Mom is visiting.

She arrives at the house. Talking ensues. Hugs. Warm welcomes.

Eventually she goes to put an arm around my waist. Of course I’ve got my Batman utility belt on. Mom’s hand immediately impacts steel objects. I brace myself for the debate that will ensue (remember: this is the first time since obtaining my concealed handgun license that I’ve been around my mother, who’s not a big fan of firearms having been born into and growing up in war-torn and Japanese-occupied Korea). Mom’s hand starts to feel around my waist. Bracing for it….  But where does she end up? Squarely in the front of my waist, on my little pouch of belly fat. All the odd objects on my waist matter not. All I got a lecture about was the little paunch.

Man. All my years growing up and she lectured me to gain weight (tall skinny kid growing up). Now that I’ve gained the weight, now she wants me to take it off. Can my mother ever be satisfied?  ;)

(Yes, a discussion on the guns did happen at a later time. She’s still not happy with it… blames my moving to Texas over 15 years ago. Kept discussion calm and rational. She seems to understand but still doesn’t like it.)

Reading this post from Tam reminded me to post this.

New Jovian Thunderbolt ruminates on the buck shot with buckshot. Implications not just for hunters, but for those that opt for shotguns for self and/or home defense.

The article is not long but the final word is simple: 00 buckshot, not birdshot.

I recently played Jak 3 (I haven’t for ages). It’s a great game, but I’ve noticed a problem.
You get these Light and Dark Eco Powers, so you can grow wings and fly, regenerate health and have a forcefield, and even slow down time, before turning into a dark monster and beating the hell out of people.
This should make you feel all powerful, but it doesn’t. The guns don’t seem to make up for it either, or the jetboard, or the massive range of vehicles at your disposal.
You probably don’t get to feel like some kind of super hero or god until you’ve unlocked the invisibility and invulnerability secrets, which requires loads and loads of precursor orbs. Oh Well.

So Gao is having sexy time, meanwhile let me fill you in abit with my leetness in terms of Maeking Gunpla! :3 Well its something to entertain you till Mr Gao gets back, so how should we do this? My gundam history? Not much I pretty much introduced Gunpla to Jeffo by forcing him to buy SD models (The only stuff i actually maek) Now the guy has like MGs and shit lyke that and is more of an “Ore wa gundamu” Then I am. So Enough Ranting, wut Mech are you building? Well… Aegis Gundamu! I am a big fan of transforming mechs, that isn’t macross. Most of my favourite gundam mechs are transformable (Aegis, Wing Gundam, Wing Zero (Anime), Kyrios, Zeta…). I liek the versatility and the complexity of these mechs… although little can be said about my Gunpla building skills.

So Aegis: Heres the specs, thanks to MAHQ~:

http://mahq.net/mecha/gundam/seed/gat-x303.htm

So yeah, I will be doing my process of the Aegis HG 1/144 scale on this blog :3. but yeah it wont look as awesome as that but i do wut i can.

Sooo heres teh box.

Yeah just one of the stockpiles Gao got for me when he went to Taiwan, i have 2 other emergency models should i need to blog about em one day lol. So without further ado i opened the box and obviously it came with the plastic bits in clear wrapping, The manual is pretty damn wikid… but being a HG not much detail is to expected, but the damn thing transforms! I DONT CARE! ;D.

I’m not one for detail but I saw the parts and i fainted, i looked at the manual and fainted, and Gao probably enjoying his week off is probably off giggling to himself, I knew this was great torment for me, anything that is more than 3 pages of instructions… this one has 4, in A4 sized paper  made my life extremely disheartening. I am not a big fan of small parts and putting em together… yet alone have the tools for it.

Wait John your not a Gunpla master, you dont has the tools?! why are you making this are you trying to insult the gunpla people who actually BUILD this stuff?

Yes and…

Yes.

Sitting around a table and picking away at plastic filing them is ALOT of hassle, i have the deepest respects for those guys, and talking to Gao when he was in Taiwan telling me he has to spend half an hour on the guns for his MG Justice Gundam. FUUUUUUUUUUU- CANT HANDLE PRESSURE!!! I’d have slammed down my tools in rage and played abit of World of Warcraft or something.All that filing, puting on decals, etc etc etc. DOES NAWT HAS Tyme. 1/144 is all i will do. I cbf 1/100 yet even 1/60. SRSLY NO 1/60 that stuff will melt my brain like putting butter in a hot pan.

So without further ado i took apart the stuff and started building… omfg the body itself has 17 steps… WHY CANT IT BE SIMPLE! SD only had  20 steps (I had an SD Aegis) MUTHA PUCKIN PHAILLL D= RAAAAGE. I looked at step 1, it took me 5 minutes to locate all the parts. Not to mention the amount of pink in this model is bloody excruciating. Its like watching Ken bitch slapping barbie singing Hannah Montanah songs mixed with the screaming cries of a maniac girl who was abused by domestic violence. I wont go into the color black :\

And yeah heres my tools LOL:

Budget, cheap probs the only expensive stuff is the markers… but that was given to me by Gao lol.

1) Scissors helps in removal from the area

2) Nail clippers act the same way as your normal clippers just really hard to work with i got used to it, it also has places you can sand paper too ;3

3) Hair clip, same things as tweezers but yeah i could use toothpicks as well if they don’t run to well.

I shall be expecting epic Gao rage when he sees this.

So step 1:

Not much to do here just plugged it in and aparently this is the chest piece… I might skip a couple of steps and get to the main point.

blurry cant fix it meh, this is the GAT-X303 frame. The frame that holds the arms the Scyllah (Cant spell today) 550mm cannon, the transfomraiton modules etc etc etc. when fixed together it looks lyke this:

So the three dots presumably fits the arms the hip thrusters in the middle and the legs down teh bottom. thats actually upside down in the pic but oh wells you’ll get over it lol.

Next are the core torso parts that hold the thrusters:

theres two of em so when made its done like this: I had to cut the cannon and the chest connector out as well:

And when put together:

SO yeah, fun times.

SO i get two of those arm things done and it looks like this:

This was abotu 45 minutes work :\ its quite flexible my arm parts and chest does not lock in so i need to review in with Gao to see wut is up with that when I show him next time.

Next is the skirt and backpack, i skipped those and go straight to what the final chest bit looks liek:

Alright enough of this model, it took me 2 hours jsut for the body And frankly about to get sick of it soon so i will continue this another day lol. Seriously couldnt taek it. I cant believe Jeffo can sit down and work on this for hours and hours and hours :\ Ah well enough rants. I will have a second post today hopefully for my practice.

John Signing out LOL

Can you believe a new lightweight semi-auto 12 gauge with almost no recoil? How did they do it? Read more here and here and here.

Why the green receiver? Because it’s a specially treated aluminum alloy that is lightweight and will not rust or corrode. They immersed it in salt water for a few months, took it out and it worked fine. Cool. I need one of these. They say they will be in stores in time for Christmas. Expected MSRP about $1600.

“Uh, Honey, you know when you asked what I wanted for Christmas and I said I didn’t want anything? Well…uh…”

BTW, Beretta is the oldest manufacturing company in the world, founded in 1526.

I am so proud of my fellow gun owners for their united opposition to Obama’s health care proposals.   The Gun Owners of America group recently warned it’s 300,000 members that if the health care bill passes, the government could declare citizens medically unfit to carry a gun.   This is the same thing Hitler and the communists did, when we take away the rights of the mentally unbalanced to own firearms simply because they may have issues with rage or paranoia or may pose a threat to themselves or others, we lose our second amendment rights.   Executive Director of the group Larry Pratt called for resistance saying, “you end up having a gazillion people lose their gun rights because of some medical record that someone doesn’t like, where they say, ‘Oh, that might be a danger to their self or others.”

I cannot abide having these hard earned rights taken away from my fellow countrymen simply because they’re mentally unbalanced.   President James A. Garfield gave his life protecting the rights of the mentally unhinged to own firearms.   He was fatally shot by Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881 when his assassin decided that God had commanded him to kill the ungrateful president who refused to hire him.   There are hundreds of thousands of people like me inspired by Garfield’s sacrifice who will not let it be in vain by taking away gun rights for the criminally insane.

The other reason that gun owners like myself oppose any kind of health care reform is because as private citizens we have to pay for not only a gun, but also for ammunition for that gun.  If we shoot somebody, it hardly seems fair that our tax dollars also pay to treat them for that gun shot wound.  In fact, since the reason you shoot somebody is to do harm to them, many of us would just as soon that the person we shoot not be able to get medical care in the first place.

Unfortunately, since the days of the Old West, medicine has improved greatly.   In those days, a belly shot was almost a sure death sentence.  Today, doctor’s are able to do a remarkable number of things to treat gun shot wounds and unfortunately, gun manufacturers have simply not kept up, especially in the area of causing infection.   This is definitely a call for both gun and ammunition manufacturers to step up their games.   If all gun shot wounds can be easily treated, do we really have the right to bear arms.

[ARTICLE]

So the Republicans have released a list of 10 policies their 2010 candidates should adhere to. Let’s just cut to the chase and take a look.

“(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;”

Great! Or at least it WOULD be great if it were true. But Bush and the Republicans in congress spent more money than any President before him (and Obama is even worse). Republicans are NOT for smaller government. They only say they are when Democrats are in power. But time and time again, it’s Republicans who outspend Democrats. Don’t get me wrong, both sides are big government scumbags and I’ll never vote for either of them. But at least Democrats don’t pretend to be for smaller government. At least they’re honest about their scumbaggery. And I like how they call it the “Obama stimulus”. If I remember correctly, the first stimulus bill went through during Bush’s term. McCain pushed for it and voted for it. Have you forgotten already? He tried to cancel a live presidential election debate so he could go vote for it. It was a big deal. Man, Americans have short memories. And when the first stimulus Bill was voted down in the House (before it was later passed), Bush went ahead and authorized his own little bailout with an executive order. Look it up. Republicans ARE NOT for fiscal responsibility. They just want it to be THEM wasting all the money on big flashy programs rather than the democrats.

“(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;”

Again, great!…if it were true. Sure “Obamacare” is going to be awful when it finally passes (and it WILL eventually pass), but so is “RomneyCare”. That’s right, Mitt Romney had his own little statist healthcare program as the governor of Massachusetts. Under his plan it was against the law to NOT have healthcare. No government sponsored healthcare, just a mandate that said you had to buy it yourself. So the democrats’ plan (government-run healthcare) is socialism and the republicans’ plan, (government-mandated private healthcare) is fascism. Whoopie. I can’t wait to vote on which party I want in office.

“(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;”

I actually can’t really comment on this. I oppose cap and trade as well but I haven’t taken the time to research what Republicans plan to do about energy reforms. But judging by their past records, I’d be willing to bet it’s just a different but equally bad option.

“(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;”

Unions. Ugh. I don’t like them but I also think that people have the right to associate with whomever they want and in whatever way they want…and that right extends to employers and business owners. They should be able to fire whoever they want for whatever reason they want. It’s their damn property.

“(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;”

At least they’re honest about this one. I disagree with them, but at least they’re not lying.

“(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;”

And this is the #1 reason that Republicans are bigger spenders than Democrats. They like war more….or do they? WWI, WWII, Korea, Clinton’s Yugoslavia nonsense; all started while democrats were in power. Both parties love their wars. Yes. Even Obama. On to Sudan! Save (bomb) Darfur!

“(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;”

Blah Blah Blah more warmongering.

“(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;”
Screw you Republicans! If you are religious, then marriage is a religious ceremony. If you’re not, marriage is a contract between two people. Neither of those areas are any of the government’s business. Legalize gay AND straight marriage!

“(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and”

Finally something I could agree on…if I knew they didn’t have a statist healthcare scheme of their own.

“(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.”

One more time, say it with me: GREAT!….if I knew it wasn’t a lie.

Look up H.R. 1022 sometime. It didn’t pass, thank goodness, but it was supposed to be another Clinton-style assault weapons ban but this time it was written and sponsored by Republicans. I will agree that more republicans seem to understand and support gun rights but don’t trust someone just because they have an (R) after their name. In fact, never trust ANY politician until you get to know them and their positions because, as we can see, they’re all liars and scumbags to the last….yes that includes YOUR pet politician.

But if the apocalypse ever rolls around, whether it be nuclear, zombie or other, I’m pretty sure I’ll wish I had one. So at what probability should I put on doomsday happening during my life will buying a locker full of guns and ammo be the ’smart’ move?

On my first deer hunt I learned a lot of things.

What follows is a list of things I learned. It’s in no particular order. It’s probably far from comprehensive. But it is a list of things I learned. And while some things are specific to hunting or shooting, some things are just applicable to anything in life.

• When adjusting the power on your scope, go for the lowest setting that still allows you to get a good hit. It’s a balancing act for sure. I found that, at least shooting at a deer 100 yards away, that going up to 9x on my 3-9x-40mm scope was a little too much. Yes it was better in terms of pure accuracy, yes that’s nice for benchrest shooting. But I can go a little lower in the field and still get an accurate shot. Sure I can see all sorts of fine detail about what I’m shooting at a higher power, but do I need that detail when I’m shooting? I only need as much detail as I need to shoot accurately enough to take the deer. And by going a little lower power I get a wider field of vision, which is also important, especially if you have to search for your target through the scope. I ended up using 7x most of the time. I could probably do something even more different. I’ll certainly play around with using even lower powers at the range.
• Stick with your goals. Be sure you really know what your goals are and stick to them. You can refine them if that refinement is actually refining and staying true to the goal, but don’t disguise a fundamental change as a refinement.
• Remember your fundamentals when shooting, especially follow-through. Yes, it’s well likely the deer will run off after hearing the crack of gunfire so it’s natural to want to look up quickly to watch where the deer goes. But the reality is if you abandon your fundamentals and don’t follow through you may miss and thus the only thing you’ll watch about the deer is him running off never to be seen again. If you follow-through and get a good hit, don’t worry about him running off because you’ll get the hit and he won’t go far. Do all things to ensure a good hit.
• Visualize your success. See every detail. See the buck, yourself shouldering the rifle, slowing your breathing, seeing the exact point of entry in your crosshairs, slow trigger press, regaining the sight picture, working the bolt, follow through. Visualize every exact detail, especially of the “pressure situation” of taking him. That’s the situation where you don’t want bad things to happen, so by using positive and detailed visualization of your success you can help control those “bad things” (e.g. rushing, being tense, etc.).
• Know anatomy. Always shooting broadside was like a script for me, “this is how you do it.” But why does it have to be? So long as you know anatomy and know the concepts, that provides you more options because life isn’t a script.
• Know thyself. Know what your are capable of, and know your limitations. Be honest with your skills. Know your tools (rifle, ammo) and what it’s capable of.
• Don’t quit, at least until you are forced. “Being forced” would be things like the sun has gone down so you can’t see and it’s past legal hunt times. Keep going right until the last possible moment, because you never know.
• Dress warm. Conditions are likely to be worse than you expect, so plan accordingly.
• Control peeing. I know, sounds gross to talk about. But you can’t let yourself get dehydrated nor can you have yourself needing to pee all the time. There’s debate about the impact of pee scent, but why take the chance? As well, it risks creating noise, it makes you have to get up and move and you could miss some action. For me, I’d drink a lot of water a couple hours before I’d be in the stand. About an hour later I’d have to pee, then just before I got to the stand but well away from the stand (e.g. where I parked my car) I’d pee. That held me well for hours. I always took a water bottle with me tho, and as soon as I was done hunting I’d chug the whole thing thus maximizing my ability to rehydrate yet get all peed-out before I’d be back in the stand.
• Eating? Meh. Sure I ate, but not much. I thought about some snacks in the stand but no, that’s risking noise, distraction, smells… who knows. I just skipped it. I ate light but good in my “off times”, but overall didn’t eat much and didn’t miss it. The cool thing? After 3 days of hunting I had dropped about 4-5 pounds, only 1 of which was likely water weight. So hey, nice diet!  Bottom line is you do need to eat and drink, but just be aware of how it affects your hunting.
• Always be open to learning. There’s always something to learn, every moment you’re out there. Always be willing to learn and improve yourself. And hey, having the iPhone and decent 3G coverage while in the stand was useful too, because as I’d have questions I could easily look things up and read and get answers. Geeky me.
• Ask questions. I made no bones about being a n00b. I asked every question I could to anyone and everyone I could.
• Anti-scent? Dunno, but why not. I have no idea if anti-scent stuff actually works or not, but I see zero harm in using it. Speaking with my father-in-law (long time hunter), he thinks based upon the buck’s behavior (the one I tagged) that he was probably smelling something different but couldn’t make it out. So hey… anti-scent? I’ll keep trying it, but I don’t feel a need to go nuts with it. For instance, to wash everything in anti-scent soap, keeping it in a bag and only wearing it for the hunt, and so on. The simple field spray seemed good enough.
• If he won’t move, you move. That is, if he’s in such a way you can’t get a clear shot, instead of you waiting for him to move, instead you move. Of course, this isn’t always possible, but just don’t allow yourself to freeze and wait only on him. Keep it in mind that you can move, then read the situation and play it as best as you can.
• Don’t rush. Be Decisive. You can’t rush anything, but you also cannot dawdle. Sometimes executing a 90% plan is better than waiting to get a 100% perfect situation that may never come. Those 7 Habits of Successful Hunters (patience, perseverance, flexibility, decisiveness, physical conditioning, field shooting skill, determination) are really good advice. Worth memorizing.
• Hunt your own hunt. That’s a play on a motorcycle saying of “ride your own ride.” That saying means many things, but basically that you should ride at your own pace and not try to keep up with others that may be in a different realm as you. For instance, if it’s some group ride and the ride leader is “speed racer” and you’re a novice, there’s really no way you can keep up with him, nor should you because it would be unsafe riding for you. So, hunt your own hunt. Do what works for you and is right for you. This is especially true when it comes to judging a trophy. To me, that buck with the broken antlers? He’s a great trophy to me, not because it’s some great set of antlers, but because of what it represents (first hunt, and all that I learned and experienced). To me, that’s the trophy; the antlers will be on my wall merely as a memento. To someone that’s been hunting for 20 years, they may have passed up my buck because of his antlers, wanting to get that big elusive monster. I made the mistake of using someone else’s yard stick to measure what my “trophy” would be, but I learned my lesson and it worked out well for me.
• Always give thanks. Give thanks for the hunt. To the animal. To Mother Nature. To God. To your supportive friends and family. To whomever was involved. Never take things for granted. Always be thankful.

“Voodoo Child” a fost declarat, în urma unui sondaj de făcut pe BBC, cel mai tare riff din istoria muzicii. Total de acord. Piesa asta e simplă şi genială. Au preluat-o mulţi, şi ăia de la Guns în “Civil War”, dar niciodată nu se pot ridica la nivelul regelui ţiganilor. Nu sunt şi n-am fost niciodată fan sondaje, experimente şi alte studii de genul chiloţii tetra te scapă de cancerul la colon, însă ăsta a fost exact pe gustul meu, mai ales că în clasament se află multe dintre piesele pe care le ascult de ani buni zilnic. Câteva exemple: “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, “Smoke on the Water”, “Layla”, “Enter Sandman”, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, dar şi mai noile şi superbele “Plug in Baby” (Muse) şi “Seven Nation Army” (White Stripes). Hai să facem bine să nu fie rău!

I think this is the shooting that will turn it all around for those who desire a better America. I think that this shooting, even though the boy didn’t die from his wounds, will really be taken to heart by the NRA. After all, when we learn that babies are being killed by defective cribs, we get rid of the cribs through the recall process. We don’t advocate for the purchase of more defective cribs. I’m positive that the NRA will now make the connection between gun ownership and shootings. Sure. Of. It.

This is why we need to have more guns. Most folks don’t know how much fun they are, especially when drunk! They’re just soooo much fun! Oh sure, tens of thousands of Americans are killed every year by them….but guns are soooo much fun! And what’s more American than having ignorant fun!

Let me sing in a very loud voice,
Full of love for all the million ones
Who cannot stand, as me, the noise,
Of the evil fire of assassin guns.
Let me sing a song like a cry,
With all the people who can’t claim
For an answer to their question, why
So many children have to be in pain.

Stop the wars.
They can Kill innocent lives,
Who might go for good,
While the bad survive.
Let us live in peace,
In a world of good laws.
Let the guns cease,
The cruelty they cause.
We are bodies who search,
To find our own way.
Some, look for a church,
Others, curse while we pray.

Let my song open your sleeping minds
Before it’s too late to do the right thing.
I am singing for races of all kinds
Who may wish to see a next Spring.
And if you don’t want to hear me,
Leave us alone, choose your own place.
You might go away, live on a sea,
Where you’ll find yourself, in disgrace.

Stop the wars.
They can Kill innocent lives,
Who might go for good,
While the bad survive.
Let us live in peace,
In a world of good laws.
Let the guns cease,
The cruelty they cause.
We are bodies who search,
To find our own way.
Some, look for a church,
Others, curse while we pray.

Maria Letra
Note: This is a lyric I wote, in the U.K., for a singer

I’ve covered the M-16 and M-4 debate/issue/bone of contention here before but two news items came across my laptop and I’d thought I’d share my take:

• Defense Tech quotes and Army Times article that points to M-4 mods in the works Army wide.
• the civilian version of the HK-416 may NOT be crippled, that means it could be dropped into any M-4/M-16 style lower receiver.

From a new rail system to a gas-piston upgrade and a round counter, I hope the Army follows through. This would put a better rile in soldiers hands while the Army awaits for that “new technology” that’s on the horizon. (Color me skeptical, but when it does arrive I’ll be the first to cheer it on).

HK took a lot of flack for appearing to cave into the anti-gun lobby and modifying their HK-416 uppers to not work with any lower. The damn thing’s expensive enough as it is. If the rumor is true then black rile fans will P A R T Y!

Shooters line up to "get on the board" and have a crack at the target at the Wilson's Mills Fire Department turkey shoot.

For those of you that ain’t from ’round here, you may not not know what a Turkey Shoot is.  In fact, you may have never even heard of one.  (In full disclosure, I’ve never been to one myself).  Here in rural North Carolina, Turkey Shoots are usually done by the local Fire Department as a fund raiser (often volunteer fire departments that need supplemental income above and beyond the small amount in public funding they receive).  During the nights proceeding Thanksgiving, people gather to pay about $3 or $4 for the opportunity to win a turkey.  They bring their own shotguns and to make it fair, the fire department provides everyone with the shells.  The participants line up to shoot at targets (not, as you may have originally thought, a turkey), usually at least 35 feet away, and the person who gets the closest to the “X” wins a turkey. 

Any good ‘ol boys (or girls) out there that have participated in a Turkey Shoot?  How about other traditions or fundraisers that organizations held in your community that “outsiders” may think were strange?

A reporter for the local paper wrote an entertaining recap of his first experience at a Turkey Shoot; the first part of his story is below:

I was holding a shotgun for the first time since Boy Scout camp about eight years ago. I didn’t even know how to load the thing.

When I finally fired the shot, briefly deafening my left ear, I found I’d completely missed the paper target. But I considered it a success since I hadn’t hit one of the cars parked nearby.

Not surprisingly, I didn’t come close to winning a ham or a turkey — the object of the annual fundraiser for the Wilson’s Mills Fire Department.

But Clayton resident Allen Pulley did walk away with a ham for his Thanksgiving dinner, and he had a few words of advice for me.

“You’ve got to have a good gun, a good shell and luck,” said Pulley, sporting a camouflage jacket and a faded cap promoting a pheasant hunt. A crack marksman, he travels to shooting contests all over the country, and he’s been to just about every turkey shoot the fire department has ever had.

Pulley said the main reason he comes is to support the local firefighters. “I think I done bought one fire truck already,” he said.

But organizers of the event — which runs several nights a week throughout November — said attendance has been down in recent years.

“Turkey shoot ain’t what it used to be,” said Charles T. Wilson, the last original member of the fire department, which started in the 1970s.

Firefighter Bill Hardison says the community has changed. “Now 75 percent of the people in town don’t know what hunting is,” he said.

http://www.theherald-nc.com/news/story/12348.html

The question presented is Whether the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is incorporated as against the States by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities or Due Process Clauses.

I haven’t read all of the briefs, but I wonder if any of them pointed out that there is a document that “incorporates” the Second Amendment against the States. It’s called the Constitution of the United States of America. In fact, that document would have never passed had they not added the first ten amendments to the Constitution known as the inalienable Bill of Rights.

After all, Sotomayer said in her confirmation hearing that the Constitution and the words of the founding fathers should be the most important factor in any court decision.

During a slow week at the Court, the amicus briefs filed Monday in the gun rights case McDonald v. Chicago continue to be the biggest news. At Balkinization, David Gans describes the “overwhelming case” made by the Constitutional Accountability Center in its amicus brief (of which he is a co-author) for the Court to rejuvenate the Privileges or Immunities Clause; at the same time, Gans aims to quell concerns that such a move would endanger the constitutional rights of non-citizens. Douglas Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy sifts through the briefs for arguments about criminal justice implications. And at The Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr segues from originalist arguments in the briefs to a discussion of originalism and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

The Jurist notes the filing of other amicus briefs yesterday in the terrorism support case Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project.

The WSJ Law Blog discusses the judicial takings theory advanced by the petitioners in Stop the Beach, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, to be argued next week. (You can read Elisabeth Oppenheimer’s preview of the case for Scotuswiki here.)

ScottWiki
The Volokh Conspiracy
JPFO INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE

(Cross posted from the BBTI blog.)

One year ago this evening, we sent out the preliminary version of Ballistics By The Inch to a few friends. That day we had a total of 146 hits to the site. Within days, we were getting tens of thousands of hits.

And since then, we’ve had a total of 1,572,698.

When we first started talking about doing this, Jim Kasper had a hard time believing that more than a few thousand people would be interested in our project. I figured that it would be popular, but I never really expected this level of interest. And I would like to say thanks to everyone who has posted on their favorite gun forum about our project, or sent a note to a friend about it, and thereby helped to spread the word. We’ve had some good press along the way: Dark Roasted Blend gave us a link the first week the site was up, The Firearm Blog not only did a post in those first few days, but Steve graciously covered our “2.0″ version earlier this year when we added three more calibers and a bunch of real world guns. In April 2009 Concealed Carry Magazine had a nice piece about the project. Ammoland covered it in June. Just recently I had a great interview with Doc Wesson at the Gun Nation Podcast.

We’ve been Stumbled Upon, discussed on The High Road and The Firing Line, chatted about in the Defensive Carry forum, talked about on Glock Talk, referenced on the Survival Blog, cited on AR15.com, and occasionally found to be Something Awful.

In all honesty, it is no longer possible for me to keep track of all of the places where BBTI has been mentioned around the globe, or even keep tally on the languages used to discuss our project. And I can only imagine how it will continue to propagate. Particularly since we’re not stopping here.

What do I mean? Well, plans are already underway for new tests in the coming year, and we’ve begun to discuss amongst ourselves what else we would like to try to tackle in the future. First, what is already well in the planning & preparation stage:

Announcing the Cylinder Gap Test!

We’ve had a Single Action Army clone in .357 magnum modified to allow for adjusting the barrel position from a standard 0.006″ to 0.001″ to no gap (barrel snug against the cylinder). We have a dozen or so different ammunition loads in .38/.357, and we’ll be essentially repeating the BBTI procedure for each of these, with the normal gap then the minimum gap then without any gap, starting with an 18″ barrel and going down in increments of one inch to just 1″ . Actually, one slight difference – to make sure we get a better statistical sample, we’ll be firing 10 (ten) rounds of each type of ammunition at each point rather than just 3 (three) as we did with the BBTI tests. Because we are limiting this test to just one caliber, we thought this was a reasonable step to take. We hope that this will allow us to conclude with some actual data what the effect of having a cylinder gap in a revolver actually amounts to.

We’ll probably be conducting these tests in the spring of 2010, and if past experience is any guide will have the new data sets available on the BBTI site sometime a couple of months later. We’ll keep you posted!

Other testing ideas for further down the line include an interest in obtaining objective measurements (using equipment and protocols which anyone can repeat fairly easily) for both muzzle flash and ‘felt recoil’. And, of course, we’ve also discussed expanding our standard BBTI tests to include rifle cartridges and rimfire cartridges, since these questions come up all the time. But we’ll see what the future holds.

Again, thanks to one and all who helped make the Ballistics By The Inch project a phenomenal success over the past year. Hard to believe we’ve gone as far as we have.

Jim Downey

looking for life is like
looking for a gun when you
don’t have one
you won’t find it
you can’t find
what’s always there
with you
it’s not love
it doesn’t turn
to shade
like hate
though death
is like aspirin
for those who
grieve too long
and when you’re
dead you won’t
find anything
but acceptance
for what it was
you were looking for
all along
the tide
a seepage
from the imprisonment
of bones
their agonies
blinding us to
what we had
to what
we were asking
who made
me
what am
I ?

At the advice of Tom Hogel, I sent my S&W 442 to Mr. Verne Trester for some custom smith work.

I got a red insert on the front sight ramp. Made a HUGE difference in the visibility of that sight.

I also got the action worked on.

Price for the work was very reasonable.

Took a little over a month for complete turnaround, which was fine.

As soon as it arrived I took it out and just spent time dry firing it. Felt nice. Still a long trigger pull, but it felt smoother and a tad lighter, tho still a “heavy” trigger pull.

Took it to the range. Ran all sorts of ammo through it, different makes and brands, some .38 Special, some .38 Special +P. All sorts of stuff. Everything ran without a hitch. I tried 5 of my Buffalo Bore 20C’s. The first one didn’t fire, but the rest did, and the first one fired when it came around a second time. I’m not sure what the deal was there and will be asking Verne. Could have been a hard primer or just a fluke, or could be something with how he tuned the action (he did ask me prior to starting the work what ammo I’d be shooting out of it). Nice thing about the revolver tho… just keep pulling the trigger.

This is also the first time I got to shoot it since putting on the new grips. I must say they did a great job. I had more control over the gun due to the longer grip and thus having a pinky on there. The covering of the backstrap was very welcome, especially when shooting those Buffalo Bore. They are certainly bigger than the previous grips and there’s no question that affects concealability. But I don’t think the concealability is all that unmanageable (it doesn’t bulge in my pocket any more than the cylinder width causes things to bulge). As well, when I slip my hand in my pocket and get a grip on the gun, it’s a far more proper grip; with the original grips I noticed that what felt comfortable for a grip in my pocket was NOT a good firing grip. Still, I wouldn’t be opposed to switching back to the little grips if I really needed to maximize concealability. But for general carry and shooting, I will stick with the Pachmayr Compac grips.

Between Verne Trester’s work and the grips, I think I have a good snub. I still think I’d like to get an all-steel snub, like a S&W 640 with no internal lock… but those are getting harder to find so I just have to keep my eyes out. Meantime, my custom 442 will serve me just fine. Now I look forward to Claude Werner’s snub classes @ KR Training in February 2010. I picked up some RCBS carbide .38 dies at Cabela’s today. I need to get reloading on that.

I want to thank Verne Trester for his work. He was always very polite on the phone and in emails, prompt in returning calls and speaking with me and answering questions until I was satisfied. Good customer service, good work. I’m satisfied and would certainly use him again.

I was born and raised in Oklahoma.  I actually spent the first few years of my life in smaller towns.  Then the family moved to a bigger city.  That pretty much fit me.  I have never really been a small town person, although they are great fun.  This year as we have made it back to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving, we are once again somewhat splitting time between the families but more so splitting time between the city and town.  The first couple days are here in the small town of Purcell.

Yesterday we spent Thanksgiving in the town of Lexington (another small town) with my wife’s family.  They are great!  I don’t have a clue what most of their names are (not because I haven’t learned them but because there are so many of them that I have now seen twice) but they are great people.  It’s always a little awkward being the new guy in a large group of family that all knows each other and knows all about you (or at least some), but once the ice was broken plenty of conversation erupts.  The kids are running around playing and everyone is enjoying themselves.  Then it is time for Thanksgiving lunch.  Once everyone has filed through the dining room where all the main foods are the room is silent.  All you hear is the occasional squeaking of the chair as people get up for seconds and then make their way to the other room where all the desserts are!

We had a great lunch topped off with some awesome desserts with the family.  And what rural Oklahoma holiday would be complete without westerns staring John “The Duke” Wayne and shooting some rifles and an AK?  Not this one!  And not one that I wanna be at!  After a nice afternoon drive to a closed Old Navy (don’t I love them?) and then an open Old Navy, we headed home for naptime and football.  Gotta love Thanksgiving.  I hope you all got to spend the day with some people you love.  Happy Thanksgiving from rural America!

“Essentials” lists abound, especially online; the shoes a man “must own,” books he “must read,” places he “simply must visit.” Most of the enumerated essentials are anything but. Some change daily.

Still, some things are much closer to mandatory than others. For instance, always vote your conscience and inform your choice; don’t be swayed by irate volume. Exercise. Also, cultivate a preference for the tasteful and refined over the loud and garish. Appreciate family, friends, and food. Read good books.

Be polite. Ask other people about themselves, and listen to their answers.  

A step further from necessary, but still likely good ideas: watch The Godfather. Go to museums. Develop at least a passing knowledge of the mechanics of guns. Spend time outdoors.

And if there’s still time: know the difference between a sport coat and a blazer. Pick up squash. Reconsider how often wearing socks is really necessary. Wear clothes that fit. Don’t wear square-toed shoes; you’re not a ninja. Don’t wear athletic shoes with pants, and invest in some good stationary.   

Though not essential, some of these things are close, and all are worthwhile.