Category Archives: Bloggers

Stuff about other bloggers and sometimes blogging in general.

eBay and gun parts

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I don’t recall this being mentioned on the gun blogs and I did a little bit of searching and didn’t find it. It’s possible this is very old news but I think I would have noticed.

Recently I was in an antique shop and noticed an article in a newspaper from last February:

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Apparently eBay reversed their policy on gun parts, “Actual firearms can’t be listed on eBay. However, many parts and accessories for firearms are OK to sell, but only under certain conditions.” The actual eBay policy page currently says the following are allowed but restricted to U.S. sales:

  • Accessories and parts for guns such as butt plates, cases, cleaning supplies, dies, grips, holsters, molds, racks, pistol grips, scopes, slings, stocks, storage cases, or trigger guards. The listing must include a description of the type of firearm the accessory or part is for and what it’s used for. If it doesn’t, the listing may be removed.
  • Muzzle loader or black powder gun parts or accessories, as long as each item is offered in one listing at a time. (However, having separate listings for items that can be used to build a gun is prohibited.)
  • The following gun parts and accessories are allowed on the eBay US site only. The seller must be in the US and offer domestic shipping only:
    • En bloc clips
    • Barrels
    • Bolts
    • Choke tubes
    • Cylinders
    • Firing pins
    • Hammers
    • Magazines with a capacity to accept 10 rounds or less (high-capacity magazines that can accept more than 10 rounds are not allowed)
    • Slides
    • Trigger assemblies

We still don’t see “a blister pack of six Glock’s at Costco” but it’s a step in the right direction.

30 Cal Gal and Shelley Rae to attend Boomershoot 2012

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We are going to have some other (I already mentioned the bloggers I knew about) high profile shooters at Boomershoot 2012.

I knew this was in the works and finally saw the entry come in this morning making it far more certain. But I didn’t want to say anything until I saw this from 30 Cal Gal:

Shelley Rae and I are a 2 woman team sponsored by ESS Eyepro. They are paying us to go shoot things that explode!

In somewhat related news I have three pair of the ESS glasses that I have been using for a few weeks. I really need to make a blog post about them (I like them!). And ESS will be donating several pair to the raffle to raise money for Project Valour-IT of Soldiers Angels at the Boomershoot Dinner Saturday night.

There are still lots of High Intensity openings left and 10 long range positions available for Boomershoot 2012. Sign up here.

It will be a blast!

New gun blog

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BrainBang.info is a blog about guns and psychology. It is brand new and already has some interesting and clever stuff. Here are some tidbits:

If the content keeps coming this will be good.

Quote of the day—Ry Jones

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As long as I’m above ground and I’m not getting rained on I’m doing great. Everything else is just gravy.

Ry Jones
March 17, 2012
[Ry was explaining to me how he kept his spirits up when unemployed for eight months and his financial situation grew worse and worse.

As I posted a few weeks ago Ry is now working at the same place I am and he is now on his road to recovery.—Joe]

It’s a small world

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This morning I road the bus into downtown Seattle pretty much as usual except one of Caleb‘s brothers was on the same bus. He recognized me from the Boomershoot coat and says he reads my blog all the time. 🙂

It turns out he works five stories above me in the same building.

Required reading

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I have read a few books on “The Rape of Nanking”:

I posted a little about them and the event here and here.

What I haven’t said is that when I read those books my mind was racing on how the civilian population could have better defended themselves. If I were able to go back in time and space and take whatever I could carry with me to that city it would be a backpack full of suppressed .22 LR pistols and several thousand rounds of ammo.

There probably would still have been thousands of Chinese who would have been gang raped and murdered but it wouldn’t have been hundreds of thousands and there would have been a lot of Japanese bodies floating down the rivers along with the Chinese.

A Girl and Her Gun posted about a woman from London who was in China when the Japanese invaded. This brought a flood of memories from reading those books. The well, so to speak, was primed so I guess it’s isn’t too surprising that my eyes filled up with tears as I got to the end of her post An Open Letter To The Anti-Gun Folks.

H/T to Say Uncle.

Freedom Group

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There is an interesting article on the history of Freedom Group here.

To me some of the more interesting stuff was the hints about gun bloggers:

rumors about the Freedom Group — what it is, and who is behind it — have been circulating in the blogosphere. Some gun enthusiasts have claimed that the power behind the company is actually George Soros, the hedge-fund billionaire and liberal activist. Mr. Soros, these people have warned, is buying American gun companies so he can dismantle the industry, Second Amendment be damned.

I vaguely remember something being said about that a while back but don’t remember it being anything we really took seriously.

And how about this?

the Freedom Group has ingested so many well-known brands so quickly that some gun owners are uneasy about what it might do next. Two years ago, a Cerberus managing director, George Kollitides, ran for the board of the N.R.A. Despite an endorsement from Remington, and the fact that he was a director of the Freedom Group and Remington, he lost. His campaign didn’t sit well with some gun bloggers, who viewed him as an industry interloper.

I don’t involve myself with the internal politics of the NRA that much. Was this really an issue? Or is the reporter exaggerating things a bit in an attempt to create a more interesting story?

Update: This is an article in the NYT (thanks Thirdpower) as well as the Herald Tribune which I originally linked to. The NYT version has the link to Sebastian and Bitter’s post about George Kollitides run for the NRA board of directors. I have updated the quoted paragraph above with the NYT link to their post.

Woolrich Elite Series supports Project Valour-IT

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One of the sponsors of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous was Woolrich. They are a long time clothing manufacturer that has recognized concealed carry clothing as a worthy marketing niche. They donated a “Elite for a Year” package to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous prize table. Ry won the raffle for that prize but you don’t have to be left out. I received an email announcing:

Woolrich Elite Series wants to give readers of Rendezvous bloggers a chance to help out Soldiers’ Angels – Project VALOUR-IT.

Through a partnership with one of their dealers, Woolrich Elite has created a private shopping page where fans can purchase the latest Woolrich Elite Series gear. Woolrich Elite will then donate 2% of the total sales back to Project VALOUR-IT!

“From the beginning, Woolrich has supported American servicemen and women. We’re proud to support the outstanding work of Soldiers’ Angels and their Project VALOUR-IT,” said Jerry Rinder, Woolrich Elite Series vice president.

Visit http://tacticalgear.com/woolrich-elite-clothing to see the complete selection of Woolrich Elite Series products and make your purchases to help Soldiers’ Angels.

My birthday is coming up. I wear 34×34 pants and large shirts. You can have gifts drop shipped to my address here.

Quote of the day—Dave Barry

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But the greatest Electrical Pioneer of them all was Thomas Edison, who was a brilliant inventor despite the fact that he had little formal education and lived in New Jersey.  Edison’s first major invention in 1877, was the phonograph, which could soon be found in thousands of American homes, where it basically sat until 1923, when the record was invented.  But Edison’s greatest achievement came in 1879, when he invented the electric company.  Edison’s design was a brilliant adaptation of the simple electrical circuit: The electric company sends electricity through a wire to a customer, then immediately gets the electricity back through another wire, then (this is the brilliant part) sends it right back to the customer again.

This means that an electric company can sell a customer the same batch of electricity thousands of times a day and never get caught, since very few customers take the time to examine their electricity closely. In fact the last year any new electricity was generated in the United States was 1937; the electric companies have been merely re-selling it ever since, which is why they have so much free time to apply for rate increases.

Dave Barry
The History of Electricity
[I’m reminded of this by Barron’s Power Series. Normally I get really annoyed when someone gets some technological detail all wrong and I praise those that get everything correct. But In this case I’m going to reverse myself and give Barry the edge over Barron for pleasurable reading.—Joe]

Proof of training

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Because I want to be able to carry while at Gun Blogger Rendezvous this September in Nevada I’m in the process of getting my Arizona carry permit. It’s tough to get a Nevada permit unless you are willing to spend some time down there but they recognize a few other permits. It used to be they recognized Utah which I used to have. No longer. But Arizona just made the list and Arizona is relatively easy to get a permit remotely. I got my fingerprints taken a few days ago but I couldn’t find any proof of training in my Seattle area bunker to send in with the application. I rummaged through the garage in Idaho this afternoon and found a few certificates. I scanned them and made copies to send to Arizona. Here are the ones I thought they would be the most interested in. Since they require 8 hours of training and I have proof of 53 hours (it’s actually far more than that, this is just what I could find) I presume this will get the job done.

JoeHandgunRentitionJoeIntensiveHandgunJoeLowLight

I highly recommend all of these classes. I learned a lot from them.

Quote of the day—kaveman

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Whatever this unorganized militia of ours is doing, I think we should keep doing it.

It’s rather comforting to think that something we do in our spare time for no pay, trumps those who do this full-time for 6-figure salaries.

Kinda a David and Goliath sorta thing except we’re Goliath and we have all the damn rocks.

kaveman
January 25, 2011
Comment to Brady Campaign Response on SOTU Speech
[Political extermination of bigots is very difficult. We still have remnants of the KKK and Nazi skinheads even though their heyday was at least 60 years ago. The heyday of the anti-gun bigots was only about 15 years ago. We are definitely winning but the battle will probably never be over. We need at least two generations and probably three before their hateful culture will no longer be a threat to humanity in our country. As we win here we need to expand the war to free ourselves from other security theater areas such as search and seizure, the war on recreation drugs, ID cards, and attempt to liberate the people of other countries as well. These rights are self-evident and universal.

Keep throwing the rocks.—Joe]

A new toy!

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I just left a comment on a new gun control blog. Here is my comment to their latest post:

Baldr, I question your goal, “My goal, and the goal of Gun Control in general, is to reduce gun violence…”

Had you said, “criminal violence” then I would be with you. But the way it is worded your goal could conceivably be completely achieved (zero injuries inflicted with a firearm) yet have a murder rate that is 100 times greater than what we have now.

That is why the “gun deaths” data you presented is of almost no interest to me. I didn’t dig into it to make certain but I suspect it includes “gun deaths” that were justifiable homicide by the police and private citizens protecting innocent life. It probably also includes suicides.

It is because of these issues there is Just One Question that needs to be answered before I can see any point in having a discussion about placing restrictions on the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. That question is: Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons? If you can’t successfully answer that question affirmatively then I don’t see any point in having a discussion.