Quote of the day—Hognose

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The guy or girl who holsters a .45, or a Beretta, or a Glock, or an M&P, or a Chief’s Special five-shot revolver, for that matter, and closes the book on pistol selection can get on to the more serious business of pistol training and practice. The principle resource that satisficing can buy you is time, which is the one resource you can’t buy or produce more of, and the one resource that is ever in short supply.

Hognose
January 25, 2016
Pistols & Optimizing vs. Satisficing
[H/T to Tamara.

Greg Hamilton has insight on a closely related topic which is relevant here as well:

If during the time you were reading the latest “stopping power” article you were instead practicing to save your life you would be far, far ahead.

You should spend far more of your time and money budgets on training and practice than on your equipment. I know this is difficult and it’s easy to run down the equipment rabbit hole but try to avoid it.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Will Franken

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I am still one of the most oppressed minorities living in the West today.

I am an individual.

Will Franken
March 7, 2016
What Life As A Transgender Woman Taught Me About Progressives
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert Rotberg

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We’re not taking anything away. We’re strengthening the rights of Lexingtonians to be secure in their private houses and less fearful of people spraying bullets at them.

Robert Rotberg
Founding director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Intrastate Conflict and Town Meeting member
March 8, 2016
Lexington debates proposal to ban semi-automatic weapons
[What this guy wants:

the proposal seeks to ban any semi-automatic rifle or handgun that has a removable magazine capable of holding 10 or more rounds. It also seeks to ban any magazine that holds 10 or more rounds.

And he claims, “We’re not taking anything away. We’re strengthening the rights of Lexingtonians…”?

Gun banners lie because it’s the only way they can win.

And don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alan Gottlieb

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This is a big win. Not just for gun rights but for the freedom movement in the battle against billionaire elitist gun prohibitionists like Michael Bloomberg. West Virginia just told him he can’t buy away our Second Amendment rights.

Alan Gottlieb
March 7, 2016
Gun control group ‘livid’ about permitless carry override veto
[While there is a certain amount of truth to this, 10s of millions, or more, of dollars can buy more repression of our rights than we care to tolerate.

Probably the best we can do is make the cost, in time, money, and public opinion, as high as practical such that the return on Bloomberg’s investment is as low as possible. In the case of West Virginia, gun rights supporters caused him to do the equivalent of setting a very large pile of $100 bills on fire. Bloomberg has an distressingly large number of $100 bills he is willing to throw on the fire but getting nothing except reports of his failures in return for spending large amounts of money will be discouraging to both him and the people he is funding. It also demonstrates that the claim that “the greedy gun manufactures with lots of money” and the NRA get legislative votes by outbidding the virtuous anti-gun activists is false. With this key assumption falsified it demoralizes them and makes it more difficult for them to recruit additional people and raise money in general.—Joe]

Quote of the day—surfinbird512 @surfinbird512

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some big fat piece of shit behind an AR 15! he can’t even see his dick.

surfinbird512 @surfinbird512
Tweeted on November 25, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via a tweet from Linoge.

Just remember, we have SCOTUS decisions, they have childish insults.—Joe]

Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel expansion test

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I recently hand loaded some 180 grain “Gold Dot® Short Barrel®” rounds in .40 S&W. Yesterday I did the promised “chronograph and water jug testing”. Here are the results:

Powder: 3.9 grains of Bullseye
Primer: WSP
OAL: 1.132

10 shots over the chronograph from 10 feet away.

Minimum velocity: 814 fps
Maximum velocity: 864 fps
Mean velocity: 838.1 fps
Standard deviation: 15.5 fps
Power Factor: 150.86

The water filled milk jug test was to determine if the bullets would expand at this relatively low velocity. The 0.401 bullet expanded to just under 0.6 and retained nearly 99% of it’s mass:

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This is very good.

Brother Doug was a little worried that with the lower velocity perhaps a non-expanding bullet would be better for self defense because of the better penetration. Would it penetrate deep enough to “do the job”? I didn’t have any ordinance gelatin but my guess is that it penetrates just fine. They fully traversed three one gallon milk jugs filled with water. This is just under 18 inches of water.

I didn’t expect it would penetrate that far and for my first shot I only used two jugs for depth and put one on each side of the rear jug in case the bullet didn’t go straight after hitting the first jug:

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It fully penetrated the two jugs and I was unable to find the bullet in the berm.

The second time I changed the configuration to just three jugs lined up in a row:

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Again the bullet penetrated all the jugs but I found the bullet just sitting on the ground behind the jugs.

That was interesting

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Barb and I were out running errands this morning and we stopped at Walmart to pick up what I think is the last remaining components for Boomershoot targets (we should have also picked up some rubber bands but I’ll get those sometime this week during lunch). As we were approaching the checkout counter I told Barb, “This is sure a strange combination of stuff. I wonder if they will notice and say something.”

People noticed. They said things:

Clerk : What are you going to use all that <baking component> for?

I hesitated and thought about it for a second or two. He was still ringing stuff up and I hadn’t paid for it yet. If I told him the truth it could delay our departure. Before I could decide what to do he continued:

Clerk (with a smirk on his face): Are you going to use it with the anti-freeze?
Guy in line behind me: With all that anti-freeze, you could make quite the <dessert component>.
Joe (addressing the clerk with a big smile): Actually, I am going to use them together. I make explosives with them.
Clerk: Excuse me?
Joe: I use them to make explosives.

The clerk’s hand froze in midair over the keypad and the smile on the face of guy in line behind me disappeared into blank, ashen colored, stare.

I continued:

Joe: I have a license to make high explosives. I put on a shooting event each year with exploding targets. People come from all over the country to shoot at them.
Clerk: Where do you do this at?
Joe: Idaho.
GILBM: You come all the way over to Washington buy this?
Joe: I live over here but put the event on in Idaho because I need a lot of land and tolerant neighbors. I have the property and the right neighbors over there.
Clerk (hands moving again): Oh. I was thinking maybe Mount Index.
Joe: Nope.

I finished paying for the components then Barb and I quickly loaded up the car and left before the cops could get there.

Quote of the day—Wayne LaPierre

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Mrs. Clinton, if you want to come after the NRA, if you want a fight over the God-given rights of America’s 100 million gun owners, if you want to turn this election into a bare-knuckled brawl for the survival of our constitutional freedom, bring it on. We aren’t going anywhere – and we aren’t hard to find.

Wayne LaPierre
March 3, 2016
NRA chief tells Hillary Clinton to ‘bring it on’ in gun control fight
[I think that sums it up fairly well.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Black Bullets International

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We Stand behind our products – Because it would be really stupid to stand in front of them.

Black Bullets International
2013
Motto
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—bruce lancaster

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When you come for my guns, you will need to bring yours. If you are successful prying my gun from my cold, dead hand, take care. The barrel will be quite hot. … Understand the consequences you beg for: I will fight you to my last bullet. I will fight you until my knife is worn to the hilt. I will fight you until my knuckles are shattered, my nails torn free and my teeth broken at the roots. … When you have tended your wounded and mourned your dead, good luck mustering the courage to face my neighbors, my grocer, my barber, the lady at the gas station cash register, my pastor, my sons, my daughters… They will offer you the same resistance I did. You will reap the whirlwind. If you’re successful killing me or someone like me, you will be hunted. You will be run to ground. You will be smoked out. You will be hung from the nearest tree. Your villages will be plundered, your livestock slaughtered, and your homes burned to ash. There will be no quarter. Each and every disgusting one of you traitorous evil freedom haters will die.

I welcome you to come whenever you think you’re ready. Say When.

bruce lancaster
March 1, 2016
Comment to How to Pass Gun Control in the Sixth-Most-Gun-Owning State in America
[H/T to Sebastian for the link to the main article.—Joe]

Homicides versus guns in developed countries

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Via Ry’s tweet we have source code and data to test various hypothesizes regarding firearm ownership and homicide:

Fit linear regression weighted by number of homicides. Homicides are rare, therefore variance of homicide rate estimates is primarily driven by number of homicides rather than by population. There is no circular reasoning here – we’re predicting homicide rate rather than absolute number of homicides.

Exclude countries with gross domestic product (at purchasing power parity) per capita lower than the median because we are primarily interested in developed countries.

Firearms are statistically significant and have negative coefficient in the regression.

Conclusion: in developed countries, more firearms means less homicide.

Quote of the day—MNsoda55401

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We need to remove all guns from our society other than those used by police and other authorized government agents.

The time for the wild wild west has long ago left us.  We need to allow our Constitution to be adapted to prohibit gun ownership by all private citizens.  Only then will our streets again be safe for our children.

MNsoda55401
March 1, 2016
Comment to Gun safety groups plan caucus push to promote background checks
[At least they recognize the Second Amendment is blocking their goal and they need to change it before proceeding.

Just don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

A great idea

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Via Glenn Reynolds we have West Virginia lawmakers eliminate permits for concealed carry guns. But what I really latched onto was this:

…the proposed law includes a $50 tax credit for residents trained to carry a deadly weapon.

In Washington State the pro-gun people proposed a bill which eliminated sales tax (near 10%) on gun safes. The anti-gun people were put in a tough spot. If they opposed the bill they were against “gun safety”. But if they agreed they were lowering the cost of gun ownership. The bill was passed and gun safes became less expensive in Washington.

Why don’t the pro-gun people propose tax credits on all “gun (safety)” classes? And how about removing sales tax on “public carry holsters” which resist guns being taken away or accidently dropped? And removing taxes on “practice ammo” for guns which people who carry in public?

These proposed laws would put the anti-gun people in a difficult position when trying to oppose them. And, if passed, it would lower the cost of gun ownership, increase gun ownership and use, which would make it easier to change our culture to be more accepting of gun owners.

Quote of the day—Gary Doner

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So you don’t think there should be any limitations whatsoever on what type of arms should be allowed? Right now you can’t go out and buy a machine gun, for example, due to a 1937 federal law. A nuke is an “arm”. Would you allow someone to have one in his backyard?

Gary Doner
March 1, 2016
Comment to Local gun control
[You know he is ignorant and/or careless with the facts just by his errors regarding machine guns. That alone is almost enough to tell him to go away and come back when he knows what he is talking about. But Doner goes on to invoke Knox’s Law because he doesn’t have a plausible response to the plain and simple facts. And those are that the guns he wants to ban, “assault weapons”, are protected by the Second Amendment and are seldom used in criminal activity. Hence he needs to, in essence, change the subject.

You should never let them get away with this. Keep them on point and demand they acknowledge they were wrong with their original assertion. Their absurd argument need not be answered. Tell them, “We can get back to that when you find a nuke available for sale at Wal-Mart.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Lyle

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We must never allow ourselves to entertain their insanity. They should be dismissed out of hand. Anyone who claims to care, if they’re being honest, would already have figured out that a disarmed population is nothing but an invitation for predators to sweep in and take over. It then becomes obvious that the anti gun rights movement is inspired, funded, directed and maintained by predators.

Lyle
February 28, 2016
Comment to Quote of the day—Citizen1787
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Rounds in the last month

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I didn’t load quite as many rounds as I expected I would this month. I have about 400 practice rounds left over from the class I took and enough match ammo such that I’m not feeling any pressure.

I loaded a total of just 700 rounds this month. 301 of those were the self-defense ammo for my student. I plan to do some chronograph and water jug testing with them this weekend.

I’m just under 70,000 rounds for my lifetime total:

223.log: 2027 rounds.
3006.log: 467 rounds.
300WIN.log: 1351 rounds.
40SW.log: 44250 rounds.
9MM.log: 21636 rounds.
Total: 69790 rounds.

Steel match results

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Saturday I went to a steel match at the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club on Whidbey Island. It was raining in Bellevue when I left home but as I got on the ferry the rain had stopped, the fog was lifting, and the cloud cover was breaking up. I had forgotten my coat and was extremely pleased with the change of weather.

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As is usual the stages were well done and interesting:

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My .22 worked well. I had one failure to feed but other than that it was great.

My STI DVC Limited gun broke the ejector and when I took the slide off to clean it Friday night the ejector fell on the floor. The front peg had broken off flush with the frame. I didn’t have a spare ejector so I ordered an ejector, ejector pin, and a special ejector drill bit from Dawson Precision. Of course I wouldn’t have it in time for the match the next day so I had to use a backup gun. It worked fine until the fourth stage when it locked up and wouldn’t cycle. I removed the slide but couldn’t see anything wrong even though, at first, it wouldn’t work right even with the recoil spring and barrel removed. Then it started working, I put it back together and finished the stage. Then on stage five the hammer started not resetting. The first time it happened I racked the slide again and continued without incident on that string. Then on the next string it happened twice and I just thumb cocked it. It was almost as if I were shooting single action in a cowboy match—without ever practicing that way.

Yesterday I cleaned and examined my backup gun. I think the disconnector was worn so I replaced it with a spare I had. I’ll take it to the range and test it soon.

Even with the gun problems I shot well enough to win in both classes (I was the only shooter with a iron sighted rimfire pistol, so that doesn’t really count even though I had a good time):

Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club February 2016 Speed Steel Scores

Name Class Time
Brian Lawson RF-RI-O 41.59
Steve Mooney RF-RI-O 43.10
Brian Lawson RF-O 45.96
Steve Mooney RF-O 47.13
ED RF-RI-O 55.45
Jeff Kanter RF-RI-O 55.66
Joe Huffman RF-I 65.67
Dennis Bohling RF-RI-O 72.73
Brian Lawson RF-RV-I 76.32
Jim Dunlap RF-O 77.53
Larry Languille PCC-I 85.82
Rev Barchenger RF-O 86.53
Joe Huffman CF-I 92.33
John Hamilton CF-I 93.73
Ken Wu CF-I 106.10
Jeff Kanter CF-I 106.14
Jeff Sparks CF-I 115.59
Dennis Bohling CF-I 140.70
Scott Bertino CF-I 170.78
Bruce Barchenger CF-I DNF

RF-RI-O: Rimfire Rifle Optics
RF-O: Rimfire Pistol Optics
RF-I: Rimfire Iron sights
PCC-O: Pistol Caliber Carbine Optics
RF-RI-I: Rimfire Rifle Iron sights
CF-I: Centerfire Iron sights
PCC-I: Pistol Caliber Carbine Iron sights

In the video below I only included one of the better runs for each class of gun I shot on each stage except for when I shot the string cocking the hammer by hand. I edited one string of fire to included a comment from the Range Officer after I finished which Barb liked. I’m hoping this will be a more interesting video and not so long and boring. Also seeing things mostly done correctly is probably better than seeing a lot of errors.

Quote of the day—Bacon @Baconmints

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The funniest kind of coward is a gun nutter nra coward. Their lack of self awareness makes them easy targets. #bok #tinycockclub #gunsense

Bacon @Baconmints
Tweeted on December 23, 2014
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

Via a Tweet from BFD‏ @BigFatDave.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Citizen1787

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No one needs to own a semi-automatic rifle for hunting or self-defense. No one. I have never heard a convincing argument why a civilian needs a semi-auto rifle. In nearly every mass shooting there is a common weapon: a semi-auto rifle. They should be banned.

Citizen1787
February 26, 2016
Comment to Kansas gunman served with restraining order just before shooting spree, police say
[Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Confusion over Idaho law

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I received an email from Frank G. in Spokane today. He was confused by something he read in the Spokesman-Review (Spokane Washington) newspaper. The Spokesman-Review says:

The Idaho Senate has spiked legislation that would have expanded the list of the worst kind of felons banned from owning firearms.

Senate lawmakers voted 29-6 on Friday to reject including terrorists, criminal gang members, human trafficking and felony riot convictions as qualifiers to lose one’s right to own firearms.

Frank asked:

I don’t know a LOT about gun laws, but I’m pretty certain that federal law prohibits all convicted felons from owning firearms. It doesn’t matter if they were convicted of murder or embezzlement. Felony conviction? No guns for you.

So, is the idea that “the worst kind of felons … terrorists, criminal gang members [and people convicted of] human trafficking and felony riot” would be SUPER DUPER prohibited persons?

The confusion is because under Idaho law a convicted felony who as served there sentence may own a gun unless they have committed certain types of felonies. Basically non-violent crimes, such as embezzlement, do not put you on the Idaho “no guns for life” list. But under Federal law you could be convicted of using the wrong packaging for shipping shellfish and end up prohibited of possessing firearms for life.

Here is the Idaho law.*

The legislature was attempting to add terrorism, arson, theft by extortion, human trafficking, felony riot, hijacking, racketeering, and supplying firearms to a criminal gang as bars to further firearm possession. It failed, as Frank pointed out, in the Senate 29-6.

The question one would ask is, “With Federal law prohibiting all felons from firearms possession how does Idaho restoring firearms rights after completion of their sentence help anyone?”

Perhaps some lawyers can answer this better than I can, but I would say it means these people have to get the attention of a Federal Prosecutor who probably has “bigger fish to fry” then some little old lady who embezzled a few thousand dollars a decade ago who now wants to defend herself in her home with the gun her husband left in the dresser draw when he died.

I would like to suggest it might be a “good first step” to get changes in Federal such that it is similar to Idaho law. It’s just common sense.

* Note, that except for things like murder, after five years a person convicted of other things including counterfeiting, unlawful possession of destructive devices, rape, and kidnapping, may apply to the commission of pardons to get their firearms rights restored.