact that she, like so many other politicians are in positions of power totally unequipped with the basic IQ , education and historical perspective to preserve the facets of our culture and traditions which made the United States the greatest nation ever to exist.
So now, the issue in Colorado is magazine capacity.
Until politicians quit projecting their own character flaws onto law-abiding citizens, we will never see a solution to the problem of keeping guns out of the hands of lunatics.
-fl
To be An American
"It's wonderfull to see the old rifles"
And, there is something nostalgic and gratifying about being on your belly in the sun on a rifle range. Oorah!
-fl
2nd Amendment
The importance of the civil right to bear arms
You would think that a bicycle camping trip would be a good way to enjoy life. And it is in the United States — but not in India.
A middle-aged couple from Switzerland were on a cycling tour of India, and heading north towards the area of the Taj Mahal. They stopped near the village of Jhansi, where they camped about one quarter of a mile off the road "in an area of scrub." The 39-year-old woman was viciously attacked by a "group" of men. The victim’s husband reported that at about 9.30pm, a group of "up to eight" men came into their camp, beat him with sticks and tied him up before raping his wife in front of him.
About an hour after the attack, the couple were able to flag down a passing motorcyclist and were taken to the local police station. What did the police have to say about the matter? They said that "the Swiss woman and her husband were partly to blame for the attack." "Inspector Avnesh Kumar Budholiya said the tourists had been careless in traveling to a remote part of the country they knew little about." "The police don’t want to take responsibility. Indian women are not safe, in small towns, villages or the big cities, partly because the police are not assuming responsibility for keeping women safe. They blame the dark, the clothes a woman wears, everything but their shirking of their duties.”
Evidently, gang rape is an all-to-common problem in India.
Human nature is the same everywhere, so what keeps this sort of thing from being a major problem in the United States? The answer is, respect and a right to bear arms.
As Rama Lakshmi reported in the Washington Post, "Although India's 1959 Arms Act gives citizens the legal right to own and carry guns, it is not a right enshrined in the country's constitution. Getting a license is a cumbersome process, and guns cannot be bought over the counter -- requirements that gun owners describe as hangovers from the colonial past, when the British rulers disarmed their Indian subjects to head off rebellion."
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the police have no legal requirement to protect individuals from violence; in other words, you cannot sue the police for failure to protect you. Without the 2nd Amendment guarantee, we could wind up in the same shape as India.
-fl
Caught in Uncontrollable Spin?
Mark Kelly’s story on AR-15 purchase prompts skeptical open letter
“Gabby Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, announced that he bought an assault weapon to make a point about gun control,’ the video caption explains. “He plans to sell it over state lines.”
Sorry, but no matter how anyone tries to spin this story, it winds up sounding like hypocrisy.
-fl
Culture
Hypocrisy Award
Who wouldn't want to be armed and on alert, knowing that this kind of infectious crap is being spread through the culture?
And the award goes to......
Politics
More Hypocrisy Exposed
Celia Bigelow, a frequent guest on Fox News, asks simple questions. Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) responds rudely in front of a large townhall gathering.
Celia: "But why aren't you pro-choice when it comes to self-defense for women?
"Why
do male politicians like to stand from their ivory towers and like to
tell women how they should defend themselves...for example, why don't
you guys listen to the young rape victims in Colorado when they said
that if they had a gun they could have prevented their attacker?
"Why do you keep trying to legislate women into being victims? That is all I want to know."
Politics
Anger Management?
A Florida legislator wants anyone trying to buy ammunition to complete an anger management program first, in what critics say is the latest example of local lawmakers reaching for constitutionally-dubious solutions to the problem of gun violence.
It would be more useful if we required all candidates for public office to pass a prerequisite civics course.
-fl
Cruising Guide News
The World Cruising and Sailing Wiki
The World Cruising and Sailing Wiki (an online world cruising guide) has been established so that all cruisers around the world can have free access to as much information on cruising around the world as possible with information on Countries, Immigration and Customs procedures, world ports, navigation and approaches, marinas, anchorages, ocean passages, maritime warnings, boating tips, etc. A FREE, ONLINE WORLD CRUISING GUIDE!
This Cruising and Sailing Wiki, from Blue Water Sailing's Cruising Compass, is a resource to which all cruisers are encouraged to freely contribute and thereby help to build a great reference resource for the benefit of all cruisers that are sailing around the world. Read More
Culture
Self Defense or No
Here is yet another example of ignorance and insecurity being exhibited by a member of the anti-gun crowd. A young woman giving testimony about being raped by a person who was large enough to physically overpower her. She knows that, had she had a gun and been trained in its use, she would at least have have had a fighting chance. The anti-gunner projects her own insecurity onto the victim by quoting some mythological statistics.
Sad. What is happening to Colorado?
-fl
NICS
Fix NICS
Regarding so-called universal background checks, or background checks that extend beyond retail sales or to private transfers such as a father passing on a favorite hunting rifle to his son, our big concern is one shared by millions of firearms owners -- that enforcing checks of used firearm transfers between individuals will lead to the creation of a national registry of firearms, something that Congress has expressly prohibited. — NSSF president Steve Sanetti
Government
Department of Revenue is working with the Department of Homeland Security to install new hard and software to obtain data on Missouri citizens and transfer this information to DHS and unnamed third parties... Because license offices process CCW endorsements, some claim that this is de facto gun registration.
It should be noted that there is a very low barrier against governmental agencies collecting "useful" information as long as they do not violate the 5th Amendment; in other words, law abiding citizen's are ripe for the picking by unscrupulous bureaucrats.
-fl
History
Real 'radicals' of the gun debate
By Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA)
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. -- Second Amendment
Joseph Story was a U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1811 to 1845. He was the youngest associate justice, named to the bench at the age of 32 by President James Madison, a fella who knew a thing or two about the Constitution as its "father."
And it was in 1833 that Mr. Justice Story published what's still considered to be the seminal scholarly work on our national charter, "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States." One of the most quoted passages from the book pertains to the Second Amendment:
"The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any person," he wrote. "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation of and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
Seldom quoted but just as important is another passage:
"Among the American people ... there is certainly no small danger that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt; and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights."
Chillingly prescient, is it not?
Now, gun-grabbers will be quick to argue that Story is being selectively quoted to make a point not of his original intent. After all, Story's quotations indeed are in reference to a "well regulated militia."
But contrary to popular misinterpretation, that Second Amendment phrase is not a reference to a government-sanctioned and -regulated federal army or even the states' national guard.
"The overriding purpose of the Framers in guaranteeing the right of the people to keep and bear arms was a check on the standing army, which the Constitution gave the Congress the power to 'raise and support,'" reminds Second Amendment scholar Daniel J. Schultz in "The e_SSRqLectric Law Library."
Or as Mr. Schultz adds, quoting Noah Webster from a pamphlet urging ratification of the Bill of Rights:
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe." So, too, this sentiment was voiced by Mr. Madison's close ally, Tench Coxe of Pennsylvania, Schultz writes.
"Thus, the well regulated militia necessary to the security of a free state was a militia that might someday fight against a standing army raised and supported by a tyrannical national government," says Schultz.
The generally recognized definition of "well regulated" in the Framing era, by the way, was that of the citizenry organizing its own efforts. "The militia" of the same era was "the whole people" or "the whole body of the people."
The Framers said what they meant and meant what they said.
Thus, today's gun debate is the ultimate perversion. A federal government with massive firepower seeks to further limit the constitutional right of the law-abiding people to keep and bear even the most modest arms by comparison. And, in the process, it denigrates not only the Bill of Rights, not only the people but America itself.
Who are the real "radicals," again? And who's the greater threat to these united states?
Remembering the Battle of Athens
The story behind that historical marker
The purpose of the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution has been on the front burner recently. I've heard a few people say that its true purpose is a moot point. Not so. One of the best examples of the fact that human nature and corruption occasionally gives birth to a tyrannical government lies at the site of an historical marker in McMinn County Tennessee. It was at this site that the 2nd Amendment's purpose shone on August 1, 1946.
Australia
New Australian Study Shows More Guns, Less Crime
Monday, 4 March 2013
New research shows there are more guns but less gun crime in New South Wales, Australia. Although the number of legally owned firearms has increased substantially over the past decade, firearm crime has decreased.
The study, in press with an international peer-reviewed journal, found that the number of murders with a firearm, shoot with intent to murder offences, and armed robbery with a firearm have all declined steadily despite ongoing rises in legal firearms ownership.
The author of the study, Dr Samara McPhedran, said “Typically, Australian firearms legislation has been based on a ‘less guns, less crime’ view, which assumes that reducing the number of legally owned guns in society will lead to reductions in firearm misuse.”
“However, the results from this study suggest there is little, if any, relationship between the number of legally owned guns in Australia’s most populous jurisdiction, and levels of gun crime in that state.”
“In other words, more guns does not mean more crime.”