Blog
Health: Hearing Protection
Suppressors
This month, Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership (DRGO) released a Position Paper in Favor of Firearm Suppressors to Prevent Hearing Loss.
The DRGO paper noted: "All suppressors offered significantly greater noise reduction than ear-level protection, usually greater than 50% better. Noise reduction of all ear-level protectors is unable to reduce the impulse pressure below 140 dB for certain common firearms, an international standard for prevention of sensorineural hearing loss… Modern muzzle-level suppression is vastly superior to ear-level protection and the only available form of suppression capable of making certain sporting arms safe for hearing."
While legislation has been introduced to promote a suppressor solution to hearing loss associated with firearms use, it's obvious from the bill's speed of travel through congress that hearing health is not a priority concern for them. Who knows how many people will suffer lasting damage in the interim? For some of us, it's already too late.
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Firearms
Top 3 Handguns For Concealed Carry
If you're looking for the most popular sidearm for concealed carry today, you'll be looking at reliability first, and it's probably going to be a single-stack 9mm with a polymer frame, relative light weight, easy to maintain — and CONCEALABLE.
What are the most popular brands in todays market? American Rifleman's Joe Kurtenbach talked to six top makers of concealment-style holsters to get a line on the answer to that question.
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Education
Pre-Schooler Suspended Seven Days for Bringing Empty .22 Shell Casing to School
Kristy Jackson said her son was excited because he had just spent time with his grandpa–a Caseyville, Illinois, police officer–who was teaching him about hunting and gun safety...
Jackson went to the school to pick her son up like any other day, only to met by “a stone faced teacher” who said her son had brought a “shotgun bullet” to school.
On Tuesday four-year-old Hunter Jackson was suspended for seven days after bringing an empty .22 shell casing to school to show his friends...
Jackson said her immediate thought was, “My kid? Who just spent the weekend learning gun safety?”
This is an excellent illustration of the fact that psychosis is driven by ignorance and stupidity.
Hopefully, there will come a day when Hunter Jackson will look back at this incident and laugh, but for right now, at a time in his life when genuine safety education is crucial, this young man is confronted with debilitatingly shrill paranoia; what will that do to his outlook on individual responsibility?
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Law
Does H.R. 38 (National Reciprocity for Firearms Licenses) interfere with 'State's Rights?'
We live in a day when several anti-gun states are not only severely restricting the Second Amendment rights of their own citizens, they’re doing the same to citizens from other states
All 50 States honor out-of-state driver licenses, why not do the same thing for out-of-state CCW licenses?
Since operating a motor vehicle is considered a concession, or "privilege", and not a right, that question is one of 'apples and oranges.'
Erich Pratt, of Gun Owners of America, argues that H.R. 38 does not interfere with the 10th Amendment, and enumerates the reason why.
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Culture
Flatbush Follies
A man offered to do a good deed at a Brooklyn restaurant — and was punished with a bone-breaking beating, cops said.
A group of men kicked and pummeled a 37-year-old customer, beating him with his own cane after he offered to pay for their meal, police said Tuesday.
Then, as he lay prone and bleeding on the ground, two customers simply ordered dinner as if nothing had happened, police sources said.
“Can I get No. 12?” one woman asked a cashier, with the victim curled up on the floor behind her, sources said.
I realize that incidents like this often have a backstory, and to comment on the blatancy risks overlooking an equally important latent element.
The point is, I wanted to note that it is difficult for incarnate evil such as this to propagate in Free America (that being where citizens are free to bear arms.)
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Law
Self Defense
Most, if not all, law-abiding citizens have one thing in common, that is a desire to obey the law. Unfortunately, in too many cases, trouble still awaits the righteous. It's well known that ignorance of the law is no excuse, and due to some recent high-profile cases, there can also be no excuse for ignoring the possibility of malfeasant prosecution.
We already know that a 'legal' self-defense has five requirements that must be satisfied: innocence, reasonableness, imminence, proportionality, and in some cases avoidance. Even then, you're still in a minefield.
What to do?
Two good moves would be 1) to read, and be familiar with, the material found in Andrew Branca's book The Law of Self Defense, The Indispensable Guide for the Armed Citizen, and 2) to be member of Second Call Defense.
Semper Paratus
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Seamanship: Towing Safety
Another Recipe for Disaster
Although the captain could have removed the Kolina from the water or sought other commercial alternatives to get the vessel to Molokai, he chose an unsafe option, likely due to financial constraints.
Of course, this is yet another example of the fact that most accidents consist of a chain of events that lead up to the final outcome.
Herreshoff designed the original H28 in 1943 as an auxiliary cruising ketch "for the man who has only a limited time to sail, and who must report to the office without fail on Monday morning.” He recognized the need for a boat that could be rigged quickly for a summer evening sail, that could coast along in light breezes, as well as stand up to anything. He also realized that many of his customers would want to cruise in relatively shallow waters, and anchor in quiet, picturesque bays without having to row a mile to the shore.
The waterline length (LWL) of the H-28 genre is about 23.5', which would give the vessel a theoretical hull speed of about 6.5 knots.
What happens when you go to sea in an unseaworthy vessel, configure the center of effort aft of the center of lateral resistance on your 28' displacement-hull 'shoal draft' cruiser that has no workable steering — and then exceed the hull speed?
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident involving Coast Guard cutter Kiska and recreational vessel Kolina, with the death of the Kolina captain, was the Kolina captain’s decision to launch and operate a poorly maintained vessel and his failure to protect his personal safety during the subsequent tow in the Alenuihaha Channel.
You can read the NTSB PDF report here.
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Home Firearm Safety
Gun Safety Inside The Home
by Jason J. Brown
American's are purchasing firearms at a historic rate. More than 27 million NICS background checks, the closest indicator of gun sales in the U.S., were performed in 2016. Gun ownership is a great responsibility. Gun safety is never more important than when you have firearms inside your own home.
Even if you don't own a firearm and have no plans to buy one, you might sometime visit family members and friends that may have guns in their homes. Despite plans to never use a gun, it's always a good idea to learn what to do if you inadvertently encounter a firearm.
The NRA Eddie Eagle GunSafe program has taught more than 29 million American youth what to do if they find an unsecured gun. Adults should also know how to properly handle a gun, load and unload it, perform basic maintenance, and safely store it so unauthorized persons can't access it.
NRA's Home Firearm Safety Course is the leading resource to provide safe gun handling and storage fundamentals, and is the perfect education for gun and non-gun owners. The course requires no time on the range, and can be accomplished in as little as four hours.
NRA Certified Instructors, the leading authorities on firearm training in the U.S., teach students the NRA three rules of safe gun handling, explore the types and basic function of firearms, and discuss primary causes of firearm-related accidents.
Students will also learn about gun parts, ammunition, basic gun cleaning and care, and provide hands-on training on how to safely unload select types of guns. Each participant receives the NRA Home Firearm Safety handbook, NRA Gun Safety Rules brochure, Basic Firearm Training Program brochure, and a course completion certificate.
The shooting sports are an integral part of the fabric of the American lifestyle, and it shows now more than ever in the number of people buying in. Even if you're not a shooter, understanding the basics about gun safety can help you keep yourself or your loved ones safe should you encounter a gun. Gun safety isn't just for gun owners ‚ it's a critical skill for everyone.
No one understands firearm safety, training and education better than the National Rifle Association, and through the Home Firearm Safety Course, we continue our proud tradition of teaching Americans how to be safe with and around guns.
/NRA Blog
Navigation Charts
NOAA invites public comment on the draft National Charting Plan
NOAA invites public comment on the recently released National Charting Plan. Comments are due by midnight, June 1, 2017. The National Charting Plan is a strategy to improve NOAA nautical chart coverage, products, and distribution. It describes the evolving state of marine navigation and nautical chart production, and outlines actions that will provide the customer with a suite of products that are more useful, up-to-date, and safer to navigate with. It is not a plan for the maintenance of individual charts, but a strategy to improve all charts.
Since the introduction of electronic navigational charts (ENCs) thirty years ago, the size of commercial vessels has increased four-fold and navigation systems have become more sophisticated. Additionally, there are now over 15 million recreational boat users in the U.S. and many have joined professional mariners in using electronic chart displays and NOAA digital chart products when navigating. User groups of all types are increasingly expecting more precise, higher resolution charts, and greater timeliness and ease-of-access to chart updates. This plan presents strategies to meet the growing demand.
The National Charting Plan outlines several improvements to chart content, such as:
- Reducing unwarranted alarms in the electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) used by large commercial vessels and Improving the differentiation between dangerous and non-dangerous wrecks.
- Resolving uncertainties about ‘reported,’ ‘existence doubtful,’ and ‘position approximate’ dangers.
- Creating an orderly layout for ENC charts that will replace the current set of 1,182 irregularly shaped ENC cells compiled at 131 different scales with a regular gridded framework of cells compiled at a few dozen standard scale.
- Strengthening partnerships with the U.S. Coast Guard by developing methods to ingest changes to the database of USCG maintained aids to navigation directly into Coast Survey’s chart production system. This will save time and avoid any chance of data being entered incorrectly by hand.
For information on how to provide written comments about this plan, see the Federal Register Notice.
/ NOAA February 28, 2017