Author Archives: Joe

Another STI repair

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A couple months ago I mentioned a had a problem with two new magazines dropping out of my STI. Today I finally got around to fixing it.

I had measured the magazines and found they were 0.020″ narrower than the magazines that worked. It had to be the magazine release. So I bought a new magazine release (on the left below) and compared it to the old one (on the right).

Near the top of the picture compare the width of the material for the little “ledge”. The old one is much narrower. That is what engages the magazine. The old one is worn enough that it does not fully engage the magazine.

I replaced the release, took the gun and magazines to the range and put a couple hundred rounds through the gun without any problems other than one of my old magazines failing to lock the slide back on the last round. Yeah, I know the magazine followers are worn out. I’ll order some new ones and replace them soon. But that is a minor problem compared to the magazines falling out on the first shot.

I’ll do more field testing at the steel match tomorrow but I fully expect the magazine drop problem is fixed now.

Quote of the day–Will Brown

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Instead of identifying politicians by name or party, we ought to do so by ideology – which is uncomfortably akin to classifying strains of dysentery by patient I admit.

Will Brown
Comment to a post by Kevin Baker on November 26, 2008
[The take over of the health care industry by the Federal government reminded me of this.–Joe]

Dr. Joe’s cure for everything validated

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Again.

Via Uncle.

Posted in Sex

They keep trying

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The Brady Campaign currently has 71 sponsors in the U.S. House for a bill to further restrict your right to keep and bear arms and have defacto gun registration.

They say we should have nothing to fear. But in addition to increasing the price of the gun due to the increased paperwork it create a paper trail on gun purchases. This is not acceptable in the exercise of any inalienable right. What would the outcry be if you were required to get a background check before writing a letter to the editor or have a paper trail exist for the purchase of religous books?

Poor reason to celebrate

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Even though I’m an atheist wearing my new “Bah Humbug” shirt from daughter Kim I think it is a poor reason to celebrate (CNN headline):

Woman knocks down pope at Mass; Christmas celebrations begin

How’s that working out for you?

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As I have said many times before. It’s A Security Theater.

Here is proof:

A passenger on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight tried to detonate an explosive device that was strapped to his leg and later told investigators that he was trying to blow up the plane and had affiliations with al Qaeda, according to a senior U.S. official.

The passenger was identified by authorities as Abdul Mudallad, a 23-year-old Nigerian national, according to Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican who is the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The device was technologically advanced and potentially devastating, Mr. King said. “This was not a firecracker,” he said.

And what is the response? As expected, more stuff that cannot possibly help but will further restrict our freedom and make air travel more of a hassle:

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that airline passengers should expect to see additional screening measures put in place on both domestic and international flights.

Update: After the shoe bomber we had to take off our shoes when going through security and the security experts told us that we should just be glad that he didn’t try to blow up the plane with a bomb hidden in his underwear. I think you should be able to extrapolate the “additional screening measures” we can soon expect to see without my assistance.

I like guns

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From Joe D. on the Lewiston Pistol Club discussion email list:

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays everyone.

Quote of the day–Justice Antonin Scalia

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If “bear arms” means, as we think, simply the carrying of arms, a modifier can limit the purpose of the carriage (“for the purpose of selfdefense” or “to make war against the King”). But if “bear arms” means, as the petitioners and the dissent think, the carrying of arms only for military purposes, one simply cannot add “for the purpose of killing game.” The right “to carry arms in the militia for the purpose of killing game” is worthy of the mad hatter. Thus, these purposive qualifying phrases positively establish that “to bear arms” is not limited to military use.

Justice Antonin Scalia
June 26, 2008
District of Columbia, et al., petitioners v. Dick Anthony Heller
No. 07-290
Pages 15,16
[Words mean what they mean. Not what someone wants them to mean. Hence those that wish to twist the meaning of the Second Amendment deserve our scorn and contempt and were justly slapped down by the Heller decision. Mad Hatters does describe many of the anti-gun people. –Joe]

Quote of the day–J. Pomeroy

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[The purpose of the Second Amendment is] to secure a well-armed militia. . . . But a militia would be useless unless the citizens were enabled to exercise themselves in the use of warlike weapons. To preserve this privilege, and to secure to the people the ability to oppose themselves in military force against the usurpations of government, as well as against enemies from without, that government is forbidden by any law or proceeding to invade or destroy the right to keep and bear arms. . . . The clause is analogous to the one securing the freedom of speech and of the press. Freedom, not license, is secured; the fair use, not the libellous abuse, is protected.

J. Pomeroy
An Introduction to the Constitutional Law of the United States 152– 153 (1868)
From District of Columbia v. Heller pages 45 and 46.
[Citizens are enabled to exercise themselves in the use of warlike weapons. It’s the law of the land. It is a constitutionally protected, specific enumerated right.–Joe]

Quote of the day–John Adams

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The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.

A government of laws and not of men.

John Adams
(1735-1826)
Second President of the United States
The Life and Works of John Adams (1851)
[And by necessity the same applies to the defenders of the tyrant and the thugs who enforce the orders of the tyrant. And to do this the people of the nation need the tools to accomplish this task.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Rev. Jerry Falwell

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The argument that making contraceptives available to young people would prevent teen pregnancies is ridiculous. That’s like offering a cookbook as a cure to people who are trying to lose weight.

Rev. Jerry Falwell
[I don’t have to point out the parallel to those that don’t want children taught gun safety–do I?–Joe]

Quote of the day–Blue

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It’s the immortal truth of Con Law: conservative decisions are provisional while liberal decisions are eternal.

Blue
December 20, 2009
Comment to Justice Ginsburg: Supreme Court may eventually overrule Heller.
[Certainly that is the way the liberals like to think of it and the conservatives fear it is. I’m not so sure that is reality however. Heller, the (soon to be) McDonald victories and many others in the pipeline will make it difficult for liberals to undermine the right to keep and bear arms for a long, long time.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Freddyboomboom

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So by the same argument that it’s no big deal, it would be ok for them to publish a registry database of where all the bloggers live, right?

I mean, you’re just exercising your 1st amendment right to free speech, nothing wrong with that, right?

Maybe you’d like to let us know what YOUR street address is, so we can get started on that…

Freddyboomboom
December 20, 2009
Comment to Take a deep breath.
[I really need to jump in on this. Soon, I hope.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Roberta X

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[W]hat’s the Star done to me except list my like in the same section as preverts, bank robbers and marriage licenses?

Beseems every coal mine needs a canary or two; and they are silly, fluttery little birds most of the time. Doesn’t mean they’re not useful.

Roberta X
December 19, 2009
Comment to Take a deep breath
[There are several other people in the same comment section and on their blogs defending the appropriateness of getting upset about publishing information about concealed carry permit holders. I’ll post my own opinions on the topic soon. I’ve been very, very busy and blogging has been dropping off the end of the priority queue.–Joe]

Don’t bring your bare hands to a knife fight

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Two woman were brutally attacked by a nut-case with a knife.

One of the lessons to be learned is that fighting back is an option that should be given serious consideration. But for some reason the plans are to learn bare handed self-defense rather than get training in commonly available tools specifically designed for engaging an attacker from a distance out of range of edged weapons.

As I learned in knife school, if you get in a knife fight you are going to get cut. Unarmed versus knife and your odds are nearly 100% that you are going to be loosing precious bodily fluids.

Make it your gun versus their knife and your odds of requiring stitches or a coffin go way down.

Firearms instructors in the area should be offering their services to these women.

[H/T to Mike for the email pointer.]

Chutzpah

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The irony of tyrants is correct.

On Bill of Rights Day the city of Sacramento claims, and joins a lawsuit to prevent, the Second Amendment from applying to them.

They are going to lose. 100% guaranteed. It might even be a 9-0 vote but the chutzpah of their effort is amazing.

What next? Announcing segregated water fountains on Martin Luther King’s Birthday?

Boomershoot 2010 Precision Rifle Clinic

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Details on the Boomershoot 2010 Precision Rifle Clinic are now available. You don’t have to participate in the main event to get coaching and shoot in the clinic.

The clinic fills up every year and Gene has lots of repeat attendees so you know people are getting their money’s worth.

Sign up and learn how to turn money and time into earth shaking noise and smoke.

As a side note, Boomershoot statistics are here. Probably most interesting is that there are 110 participants and we have 11 bloggers-exactly 10%.

We will be having a blogger/media day again on Thursday April 22nd.

Quote of the day–Ralph Fascitelli

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These are weapons of war. They can kill, shoot 200 bullets a minute. Anybody that uses a semi-automatic to hunt is an animal assassin. You know, that’s someone who would take an M-80 and throw it in a pond of water to kill fish.

Ralph Fascitelli
Board President of Washington Ceasefire
[“Weapons of war”? Almost none of the proposed firearms to ban have been used as military issue firearms let alone used in a war zone. They are sporting arms in common use and protected the Second Amendment.

If he can get 200 rounds a minute out of my Ruger P89 (considered an “assault weapon” by his definition) then he is a far, far better shooter than me or anyone I know.

Any firearm can be used to kill something. So how does that bit of information contribute to the discussion?

“Animal assassin”? I have a feeling that phrase is going to be used to mock Fascitelli for quite some time. And why bring up hunting? What has hunting got to do with the right to keep and bear arms?

A M-80 thrown into a pond to kill fish makes someone an “animal assassin”? No wonder their side is losing. They can’t make a cogent argument. He just wanders all over the place with his thoughts.

Every single sentence this guy said is either completely false or nonsensical. It’s another case of Crap for Brains.–Joe]

Christmas pictures

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I’m not a big fan of holidays and Christmas is particularly annoying. Barb and the girls on the other hand put quite bit of effort into Christmas and enjoy it a great deal. I contain myself and help out as best I can and not spoil it for others. But sometimes people pick up on my attitude anyway (it couldn’t be the “Bah Humbug!” sweatshirt I wear every Christmas).

Daughter Xenia has been posting one Christmas picture per day this month starting here. All of them are good. Some of them are great.

My favorite so far is this one:

I suspect that picture was just for me.

Was it an accident?

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As reported by Say Uncle, Dave Hardy, and Sebastian President Obama actually signed a bill into law Wednesday that would require passengers who carry firearms aboard AMTRAK be locked in boxes for their journey.

They claim “no one quite knows the origin of the mistake”.

I have absolutely no data to support my suspicion but I would like someone to explore the hypothesis that it was not a mistake. It seems to me that would be a very clever way to defeat legislation you didn’t like. Swap a word or ten in a 1000 page bill and who is going to notice until you drive your truck through the loophole you created or your political enemy gets dragged off to the gulag?