Range Report

This is the first bona fide range session I've had since Andy and I went shooting this past summer. All the shooting I've done in between then has been ad hoc, and generally rushed. Today was kinda rushed, but I still clicked off over 500 rounds from the P30, did some more accuracy testing, and tested out the Safariland #27 that I got in the mail yesterday and modified last night.



As always, click on the pictures to make bigger and more beautiful, and also check to see if there's any more pics in my Photobucket account that I didn't post.

The Safariland #27 has been around for a long long time. Rumor has it that Moses used one to CCW his heater past the Pharaoh's guards, and we all know that was a long time ago. It's an inexpensive holster, which means that you can order one and it'll be at your door way before the more expensive holsters arrive. The robust J-hook is very thick and adds to the mass tucked in your waistband, and also isn't the most secure way of retaining the holster. It swivels a bit even if you tighten the allen bolt, so to remedy that I stippled the J-hook with a soldering iron behind where the bolt goes through and it didn't slip at all within the several hours I walked about the house cleaning up after the kids. The #27 doesn't help to tuck the grip in for AIWB carry so I set about adding a wedge to do just that.

My initial design failed, as the wedge I made was not that secure.



My intent was to mount it where the retention screw is, but it moved around too much. I used the plastic from an old muzzle loading stock that I had sitting around by cutting it off with a sawzall, and finishing it using a file and sand paper:





It took some time for me to figure out how to securely place a wedge on the holster without using an adhesive, and my solution was to build a bracket that went from the retention screw to the J-hook screw:



It was cut out of a piece of sheet metal that I had - I don't know the gauge, but I was able to shear it out with incredible difficulty using tin snips in order to keep from waking the rugrats. I had to bend it to match the contour of the holster, and for that I clamped it in a vice to get the initial shape along my contour lines, and put the finishing touches on it with Klein's and channel lock pliers:



I cleaned it up on the belt grinder with a 600 grit belt, and then drilled holes where the plastic gunstock wedge goes:




I truncated the first wedge I made and matched the holes for the bracket; a forster bit counter-sank the holes where the screws ran through:



The bracket was tapped and the screws were run through the wedge into it. The ends of the screws were ground off with a file, and finished on the belt grinder, making sure I kept the whole thing cool by dunking it in water to keep the plastic wedge from melting:




Here's the final product. I added a Bladetech strap instead of the J-hook to make room for the wedge, and also because I find it to be a more secure way to keep the holster on my belt:


My savvy readers will notice that the screws I used look an awful lot like green self-tapping ground screws that have had the outer edge of the head ground off. The whole thing is a little sloppy, and fugly as hell, but I did all this in between diaper changes, sippy cup refills, bathtime, bedtime, and bourbon time, so cut me some slack. Time is not a luxury I have right now, so I measure once and cut once, hoping it all works out in the end.

The holster now keeps the grip tucked into my sucked-in gut quite well:



This is all well and great, CTone, but didn't you mention a range report in here somewhere?

Sure 'nuff, I took all my gear out for a couple of hours to get some rounds on steel:



Any guesses as to where the shrubbery between those steel targets went to? My brothers and their significant others put a metric ton of 9 mil through there every month. Today was my start into some serious shooting using the P30. I started out doing some bench testing for accuracy with the 124 grain+P Speer Gold Dots and the 147 grain +P Federal HSTs. After further review, I'm going to go with the Gold Dots; they shot right to point of aim at 25 yards, and gave me a 1.865" five shot group:



I got great groups from the HSTs as well, but they were not consistent. I shot two groups with them today off sandbags: one measured 1.929" and the other 2.159". Where it was inconsistent was that the point of aim would shift by an inch; this isn't surprising if you pay careful attention to your group average, and not just the tightest one. Each of the HST groups from today and from my earlier shoot would have four rounds almost touching, and one flyer an inch out. If I shot a whole box for accuracy, I bet my group would grow to around 3" to 4".

I ran 500 rounds of 115 grain Federal POS through it for practice drawing from the #27, and I did OK. I draw from concealment, and in today's cold, windy temps, that meant drawing from under my favorite Dickies hoody, which is many years old and stretched out. Sometimes my sleeves would get trapped in between my grip and my hand, slowing my first shot. I also found out that keeping my Leatherman Wave on my belt at 9 o'clock means that it will snag the bottom of my shirt while lifting it during the draw, thus slowing me down. This is why you practice with your gear exactly like you would be wearing it so you know what works and what doesn't.

The LEM trigger is superb if you practice good trigger control, and horrific if you do it wrong. I'm a big fan of that, as it means that if I learn to not half ass any of my shots at any time, I will be rewarded with consistent hits. The P30's grip lends itself to excellent control and follow up shots. I can't say enough good about it. I haven't had a malfunction of any kind, though if I don't get a proper grip, sometimes my strong hand thumb will prevent the slide from locking back on the last round.

Soon I will be back out for some more shooting, and I'll have more pictures and stuff to post then.

Sew what?

I now have three holsters for this P30 on order, and none of them are here. Humbug.

I stopped into Ganderous Mountainous last week and found a Blackhawk #7 that fit my gun, but it fit very poorly, and was designed with an FBI cant that rides too high for AIWB. My solution was to whip out the ol' Kit, Sewing, Standard Issue and fix the lass. I had to not only set the belt clip for straight drop, but move it up a full inch as well. After that I stitched along the trigger guard and down the dust cover as well to make the gun stay in the holster:



My technique won't win any beauty contests, but it is effective. I now have a cheapy holster that works just fine for quick grocery store carry, and will last me the next few days until I get my Safariland #27 and Bladetech IWB in. I can't leave well enough alone, so I'll be modifying them as well I'm sure.

I'm feeling generous after Christmas this year, so here's some more gun p0rn:



The Spyderco Ladybug is a very well built knife; as well built as their larger blades. That one belongs to my wife, and while she was cleaning out her purse I thought I would snap a pic. Who says size matters?

To all a Merry Christmas!

Slow blogging ahead. Y'all take care!

Watched another episode of Triggers last night

I have to record the few shows I watch because of the Noggin channel, and I got around to watching the episode of Triggers which covered artillery. I was fascinated. If you want to get an idea of what the show is about, check out this link where there are lots of video clips from the show.

I read all things military (at least I used to), but one of the areas that I have always neglected is the King of Battle. This doesn't mean I don't respect it; it's just that I've never taken an interest in what the cannon-cockers do for a living. I should have. Cannons and howitzers are as cool as cool can be, and any hoplorite that's worth their salt should be drawn to the big guns.

So how about a story? STORY TIME! Yaaaaaaaay CTONE!! Grab your juice boxes and blankets and come sit next to me.. . .

I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, and my company was in the field testing a piece of equipment to see whether it sucked or not. We had just finished setting up our site at our assigned training area -- I mean, literally, we had just finished hammering in the last GP tent pin -- when we were told to tear down the sight and move to a new training area. Word was that there was a mix up, that hunters were assigned this particular area that day, and the butter-bars (junior officers) in the head-shed (command center) were worried some incompetent bow hunter would sneak within 30 yards of our parking lot sized camp and send a broadhead sailing through the heart of a lance coolie in a case of mistaken identity. Yeah, I know.

Our newly assigned training area was up against the 15' high berm of an impact area where high explosive artillery rounds are fired into. You can already see where this is heading -- because of the fear of bow hunters, which have to sneak up within spitting range of their quarry, we were relocated to the outer edge of where 100 lb steel shells filled with explosives are fired into from miles away, all in the name of safety. Such is the way of the Marine Corps, I guess.

Well, as it turns out, that impact area was very active that day, with several guns firing shells late into the night. Weird, I know. The sound of those rounds coming in and impacting is extremely unnerving, and has to be heard to understand. They seemed like they were hitting only a hundred yards away, but I'm sure they were at least one click (1,000 meters) or more from us as there was a tower with a direct view of the impacts, and they knew we were there. Danger close fire is within 600 meters, only done in dire circumstances in combat, and the range master definitely wouldn't allow that during training.

I was fast asleep in my little Eureka! tent as soon as the sun went down, as I had watch that night and wanted to get some rest. I had an awful cold, as I do right now, and my sinuses were completely clogged, and mouth breathing was giving me a sore throat. To top that off, about every ten minutes one of the guns would send a flare in to light up the area so the impacts could be seen by the tower and forward observer. I was miserable.

I don't recall exactly what time, but early that night one of the artillery rounds came in short, and struck just on the other side of the crest of the berm which was forty yards from my tent. I shot up like somebody had just stabbed me in the ass, and about 8 ounces of warm snot dumped out of my head and down my chest, compliments of the round's concussion. I didn't see the round hit, but several of my buddies who were sitting right outside of my tent sure did. The berm had done its job that night and took most of the force, leaving a bit of smoke and dirt raining down on us. Everyone was way more serious from that point on, and we all took a bit of respect for artillery home with us.

Howitzer shells are no joke, and I'll never forget that experience.

Back to the show, I learned a bunch of stuff that I didn't know, like cannon fuses were sometimes made by filling goose quills with gun powder. There was a part where Wil asks the commander of a French gun why he had to turn towards the bore counter-clockwise with the cartridge shell to load it, when it would be easier to turn clockwise. The officer tells him that during the American Civil War, sharpshooters would watch the guns closely for this exact moment, and were very successful at shooting the shell in the hands of the loader before it could be stuffed into the bore, thus detonating it and killing the gun crew. Apparently the sharpshooters were so good at this, that doctrine was changed to conceal the shell until the last possible moment before handing it to the loader, who didn't argue about why he had to turn counter-clockwise. Pretty cool.

I don't get all that excited about a TV show any more, but I thoroughly enjoy this one. It's a full hour, and I get to learn some stuff.

What goes around, comes around

I have been in a perpetual state of sickness for a month now. The problem is that one of my kids will get sick and pass it on to another after a week or so, which means that I've been holding a sick child that constantly coughs in my face for several weeks. It took awhile for my immune system to be overwhelmed, and now every time I start to recover, another one of my spawn will send the germs right back on my six.

"I can't shake him, Goose!"

I'm tired of eating cough drops and just want to be well!!

Booooooolits!

Nosler went and did me a huge favor and released a 123 grain Custom Competition match bullet in 6.5mm. Saahweeet! The CCs use a J4 jacket which is thinner than most match bullets, meaning that they expand when they hit the sweet sweet flesh of delicious animals. Also, they come in affordable packs of 250 bullets!

Looks like I'll be testing some of those puppies out in the MK12 here in the very near future.

Guns Guns Guns

No talk, all action photo thread of guns.

They say advertising helps

An appropriate cartoon at War on Guns shows how a store can quickly lose business.

When I was on the hunt for a dive watch, I got the idea to go to Jared because they carry a much larger selection of watches than the local mall. I had never been to one, and as my hand touched the door handle I spotted their "No Guns" sign, making me about-face on the balls of my feet and get back into my car.

The logic of such signs may make sense to some people at first glance, with the desire to not have armed maniacs visiting places that sell expensive jewelry, but they have never considered that said maniacs don't care about the signs during the course of armed robbery, if they are even literate enough to read them to begin with. Like it makes sense to prevent a scumbag from using a firearm to violently steal from a store by posting a sign telling them not to.

But why would someone neeeeeeeed to carry a gun to shop for jewelry? CTone, it just seems so silly! Well, consider that a shopper going into a jewelry store, where merchandise has heavier price tags than say, the dollar store, is very likely to have large amounts of currency on their person; and people leaving the store are likely to have small and highly valuable property in their possession. If you try to think like a criminal, if you were looking for the maximum payout for the holiday season, would you be looking to select a victim from Jiffy Lube, or Jared? Making sense now, huh?

Same thing with banks. Only a criminal would carry a gun to a bank, I've heard it said. Well, that's thinking like a criminal too, as people that harbor that mindset don't see a gun as a defensive weapon for preservation of life, but as an offensive tool to hurt somebody. Shame on you. Sit in a bank parking lot for a couple of minutes and watch who goes in and out. There is a high likelihood that those individuals are flush with cash. A Piggly Wiggly, not so much.

TAC TV

I finished up the two part series last night where Larry Vickers torture tests two Glock pistols: a 3rd gen Glock 17 and a 4th gen Glock 17. While there are countless stories and posts of people torturing Glocks and AR15s, Larry Vickers' tests are epic and educational. There was no disappointment in both the Glock 17 tests, or the Daniel Defense carbine tests; the rifle from the latter test I personally saw at this year's Modern Day Marine Convention, and it looked like hell. I took a cellphone pic, but it turned out to be blurry.

***Spoiler alert: if you want to watch the video and find out for yourself what the outcome was of the Glock 17 tests, take a hike.

There were some of the usual tests, like freezing the pistols in water, burying them in dirt, tossing them in muddy water, and running them over with a truck. All in all, they never failed to fire. In part 1, Larry had the truck run over both of the loaded magazines on concrete. That was telling; the magazines bulged a bit, with the 4th gen magazine baseplate looking mangled. They still fired great, and I note that each pistol used the same magazine for all the tests. Another interesting part is when Larry shot the pistols with #8 shot from a shotgun at 15 yards. It stippled the polymer grips, but didn't break them. Both guns were thrown (loaded, for every test) from a helicopter at 500 feet, and as can be expected, both guns ran fine when they were recovered, and right before that test they were both thrown from a moving vehicle onto gravel. Besides being scratched up, the guns were fine.

The test that separated the men from the boys, so to speak, is when Larry detonated 30 lbs of tannerite about three feet away from a mannequin with both pistols holstered. The decision was made to have them in kydex holsters because this is how cops and the military transport their sidearms. A coffee cup sized jar of tannerite makes a decent sized explosion, and the Glock employees who were present for this test were obviously not prepared for the size bang that they got; it was enough to turn a car into a john boat, if it had been done that way. It took the crew awhile to find both guns -- the 3rd gen fired just fine; the 4th gen's slide had come partially off, which took a minute to get back on, and the trigger was blown away. Larry cycled the slide a few times, loaded one round, and fired the gun using a multi-tool in lieu of the trigger. Very impressive.

It's possible that other firearms can take this sort of abuse and still function, but it's telling to actually see it, which is good advertisement for Glock. When the conversation of guns turns to "torture test", usually the image of Glock comes up, since Glock owners gleefully beat them up just to find out what it takes to make them stop ticking. I've found this thought process applies to Cold Steel knives as well; there are plenty of hard core knives out there that will take punishment, but Cold Steel does a comprehensive test on all their knives every other year. Say what you want to about it, but Glock and Cold Steel definitely put their money where their mouth is, and I continue to support them.

That's not the half of it

I'm amazed that there's such a response to the Fed Ex guy throwing a computer box over a fence. If that bothers anybody, their minds would be blown if they ever witnessed what goes on in the distribution centers.

Many moons ago I worked in a UPS distro center as a box kicker, and man, did I see some shit. The process of unpacking and packing boxes into trucks is nowhere near gentle, even if you are careful. You're talking thousands of packages an hour have to be shoved violently out of a truck onto rollers and conveyors, and then shoved violently back into another truck. This is done as fast as the human body will allow, and UPS doesn't issue you kid-gloves, nor do they issue common sense. I've seen heavy steel farm equipment loaded right on top of stacks of Gateway computers, boxes marked 'fragile' on every corner get stuck at the junction between conveyors and sheared clean in half, and boxes fall off conveyors into the dark abyss below, never to be seen again. It happens.

Now, some of the stuff that people see fit to send through the mail is nothing short of unbelievable. I never had live bees come through my center, like the USPS, but I do recall a live goldfish sent in a clear glass tank with plastic wrap rubber-banded around the top and a shipping sticker stuck to the side. That had to be some sort of sick test to see if it would get broke. We had a giant box of pink rubber dildos break open on a conveyor one morning; there had to have been 500 or more of them tumbling and fumbling all over the place, getting hung up on the belts, and nobody had any interest in grabbing ahold of them to put them back in, if you know what I mean. You never can tell what's in the faceless brown boxes until they bust open, spilling a thousand New Kids on the Block CDs or leopard print negligees all over the place. The worst was lip balm; break open a box of that and you would have a huge mess. By far the most destroyed item was Sylvania fluorescent light bulb tubes; those you could identify by their box, and, no lie, they were on every single truck. I would just shake my head at the stupidity of sending those through the mail - eight out of every ten boxes would be completely crushed, with white powdered glass leaking from the corners. I didn't know where the origin of the stupidity was -- from somebody who thought it was safe to mail them, or UPS continuing to accept them knowing they would have to compensate whomever for all the destroyed boxes.

If you think your mailman is rough with your stuff, you can't imagine what goes on where you can't see. Fed Ex box-kickers probably put luggage handlers to shame when it comes to putting their hands on your property, so I wouldn't get all worked up over the delivery guy. Believe me, you don't really want to know what Brown does for you.

One shot, one kill

My brother emailed this video to me of a convenience store owner in Turkey who shoots a knife wielding attacker. This video is somewhat graphic, as the attacker slashes a man's throat and repeatedly slashes at two other men. ***Warning: NSFW -- Graphic***



The store owner takes his sweet time getting his pistol into play, but when he does he makes a fatal (I think) single shot on a moving target after being stabbed and hacked. Pretty impressive. I think that keeping your sidearm in condition one on your person at all times is the way to go.

Just when you thought your day was difficult

At any given moment, some lunatic in a space suit could be calmly eating clam chowder through a straw in his helmet, not all that concerned that he couldn't possibly eject should his unarmed and unarmored glider take a missile shot fired in anger from a point over 70,000 feet below him. That such folks exist in the first place is even more amazing.

A snake has its rattle, a bee has its stripes. . . .

And some store owners "get it," as this sign captured in a photo by Ragin' Dave at Peace or Freedom shows. Giving notice is the godly thing to do.

Reinventing the steel

Good album; and also a way to make something old new again. I didn't realize that steel cases could be reloaded, but Mike at Mike's Spot talks you through all the important stuff that you need to know to load steel.

Of course, my imagination is asking the question of whether steel cases will allow more powder than brass cases, and also whether steel will handle higher pressures. I sometimes like to push the envelope during load development, and if I can jam another grain or two of powder in the case or load up another 3k psi above SAAMI specs, then I'm all about it.

Know your snipers

A list of the top ten snipers in history.

Found at Ace of Spades.

Dies ist meine pistole

My HK P30 has finally arived. Unfortunately, the Bladetech holster that I ordered has not, as in-stock items doesn't apply to relatively new H und K products. Because of that, I couldn't do any draws, so I stuck with testing out some defensive ammo to see what it likes.



A few months ago I ordered 1k rounds of 115 grain Federal ammo from Ammoforsale.com. The price couldn't be beat. I also ordered some 147 grain Federal HST +P, 147 grain Winchester Ranger-T, 124 grain Speer Gold Dot +P, and 124 grain Remington Golden Saber +P Bonded from wherever I could get it in 50 round boxes. I ran these loads through my chronograph, but I'll have to update this post with both the exact velocity information and group measurements as I don't have it at my fingertips at the moment. I shot two 5-shot groups for accuracy at 25 yards, which let me get the aftermarket Meprolight Tru-Dot sights dialed in.

The P30 didn't like the Ranger-Ts all that much; velocity was around 980 fps and the accuracy was consistently at just over 3". That's about what it gives the Glock 17, so I wasn't surprised. The Golden Sabers were stringing vertically, with by groups running over 3", but only because of flyers. The best four for both GS groups ran around 2.5", and I blame my shooting on the fact that I forgot to bring my folding table to shoot off of, and had to resort to using the back of my smiley face chair as support while crouching. Not the greatest setup for accuracy. Velocity for the GSs was near 1,150 fps. The Gold Dots had a couple of flyers too, but I think they can be counted on to shoot ten rounds into 2" or less, and velocity was about 1,178 fps if I recall. These rounds shot exactly to point of aim, while everything else shot a bit high. I'm a big fan of the Gold Dots, and they may become my carry load if I have any issues from the HSTs:



As you can see from the shot holes marked with a sharpie line, the first group was a scootch under 2" for the best four if you discount that one flyer, but the second group measured 1.3" center to center. Velocity averaged 1,047 fps. This load also felt pretty mild, with the 124 grain +Ps giving a noticable amount of snap. For fun, I shot a Gold Dot and an HST through four layers of denim and into water jugs to see if they would expand:



I only had six water jugs, and the Gold Dot penetrated into the 5th jug, destroying the first one. So I did what any good ol' Virginia boy would do in such a situation and duct taped the shot holes. Get a good look at my jugs:



Yes, I'm ghetto, but it worked well enough. The HST went clean through three jugs and stopped up against a fourth:





The Gold Dot went further because it didn't open up as much.





I don't have the exact measurements at hand at the moment, but the Gold Dot was in the mid .5"s and the HST was in the upper .6"s in average diameter. At the widest point the HST measured .712", which is pretty amazing for a 9mm bullet. I tried to put enough tape on the remaining water jugs to test a 90 grain Gold Dot from the Kel-Tec P3AT, but the last jug lost enough water that the round went through and was unrecovered. It did make it through the denim and two full jugs, and the exit hole on the last jug looked like the bullet had expanded quite a bit. Velocity was 989 for an average of five shots if I recall.

To finish off the short range trip I clicked off two boxes of the 115 grain Federals. I did get velocity data off of those as well, and I'll post them later. Since I didn't have a holster, I kept the gun low and would do some push-outs to see how the transition from Glock to HK trigger would go. The P30s LEM V2" 5.5ish trigger pull is much longer than the Glock, and the reset is basically all the way forward. There's a bunch of light takeup before it tightens up, and another 1/16th of an inch breaks the shot. It's not bad, and I can definitely get used to it, but I did find myself short stroking the trigger a few times, and I would often pull shots low. I found that when I pressed the gun forward onto the target, it worked best if I took all the slack out of the trigger before coming to full extention, and then breaking the shot right as the sights were lined up.

I'm a big fan of the interchangable grip panels on the P30. It surprised me on which ones I ended up using; I have the small backstrap on, with a large left panel and medium right panel. If I close my eyes and press the unloaded pistol out in front of me, when I open them the sights are perfectly level every time. I did this over and over with the small and medium backstrap until I was certain the small one was the way to go, and I practiced working the trigger in my basement at the Huron target Mike W. and Nancy gave me (no offense to Hurons). There's 8" of reinforced concrete behind it, so that's what I snap in on in the abundant free time that I have:




The differences in size between the P30 and the Glock 17 are mainly in the slide length, with the grip being slightly shorter and less of an angle with the P30:




The P30 is basically right in between the Glock 17 and Glock 19 in grip length (closer to the G19), and the slide is a touch shorter than the Glock 19. Perfect carry size. Once I get the Bladetech in, I'll modify it into an atrocity like my Glock 17 holster and carry it until my Custom Carry Concepts Shaggy holster comes in sometime in the distant future. As promised, here's the abominable G17 holster:



It's ugly as sin but it works great. Don't judge!

I'll have more range reports to follow in the near future, hopefully. I'll have some time off after Christmas, and I plan on shooting as much as possible. I still want to sandbag this gun from a bench to see if I can shrink those groups a bit, but it looks like the HST is going to be my carry load. I also plan on testing out the V4 springs that I have for it to see if I like a heavier trigger pull.

New show on the Military Channel worth watching: Triggers

Finally, a show that has very little to do with Hitler, Nazis, or ten-minute abs: Checkout Triggers: Weapons that Changed the World.

There's a good bit of chest-beating 'yo-'bro stuff in there, and I did find it to have some cliche stuff like "knockdown power" and the like, but there's a ton of shooting stuff on full auto in slow motion, so it's like totally worth it brah. You may not be smarter at the end, but I gaurantee you will be entertained.

Ride the lightning

An amazing story about a Marine pilot forced to eject over something more frightening than enemy lines.

Found at Ace of Spades.

Never again

In the 28 hours that it took for my name to be approved for a new firearm transfer, I came to the conclusion that I will not go through that process ever again. Though I did willingly consent beforehand, and He who derives a benefit from a thing, ought to feel the disadvantages attending it, I've had my fill, and will stick with private sales from here on out. A man should never feel so convicted in his heart that he questions whether he is a criminal or not, or questions who he is. It is unconscionable.

To be clear, I do not blame those within the Virginia State Police or FBI who administrate background checks, as they are not the ones who placed the repulsive concept of pre-criminalization on us; that blame lies with the greater American public first and foremost for not only agreeing to this insanity up front, and perpetually consenting to it, but for also continuing to demand it, under the naive belief that scumbags would be eradicated if we could only ensnare them with a piece of paper. I'm ashamed of myself that I ever fell under that criteria.

Last night I was doing mental backflips trying to find out what it was that would make a state and federal government hesitate to approve of a transfer. Though nobody could tell, as I have a knack for taking physical, mental, and emotional punishment with a calm demeanor, I was questioning myself over and over until I was actually thinking "what did I do wrong?" It was there where I realised I had left the Line of Departure into a hostile place that I had no business being.

I recall a time when I was in sunny Ramadi, talking to my beautiful wife on a private, Iridium satellite phone, when she told me she was delayed for a transfer for a handgun. To say she was upset is an understatement, and no doubt she was feeling exactly like I was last night: convicted. Though she had harmed no one, she combed through her past out loud to me, searching for a crime she didn't commit. I tried to convince her that everything was OK, and it did turn out to be -- that moment was my first warning notice of how harmful a background check could be, and I missed it. A dear friend of mine, who was instrumental in keeping me grounded last night, was also delayed on a gun purchase some time ago, and he also felt the same convicting thoughts -- that was the second notice that I again missed. Last night was final notice.

Whether you've ever bought a gun or not, or have any intention to, feeling convicted of something you didn't do is something everyone has probably experienced at one time. It's similar to the feeling of being falsely accused of something; not a - "you're a poopie-head" accusation, but a serious one, like - "you stole from me, didn't you?!?" The latter has the tendency to cut very deep. Having to explain yourself and why you're not in the wrong used to be a viscerally unnatural act. There was a time where it used to be a man would recoil at such a thing, as it was against all human nature to stand quietly in the face of an accusation -- "Are you calling me a liar?" Perhaps it's "reality shows" and bad TV that has put us into the mindset of constantly defending who we are, that I'm-right-and-you're-wrong, and getting comfortable with conflict and confrontation in situations we do not belong in. I don't know about y'all, but I am done putting myself in the middle of situations like that.

So now I'm here, having passed through the eye of the needle, and before too long somebody will come across this post and scoff "Big deal. Get over it. It's for the greater good. Getting criminals off the street is worth making millions of good people go through a background check." My retort is to try it sometime. If you get approved in two minutes, close enough to "instant" I guess, then you most likely won't get the full effect and have an understanding. Consider though that very few transfer denials are even prosecuted (also note in there that ATF agents didn't feel that most of the prohibited persons were dangerous enough to timely retrieve a sold gun). If you still feel that catching a handful of people that probably aren't dangerous is worth criminalizing tens of millions of Americans every year, then you can have the system. Hook, line, and sinker. As for me, I'm out.

Beauty is in the eyYOW! MY EYE!!

While it is very intricately made, and pretty neat considering the machining involved, the price of $800 made me snort and laugh at the same time. "Art" is the best word for it; I don't see any utility whatsoever here:



Oh Microtech. How far you've fallen. . .