2011 NRA Annual Meeting

The Show Floor.

I'm currently at the 2011 NRA Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.

This trip has been really great so far. The convention floor is huge. People are really nice. I have seen a ton of new things, got to handle things I have been interested in in a long while and met a lot of new friends (and old).

This trip have me posting for weeks!

Best part was I got to hug Breda's MOM!

--More later!

Irony

Friends that know me are constantly sending me pics of things I love.

This pic involves several of my favorite things: Zombies, Guns, Beautiful Woman, Music, Lingerie, Horror Movies, Sexy Shoes, UPC Lables and Irony.

The ironic part is that there are no "Revolvers".

--Remember: Don't be a chauvinist, chicks hate that...

Spring Break

It was Spring Break and time for my annual tourist wander around DC.

Today we went to the Iwo Jima memorial. I love this monument and surrounding park. In all the pictures you see of this monument you really don't get the scale of this thing. It's huge!

I love the detail in this sculpture. Even the firearms depicted are to scale and have excellent detail.

The M1 Carbines are beautifully rendered and are even part of the reason the action and movement is so well captured. Slung perfectly on the soldiers backs as they raise the flag.

 

 

The other side has a beautifully done M1 Garand. Even the K-Bar is perfect. If you are visiting DC make sure you get across the river to see the Iwo Jima Memorial. You'll be glad.


--And make sure, the next time you see a soldier in uniform, thank them for their service.

Rugers SR1911

Finally a 1911 that is configured exactly the way I want it, right out of the box, without any need for upgrades or mods after the fact:

--$799 retail and street price will be even lower! Can't wait to handle one.

Saiga Update

Tom was a natural at skeet shooting

You may remember that I was having some trouble with my new Saiga 12 gauge shotgun. It was a total Jam-Fest the last time. I figured I would do a full disassemble, clean and run a couple hundred more rounds through it before I took it to a gunsmith.

I took her out again this week. Tom is one of my oldest friends. We met in college back in the late 70's. He was visiting over spring break this year and one day I took him to the range for a couple hours of recoil and fun.

We took the Saiga and did some skeet shooting!

It performed way better this trip. I only jammed four times and always on the last shell from the magazine. Way better operation. We were hammering clay pidgins with that bad boy.

Tom was loving the attention that gun gets on the range. Manly attention!

He lives in MA. This gun is not allowed there.

--I will make a Republican out of him yet!

Just noticed this today

I got the most recent edition of American Rifleman today.

I love the mag. The print edition specifically. I read it cover to cover. I have read the digital edition on my iPad but I gotta say I still prefer the print edition. Excellent bathroom reading!

I plowed through it as usual in short order. I am always looking for good blog inspiration. As I laid it down I realized that it had several things in there that I had already blogged about:

• The Ruger Scout Rifle
• The Chiappa Rhino
• The Rossi Circuit Judge
• The NRA Annual Meeting

--Maybe they are reading us to get their ideas!

Quotes of the Day

Steve McQueen in LIFE Magazine

"The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me."

--Ayn Rand

 "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

--Thomas Jefferson 

"Armed people are free. No state can control those who have the machinery and the will to resist, no mob can take their liberty and property. And no 220-pound thug can threaten the well-being or dignity of a 110-pound woman who has two pounds of iron to even things out … People who object to weapons aren't abolishing violence, they're begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically right. Guns ended that, and a social democracy is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work."

-– L. Neil Smith 

"For an angry man can later become happy, a resentful man become pleased, but a kingdom once destroyed can never be restored nor the dead be brought back to life."

--Sun Tzu

What could go wrong?

--Those things will kill you. Cigarettes that is...

DC Blog Meet or is it Meat?

As previously mentioned we had a Gun Blogger get together last night!

JayG, T-Bolt, Newbius and wife, Nancy R and her shorter half (plus the knife makin guy), Bus Err, CRJRhines, Turk Turon, Alan Gura, Chris, Stretch, The Axe, and more who names are evading me at the moment. Some days there is not enough coffee...

We had great fun. Lots of laughs, conversation, meat, beers, bacon and excellent coffee. Most of the people there will be at the NRA Annual meeting next weekend!

--Mostly we just talked about Breda...

I met Alan Gura!

Last night I attended a Blogger get together in Bethesda MD. JayG from MArooned was in DC from the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts and he just turned 40. What more excuse do we need to get together for beers! More on the Blog Meet later.

Anyway, I was surprised to meet Alan Gura.

From Wikipedia:

"Alan Gura is an American litigator practicing in the areas of civil litigation, intellectual property, and civil rights law at Gura & Possessky, P.L.L.C. 

Alan Gura

On March 18, 2008, he represented Dick Heller in the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. 

Mr. Gura successfully argued that portions of D.C.'s Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 violate the individual right to keep and bear arms protected by the Second Amendment. Gura was lead counsel in McDonald v. Chicago, an United States Supreme Court decision released June 28, 2010 that incorporated the Second Amendment against state and local governments."

I really enjoyed talking to Alan. I have a lot of respect for this guy. Defending our Constitutional Rights isn't easy and is not the best way to make cash as a lawyer these days, and yet he steps up. Freedom isn't Free. Take some time and join The Second Amendment Foundation.

--Kind of ironic to have a Gun Blogger meet, with Alan Gura, in a place where we were not allowed to carry...

I forgot to

Lock my box.

--Guest blogger TBold, while I was taking a leak...

Remington Vantage 1200

My brother has squirrels in his attic. He's not nuts, but will be soon if he doesn't get them out soon.That or his wife will murder him in his sleep because they have driven her crazy.

Ever since their dog has gotten too old to chase the deer and squirrels away the damn things have taken over. Then one day he heard the words all husbands long to hear, "Don't you dare come home without a gun."


His plan started with a gallon of ammonia and a piece of one inch cotton rope to use as a wick. He put it in the attic to drive the squirrels out with the vapors. The he got a gun...

Here is what he got:

 Remington Vantage 1200 in .177

 

 

I have not tried it yet, but I already want one. I have a target pellet pistol. Fun stuff.  You can buy 1000 rounds of .177 for $12!

Buy Vantage 1200 on Amazon even!!

--Funny thing is he says it has more recoil than my silenced .22LR.

LASER Cannon!

Navy tests laser gun by blasting empty boat

By W.J. HENNIGAN

 

Navy LASER Cannon

LOS ANGELES-The U.S. Navy has fired a laser ray gun mounted on a warship, zapping - and setting fire to - an empty motorboat as it bobbed in the Pacific Ocean.

The test demonstration, off Southern California near San Nicolas Island, could be the beginning of a new era in Navy weaponry, officials said.

"This is very important to the Navy's future weapon systems," said Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, chief of the Office of Naval Research. "By turning energy into a weapon, we become more efficient."

The laser system, built by Northrop Grumman Corp., could someday be used against cruise missiles, enemy drones or even ballistic missiles, Carr said.

"In the distant future, I can envision a day when this technology is outfitted on cruisers and destroyers," he said.

Click here for the whole story.

--They neglected to mention Pirates. Toasty, toasty, Pirates...

Manassas Battlefield Park

It was beautiful last weekend and the wife and I took a walk in Manassas Battlefield park. It is a great park for fitness hiking so we set out, got our annual passes and took about a five mile hike.

Cannon were everywhere.

Lots of good gun content just sitting around the park. I wonder what it would take to restore these cannon to full working order after the Pending Zombie Apocalypse starts?

Millions visit the Manassas Battlefield every year. All the people traffic have turned the deer fearless. If only they knew... Who I really was... or where those, hundred or so of their, friends and family have really gone...

As we wandered around the park we came upon three deer who looked at us like they had never seen anything less interesting. Little did they know I had my Beretta Px4 Storm .40cal on me. Good thing for them I was not hungry.

Below is one of the many trail signs.

Notice the everso slight modification:

Earlier this year the ban on carrying firearms in the park was lifted. Some poor Ranger was dispatched with a pocket full of Sharpies to modify hundreds of signs. Nice job.

--I love taking America back one dumbass law at a time...

Gun Fight - An HBO "Documentary"?

I watched the "Documentary" Gun Fight on HBO last night.

I am putting the word documentary in quotes it was very imbalanced on the side of gun control.

I see this as a perfect example in the tactical shift of gun control advocates. They realize that they can no longer rely on the facts of crime stats because they prove that more guns in the hands of law abiding citizens lowers crime. They even use the 2nd Amendment victories in the courts as a cause for fear. The unstated "blood in the streets" boogieman.

They are now trying to simply associate negative emotions with guns. Fear, physical pain, and non specific dread.

--I recommend that all gunnies see this. Know the tactics of your adversary.