Mugme Street news

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The following event occurred one block from what Barb and I fondly call “Mugme Street”. This has been my bus stop on the way home for a year and a half:

Police arrested a man who was seen counting his heroin stash Downtown Monday afternoon.

Bike officers were on patrol Downtown when they noticed a man acting strangely at 2nd Ave. and Stewart St. just before 1 PM. The officers approached the man and could plainly see him counting baggies of heroin, all of which were individually marked with a price.

Police arrested the man and collected the heroin as evidence.

I’ve had very strange people approach me at this location. When I’m waiting for the bus here I get and keep my back to the wall until the bus arrives.

I don’t want to work in downtown Seattle.

80% of the public is in support

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We frequently hear the some large percentage of the public is in support of universal background checks for firearms sales. But it is easy to demonstrate that a large percentage of the public is either ignorant of the effectiveness of background checks or has evil intent.

Basically the problem boils down to a large percentage of the public has opinions on things they really don’t know much about. Brother Doug pointed out a great example recently:

A … survey in January conducted by the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics found that 82 percent of respondents supported mandatory labels on GMOs. However, 80 percent of respondents also said they supported mandatory labels on “foods containing DNA.”

This is the reason we have a representative democracy with enumerated powers for the government rather than a direct democracy. Our representatives are supposed to carefully study and debate any potential laws and only enact laws that are beneficial to the majority of people and do not infringe upon the rights of anyone.

Popular opinion can easily be shown, see above, to be a very poor way of determining, well, almost anything.

Quote of the day—Sandra Gonzales

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That is beyond disturbing! He should be locked up for child neglect!

Sandra Gonzales
March 9, 2015
Facebook comment on the CSGV page in response to this photo found on Shyanne Roberts Facebook page:

ShyanneRobertsAmmo

Shyanne, a ten year old competitive shooter, posted the picture with the following comment:

Teee Heee the first shipment of ammo from my sponsor Steel Ridge Ammunition showed up today !! So I decided to forget about snow angels and make an ammo angel instead !

VERY, VERY happy and cant wait to hit the range, thanks so much to the entire team at Steel Ridge Ammunition!

[Would they also want someone laying on a stack of Bibles locked up for child neglect? Or is it just the exercise of Second Amendment rights they find disturbing?—Joe]

The most transparent administration

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When Obama was campaigning in 2008 the one good thing I thought might come out of him being elected was better support for FOIA. My experience with FOIA and the Federal Government is that they completely ignore you unless you get a lawyer involved. That’s just wrong. If the people don’t comply with FOIA they should be prosecuted. That’s not what happens. If Obama could make some progress on getting better compliance with FOIA I would have praised that achievement.

It was just another Obama lie.

We are sliding further down the slippery slope into a police state:

The White House is voiding a federal regulation that subjects its Office of Administration to the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA  (incidentally the same act that discovered none of Hillary Clinton’s “personal” government-business emails since they were not even stored on government property!) which as USA Today explains, makes “official a policy under Presidents Bush and Obama to reject requests for records to that office.”

Update: More evidence:

The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn’t find documents and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.

It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.

Its backlog of unanswered requests at year’s end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000. It also cut by 375, or about 9 percent, the number of full-time employees across government paid to look for records. That was the fewest number of employees working on the issue in five years.

Quote of the day—Alan Korwin

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We face destructive hyperbole from an agenda-driven fear-mongering group in the nation’s murder capital, where obtaining even a government permission slip to keep and bear arms is virtually impossible. They get extensive “news” coverage, instead of ridicule and a demand for an apology. If such preposterous outrage were to appear over race, gender or any other civil right the media would howl with alarm. Instead, we find the lunatics are truly running the asylum. Guns save lives, stop crime and help keep you safe. The media should start covering that missing angle.

Alan Korwin
March 15, 2015
BRADY CAMPAIGN INSULTS ARIZONA BADLY
[This was in response to the Brady Campaign video I posted here.

I have nothing more to add.—Joe]

USPSA match results

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I shot in another USPSA match on Sunday. It was raining. At times it was really pouring. At other times it was a mild drizzle. It never stopped.

One of the guys at the match has been to a couple of Boomershoots and I know both he and his wife from outside of the gun community. He came up to me, said hi, and I told him it seemed a little damp. He said, “I’m not staying. I just came to check on my stage.” He had a shovel over his shoulder and had dug a ditch to carry some of the water away.

It wasn’t the wettest match I have ever heard of but it was the wettest match I have ever attended.

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WP_20150315_004

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MRCPS USPSA MARCH 2015
3/14/2015
Match Results – Limited
Place Name Member # Class Division PF Lady Mil Law For Match Pts Match %
1 Hoang, Vinh TY55787 M LTD MAJOR N N N N 786.2780 100.000 %
2 Hong, Andrew A83199 M LTD MAJOR N N N N 783.4298 99.638 %
3 Huffman, Joe TY29386 B LTD MAJOR N N N N 617.8207 78.575 %
4 Banks, David A79458 C LTD MAJOR N N N N 604.0272 76.821 %
5 Baleros, Rae A83018 B LTD MAJOR N N N N 549.8423 69.930 %
6 Leander, Mike A28558 M LTD MAJOR N N N N 522.8482 66.497 %
7 Glines, Sterling A81856 U LTD MAJOR N N N N 503.5897 64.047 %
8 Domiolio, Noel A85786 C LTD MAJOR N N N N 347.6279 44.212 %
9 Bell, Eric A32654 A LTD MAJOR N N N N 230.1977 29.277 %
10 Stephens, Scotti A73026 none LTD MAJOR Y N N N 141.6806 18.019 %
11 (DQ) Huggins, Rick A88883 C LTD MINOR N N N N 0.0000 0.000 %

This is a much better outcome that previous matches. Only two master class shooters were ahead of me. Another B, an A, and a Master class shooter were below me. Although clearly they were having a “bad day”. I came in at about the 73rd percentile of the shooters. This is much better than the 52nd percentile, and 59th percentile of the previous two matches.

I have been practicing and then testing myself with El Presidente. Here are the results from January 30th of this year. To make it easy for the spreadsheet and to reduce the need to tape the targets I only track the strings where I got all A-zone hits:

Mean Draw Time: 1.79
Mean Split Time: 0.60
Mean Transition Time: 0.72
Mean Reload Time: 2.086
Mean Total Time: 10.36

This sucks. I had no idea how slow I had become until I did this test.

And from February 12th:

Mean Draw Time: 1.60
Mean Split Time: 0.54
Mean Transition Time: 0.64
Mean Reload Time: 2.43
Mean Total Time: 9.83

Better but not by much. Things still weren’t clicking. I had to really go slow to get the A-zone hits. This was especially true with the first shot after the draw and the split times for shots on the same target. It shouldn’t take almost as long for a second hit on the same target as it did for a transition to another target over three feet from the previous one. Why was it taking so long to get on target with the sights and pull the trigger? I just didn’t know.

From March 11th, a few days before this match:

Mean Draw Time: 1.75
Mean Split Time: 0.39
Mean Transition Time: 0.63
Mean Reload Time: 2.30
Mean Total Time: 8.45

The splits on the same target got a lot better. I had been practicing with a .22 on multiple shots on the same target when it suddenly just clicked. The splits just happened without me having to think about them. The sights lined up and the gun went “bang!” without me having to think about it. When I substituted the .40 caliber it still happened.

When I shot the match on Sunday things felt a lot better. The gun went bang without me thinking about it. There were some very short range shots where either I didn’t let up on the trigger enough to get a reset or I was cycling the trigger faster than the gun was cycling the slide. I’ll have to do some tests to find out what is going on with that. And for all except the stage with the 50 yard targets I got good hits. My speed improved without problems with my accuracy.

8.45 second El Presidente’s are still slower than they used to be. I’m pretty sure I was doing them in the mid to high sevens years ago. More practice is needed. The transitions need work. I know this because of this. I should be able to remove at least a tenth of a second. I would then get down into the low 8’s for El Presidentes.

I’m going to the range tomorrow and doing a bunch of transition work with the .22. I’ll do another El Presidente test on Thursday.

Quote of the day—Bacon @Baconmints

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Uh oh, the #tinycockclub aka nra lapdogs, are losing their shit because I called them on their insecurity. Score. #gunsense #fuckthenra

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

Via a Tweet from BFD‏ @BigFatDave.—Joe]

USPSA match results

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I finally found the USPSA match results from last month when I shot a match the day after Valentines day. One stage was particularly well themed:

WP_20150215_002
Shoot them in the heart. The black is considered “hard cover”.

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This (quasi) heart shaped outline on the ground is the shooting box.

The results for my division are as follows:

MRCPS The Love Zone

2015-02-15

Match Results – Limited

Place Name USPSA Class Division PF Lady Mil Law For Match Pts Match %
1 Hoang, Vinh TY55787 M LTD MAJOR N N N N 675.1016 100.000 %
2 Hong, Andrew A83199 A LTD MAJOR N N N N 599.5350 88.807 %
3 Huang, Jemy TY71576 B LTD MAJOR N N N N 548.9420 81.313 %
4 Leander, Mike A28558 M LTD MAJOR N N N N 528.9624 78.353 %
5 Olson, Kevin A51227 A LTD MAJOR N N N N 528.2475 78.247 %
6 McClure, Dave A71541 C LTD MAJOR N N N N 443.7927 65.737 %
7 Rick, Huggins A88883 D LTD MINOR N N N N 424.4684 62.875 %
8 Harris, Brad A54628 A LTD MAJOR N N N N 419.2345 62.099 %
9 Rae, Baleros A83018 C LTD MAJOR N N N N 418.2772 61.958 %
10 Huffman, Joe TY29386 B LTD MAJOR N N N N 412.9623 61.170 %
11 McNees, Don A21888 C LTD MINOR N N N N 406.3468 60.190 %
12 Tsang, Keith A71578 B LTD MAJOR N N N N 391.8932 58.050 %
13 Tod, Sherman TY37515 C LTD MAJOR N N N N 319.1640 47.276 %
14 Russ, Kimberly TY59608 D LTD MINOR Y N N N 293.3518 43.453 %
15 Shatto, Rollie TY18977 C LTD MAJOR N N N N 290.2087 42.987 %
16 Wall, Gary TY41939 B LTD MAJOR N N N N 285.7136 42.322 %
17 Garcia, Edwin PEN U LTD MINOR N N N N 257.2086 38.099 %
18 Workman, Rob A88068 U LTD MINOR N N N N 247.2043 36.617 %
19 Harding, Matt A87093 U LTD MINOR N N N N 246.3886 36.497 %
20 Bregante, Carlos TY4508 C LTD MINOR N N N N 123.7345 18.328 %
21 (DQ) Mathena, Lee A85475 D LTD MINOR            

As you can see I didn’t do all that great. There were ‘C’ and ‘D’ class shooters who came in above me. Among other things, on the last stage I had a major brain fart and fired six shots on the wrong side of a shooting line. That was worth 60 points of penalties. It didn’t even give me any advantage to do so. I just forgot I needed to be on the other side of the line to shoot those targets.

This match was shot before (February 15 versus February 22) that last USPSA match I reported on. In that match I came in at the 59th percentile. In this match I came in at the 52nd percentile. That is a little better but it is essentially unchanged even though there was some practice between the matches.

Prunes!

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Why should the word “prunes” be followed by an exclamation mark? Because they’re MY prunes, or rather they were planted on the property I currently own, long before I bought it.

Do you know the difference between a prune and a plum? I didn’t, though of course I’d heard several of the theories that float around, at least in the Pacific Northwest. According to the orchard owners hereabouts (and who would know if not them?) a prune has a free pit, meaning that if you rip the fruit open the pit falls right out, whereas a plum has an in-grown pit and you have to cut, or chew, around it. That would mean I have prunes.

I’ve heard that there are peaches with free pits and peaches with in-grown pits, and they’re all called peaches, so go figure.
Continue reading →

Quote of the day—David Hackett Fischer

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Race slavery did not create the culture of the southern colonies. That culture created slavery.

David Hackett Fischer
1989
Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: A Cultural History)
[See also this post about the same book.—Joe]

Gun cartoon of the day

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NraAccomplice

This is what the cartoonist thinks of supporters of the right to keep and bear arms. They believe we are insane criminals who should go to prison for the crimes of others.

Quote of the day—Kathy Jackson

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I dream that one day, every woman who goes to the gun range in time of need will meet a person there who has both the willingness and the skills to teach her what she immediately need to know, with the expectation that she will in time be prepared to turn around and help spread that knowledge to others.

Kathy Jackson
March 13, 2015
I have a dream
[The only thing I would change about this dream is to remove the specific gender. Both men and women have times of need.—Joe]

Words still mean things II

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When writing a review on a firearm, some ammo, or an optical sight, etc., it is probably not a good idea to say that you had “zero issues” or “zero problems” or “zero failures” with it. I’m going to be left wondering exactly what these specific zero issues/problems/failures were, and why you’re not telling us more about them. If you had “no issues” then it would be best if you put it just like that. “Zero issues”, on the other hand, are a whole different subject, and they are potentially very frustrating.

(for those of you who aren’t part of the gun culture, your “zero” is that particular adjustment, or set of adjustments, of your sighting system that puts your bullet right on target at a specific distance when using a specific load [often under specific atmospheric conditions])

Only one explanation

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This is a Brady Campaign video (the comments are disabled—of course):

They claim that a criminal can buy a gun without a background check in Arizona and Nevada then sell it in California because AZ and NV don’t have universal background checks. This makes AZ and NV criminal paradises of some sort. But CA is a bad place for criminals because they do have universal background checks.

But if CA is such a bad place for criminals then why would criminals be motivated to sell guns there? And why wouldn’t these lifesaving background checks in CA prevent the criminals from selling guns to criminals in CA?

And if background checks make a difference in violent crime why is the 2013 violent crime rate in AZ (416.5/100K) and to a certain extent NV (603.0/100K) not all that different from CA (402.1/100K)? And why did they choose AZ and NV to talk about lack of universal background checks? Why not all states without universal background checks or maybe Idaho or Washington which in 2013 had violent crime rates of 217.0/100K and 289.1/100K? It is clear that background checks do not and cannot have a significant influence upon violent crime rates. But they do draw resources away from law enforcement that could have been used to put and keep violent criminal in prison. But facts like this are not something they want well known even though they know it themselves.

There can only be one explanation. They are attempting to deliberately deceive the public with sloppy thinking and cherry picking of data to gain support for the infringing the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. They have a demonstrated history of a culture of deception and it doesn’t appear to be changing even though they have had many changes in leadership during the last decade. I believe they know that they have to lie to have any hope of winning.

Gun cartoon of the day

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JustShootMe

The cartoonist has to be incredibly ignorant or deliberately deceptive to claim the 2nd Amendment is about hunting. They have to have completely ignored or want you to ignore, the first part of it. One of the main purposes of the 2nd Amendment is the security of a free state. It is not the right to hunt animals. It is the right to hunt tyrants and their minions. If this was not true then why would the U.S. Supreme Court rule that unless the arms have:

…some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.

It is specifically military weapons that are protected by the 2nd Amendment.

Also, as Weer’d Beard has often said, George Washington didn’t cross the Delaware River to get to his duck blind.

One might think it is odd that anti-gun people will claim we ignore the first half of the 2nd Amendment (“well regulated”) but then they do that themselves when they claim it is about hunting. But what you have to understand is that these people have serious mental issues.

Quote of the day—Scott Peterson

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Who in their right mind thinks of owning guns as a human right?!

Scott Peterson
March 11, 2015
Comment to The NRA Wins Again on Armor-piercing Bullets, But Common Sense Was Already Lost
[One might conclude that Peterson is of the opinion that the entire U.S. Supreme Court and the majority of the U.S. population should be sent to the psych ward.

If this is true then I would like to suggest Peterson take point on that endeavor and see just who it is that ends up occupying the psych ward.—Joe]

Gun cartoon of the day

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SlamTheDoor

I’ve been in a restaurant that offers a discount to “gun-toters” multiple times and have never seen anything like this happen. I also been in restaurants hundreds of times while I and/or others were carrying and not once have I seen anything like this happen.

The cartoonist has an extremely wild and error prone imagination and/or is prejudiced against gun owners. What would be the response if some cartoonist hypothesized some equally outrageous consequences for a restaurant that welcomed people of color or alternate sexual orientation?

Bigotry and prejudice is never pretty regardless of the target. People should explain this to the cartoonist and the media that propagate this sort of thing.

Quote of the day—Mayor Danny Jones

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These people look at guns like sex objects. They oil them up and rub them.

Danny Jones
Mayor of Charleston West Virginia
March 7, 2015

[H/T to Sebastian.

This is what anti-gun politicians think of you and the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]

Steel Challenge match results

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I attended a Steel Challenge match last Sunday. Here are the results:

Stage # SCSA ID Stage Name
1 SC-103 Smoke & Hope
2 ?? Renton Plate Rack
3 SC-105 Accelerator
4 SC-108 Roundabout
 
Place Name Comp SCSA Division Aggregate Total Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 DQ Additional
1 Christian S 8   PROD 58.29 58.29 12.14 12.97 19.79 12.83   Junior
2 Alexander W 3 3362 OPN 66.09 66.09 16.73 16.24 16.39 16.17   Junior
3 Lukasz T 21 A82888 ISP 82.76 82.76 15.69 25.34 20.17 21.00    
4 Matthew M 51   PROD 83.54 83.54 16.39 21.61 25.56 19.42   Military
5 Tim R 50   PROD 87.74 87.74 19.45 23.23 22.51 21.99    
6 Steve L 64 A22574 OPN 87.79 87.79 16.68 24.08 25.48 20.99    
7 Joe H 44 TY29386 ISP 89.72 89.72 18.76 22.40 24.57 23.43   Senior
8 Jeff K 18   PROD 90.04 90.04 19.23 20.98 25.55 23.72    
9 Jeffrey K 36   PROD 93.97 93.97 19.54 18.88 28.90 26.09   Senior
10 Eric W 4 3362 PROD 96.27 96.27 19.82 23.92 29.95 22.02    
11 Tim R 49   ISR 98.39 98.39 20.56 30.00 23.87 23.40    
12 Charles B 57   OPN 99.64 99.64 21.34 29.82 23.50 24.42    
13 Justin H 58   PROD 100.54 100.54 17.96 21.27 31.59 29.16    
14 Michael M 34   OPN 104.90 104.90 22.74 26.23 29.20 26.17    
15 Dan P 7 A87261 ISP 106.69 106.69 17.86 38.78 26.85 22.64    
16 Greg M 55   PROD 108.58 108.58 20.77 21.76 31.18 34.31    
17 Lance B 32   PROD 109.73 109.73 24.65 22.43 30.28 31.81    
18 Steve N 63 A88468 PROD 110.86 110.86 20.00 27.69 29.86 32.75    
19 Charles B 62   ISP 112.13 112.13 20.65 31.21 29.75 29.96    
20 Earl B 54   ISP 112.61 112.61 18.37 34.80 28.12 30.76    
21 Dan G 47   PROD 115.70 115.70 20.27 28.90 31.25 34.72    
22 Don C 45 A85736 PROD 116.66 116.66 23.92 24.74 26.08 41.36   Senior
23 Connor P 6 A87260 PROD 117.44 117.44 18.80 24.54 21.20 52.37   Junior
24 Jen M 29   ISP 120.22 120.22 25.41 19.30 21.46 53.52   Lady
25 Thomas P 14   PROD 120.97 120.97 24.28 33.41 36.65 26.07    
26 Brad M 1   ISP 121.43 121.43 24.30 41.73 25.32 29.52    
27 Mark P 24 A75542 ISR 123.14 123.14 11.53 76.16 16.70 18.19    
28 Jason F 31   PROD 133.70 133.70 20.95 40.28 35.02 36.89    
29 Jason G 25 A86456 ISP 133.88 133.88 21.10 46.10 26.35 39.77    
30 Jesse P 40   PROD 138.20 138.20 23.98 34.09 46.09 33.48    
31 Todd H 26   ISP 140.42 140.42 29.08 44.49 28.73 37.56    
32 Campbell T 48   ISP 181.74 181.74 32.02 54.54 37.99 56.63   Lady
33 Dave N 11   PROD 214.24 214.24 41.79 76.71 50.36 50.75    
34 Patrick D 52   PROD 229.03 229.03 32.26 83.97 75.25 36.99   Military
35 Jim C 60   PROD 238.21 238.21 36.02 67.70 89.38 44.61    
36 Gail C 46   PROD 238.29 238.29 34.34 79.19 61.48 62.72   Lady

I did a little better this time than last. I still made a serious mistake that cost me about two seconds which cost me a couple of positions. On stage two there were six, instead of the usual five, small plates that were a bit harder to hit than most. On string three is had several misses and should have reloaded before shooting the fourth string. But instead I figured I had eight rounds left and it should be fine. I again had a lot of misses and had to reload for the last two plates.

I know better. There was no point in taking that risk. I had a fully loaded magazine on my belt. It would have cost me another couple of seconds off the clock to reload before the fourth string rather than two seconds on the clock during the string.

Quote of the day—Melissa Challenger

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Who are the sick women who are having children with these gun nazis? It makes me physically ill. There is something mentally disturbed about people who own more than one gun.

Melissa Challenger
March 9, 2015
Facebook comment on the CSGV page in response to this photo found on Shyanne Roberts Facebook page:

ShyanneRobertsAmmo

Shyanne, a ten year old competitive shooter, posted the picture with the following comment:

Teee Heee the first shipment of ammo from my sponsor Steel Ridge Ammunition showed up today !! So I decided to forget about snow angels and make an ammo angel instead !

VERY, VERY happy and cant wait to hit the range, thanks so much to the entire team at Steel Ridge Ammunition!

[Apparently Challenger is oblivious to the irony of calling someone a Nazi and advocates for forcing them to give up enjoying their sport and the exercise of their specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.

Challenger not only wants to take away your guns. She thinks people who own guns are mentally disturbed and doesn’t think gun owners should have have a spouse or children.—Joe]