Situational Awareness

Risograph print / by Jamie Jones

I really like my iPhone. Not because it's an iPhone, it could be an Android. I really like the fact that I have the Internet handy when I need it.

Last night I was waiting at Ray's Hell Burger to meet a friend for dinner. I was watching for him out the window and it seemed like 8 of 10 people walking by the window had no idea what was happening around them.

I even saw someone that seemed to be actively following a woman, staring at her ass, and she was completely unaware. She was staring at her phone, headphones on, completely clueless of everything.

Carrying a gun is only a single piece of the whole when it comes to self defense. Being aware of your surrounding is a key component.

--Don't be that guy.

Loving VA

I have said it before and I will say again. I love living in Virginia.

It is a great state to live in if you are a gun owner. I love the fact that I can buy even Class III items from a classified ad on the Internet.

We are also the 4th safest state to live in. With all the gun freedom some would like you to think that because I can carry a concealed firearm in church or a bar that gunfights would be breaking out everywhere all the time! Nope. Sorry to disappoint them.

--But what the hell is up with the snow this year!?

Quotes of the Week

A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.
– Isabel Paterson

Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it.
 – Haim Ginott

When you think of the good old days, think one word: dentistry.
 – P. J. O'Rourke

Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.
 – Coretta Scott King

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it
– Orwell

To shackle future generations, with such monstrous debt and liabilities, is tantamount to selling them into tax slavery.
– Eric Englund

Personal liberty without economic liberty is an absolute contradiction; one cannot exist without the other.
– William E. Simon

In any hour and issue of his life, man is free to think or to evade that effort.
--Ayn Rand 

 Politicians can't create real employment by taxing people and giving the money to others.
--John Stossel

No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.
 – General Douglas MacArthur

Facebook Followup

Well, the big to-do earlier this week regarding Facebook policy turned out to be not so much.

Even though the Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Moms Demand Action groups are claiming victory, what the policy actually says is that Legal Gun Sales on Facebooks is perfectly fine.

They basically are just saying don't do anything against the law. I think they should have a policy against murder with hammers.

--Back to our regular programming...

So it begins...

Virginia: McAuliffe’s First Attempt to Roll Back the Rights of Gun Owners With only two days left in the 2014 regular legislative session, Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) has made his first attempt to limit the legal use of firearms in Virginia by returning an amendment to House Bill 962 that would further restrict how handguns may be stored in vehicles.  Sponsored by Delegate Ben Cline (R-24), HB 962 would codify an Attorney General opinion from 2012 (see here), and a decision of the Virginia Court of Appeals from last year, Doulgerakis v. Com., 737 S.E.2d 40 (Va. Ct. App. 2013). House Bill 962 has passed in the House of Delegates by a 70 to 27 vote as well as in the Senate by a 27 to 13 vote. This opinion and decision both found that a handgun in a vehicle doesn’t have to be in a locked compartment in the motor vehicle to fit within a statutory exception to the concealed carry prohibition that allows for a person without a permit to conceal a firearm within a secured compartment or “secured” container within a motor vehicle.  The McAuliffe amendment seeks to contradict the opinion and ruling by forcing drivers to keep firearms in a “locked” container rather than being allowed to secure those firearms in a container without a lock as they have lawfully been doing for years.  What began as a simple clarification bill would be turned into legislation that is worse than current law. The House of Delegates is expected to vote on this amendment tomorrow.  Please contact your Delegate and respectfully urge him or her to vote against this restrictive amendment. On a brighter note, as of July 1, hunters in the Commonwealth will finally be permitted to hunt on Sundays on private property with written landowner permission.  House Bill 1237 was signed into law yesterday and its Senate companion, Senate Bill 154, is expected soon to be enacted as well.  Please contact the sponsors of these bills, Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-15) and Senator Phil Puckett (D-38), and thank them for their leadership to expand and protect the Commonwealth's rich hunting heritage and providing greater opportunities to hunt that will strengthen recruitment and retention.

--We didn't have this problem or this much snow, until JayG moved here!!

NRA Annual Meeting 2014

Trying to get organized to go to the annual meeting. I have hotel reservations. I have made arrangements for a media pass. My final step is to find out what the concealed carry regs are in Indianapolis, Indiana.

--Roll call! Who is going!?

Facebook and Guns

The social network has been under pressure from the Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Moms Demand Action groups to ban gun-themed fan pages on the site. (no, I won't link to these asshats)

These groups have discovered the best way to limit your Second Amendment Rights is to limit your First Amendment Rights.

These groups do not want you to discuss safety, the fun of shooting, the benefits of protecting yourself, self defense stories or God forbid allow you to legally purchase a firearm.

This would also include activism. Talking about the recent gun bans and confiscation in Venezuela and Ukraine would be included.

--Liberal Fascism is alive and well.

Gun Free Zones

The Church I attend is debating becoming a Gun Free Zone.

They had a a Town Hall meeting to discuss the issue.

I made my opinions clear:

• GFZs in no way make us safer.
• GFZs may in fact advertise a soft target victim zone.
• Only the honorable, law abiding, citizens will comply.
• I will resign my membership and withdraw my pledges, if this policy is adopted.

--The measure will be decided next week.

Quotes of the Week

Whoever claims the "right" to "redistribute" the wealth produced by others is claiming the "right" to treat human beings as chattel.
--Ayn Rand

Personal liberty without economic liberty is an absolute contradiction; one cannot exist without the other.
 – William E. Simon

Without the responsibility and exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.
 – Archibald MacLeish

Drugs do not cause today's alarming crime rates, but drug prohibition does.
– U.S. District Judge James C. Paine

Thin posting

I am on business travel for the next week. Posts may be thin.

More later. I'll be back...

Drop Holster

What are you looking at?

I have been trying to figure out what the best holster would be if  was wearing my favorite backpack for camping.

My backpack has a great belt the transfers all the weight of the pack to your hips.

Regular Inside or Outside the waistband holsters just get in the way of the packs belt.

The drop holster in this photo seems like it will solve this problem neatly.

--I also have a chest holster that works, but is not that handy.

Concealed Storage

I really like hidden storage solutions.

The solutions from TacticalWalls are pretty cool for quick and handy solutions.

Fast and handy is the key when the Zombies are at the door.

The locking mechanisms use magnetic keys that do not have keyholes and it keeps them secure and hidden. I really want to see one in person before I buy one.

--Cool stuff.

Smithsonian - Happy Presidents Day

I went to the Smithsonian American History Museum yesterday.

I saw several firearms but I think this one was my favorite of the day.

It is a flintlock musket from 1767.

It is so beautiful and this photo does not do it justice. It looks like new, it's in amazing condition.

It was donated to the museum by Edwin and Adriana Bitter. There has got to be an amazing story there.

--I wonder how many guns they have in the collection? How does that work legally?

Quotes of the Week

"The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. "
- Ayn Rand

When only cops have guns, it's called a "police state". Love your country, but never trust its government.
-- Robert A. Heinlein.

"The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create...."
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, 1819.

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others."
-- Thomas Jefferson

Ammo types

I need to do a picture like this of all the rounds I have in the collection.

I don't really have any completely odd ball cals. Is .25ACP odd?

I only keep a few cals in quantity.

• .22LR
• 12 gauge
• .223
• .308
• 9mm
• .45ACP

I do admit that I have a lot of .40 as well but that is not inventoried or minimal levels maintained.

--Yeah I need that pic.