Category Archives: Linky Love

But I was told that AR-15s would blow deer completely apart

Is an AR-15 good for hunting? Between the people saying that the wussy .223 Remington cartridge is only good for shooting poodles and those saying that “assault weapons” would blow the deer completely apart, I don’t know what to think. Fortunately The Backwoods Engineer is on the case.

Ol’ Backwoods hears all kinda tales about what does and does not work in hunting cartridges. Some folks say a 16″ AR firing .223 is inadequate for deer, while others say with the right bullets and loads, it can be done. Of course, the mainstream media is all over the place, from claiming “an AR-15 cannot be used to hunt deer” to ‘deer would explode from being hit with the high-caliber bullet of a Bushmaster assault rifle’. Yeah, buddy.

I’ve met Backwoods Engineer. He came to the Appleseed shoot I went to wearing the Gunwalker T-Shirt I sold him. In my mind, you can’t get any cooler than that.

 I might have to work a trade or something with him. I’ll have to see if I can get in on the “roll your own AR hunting ammo” thing. I know how to reload already, and I’ll bet I can find a few people who’d be willing to let me shoot a hog or six.

WOTC for HAVA

Last year Linoge of Walls of the City ran a fundraiser for Soldiers Angels, raising about $2,300. This year he’s raising money for HAVA, Honored American Veterans Afield.  Rather than be a bunch of jerks about gun owners like the Wounded Warrior Project, HAVA takes disabled American veterans out hunting and shooting.

I know that no one NEEDS to win a prize for donating to a worthy cause, but there are some pretty cool donated prizes up for grabs. $5 gets you a ticket to the drawing. Linoge has posted all the details HERE. Throw them a couple of bucks. You’ll be doing our disabled vets a good service and who knows, you might get a free ticket to Boomershoot.

 

 

How to effectively harass and annoy your representatives

Yesterday at the Second Amendment Freedom Rally, I ended up conducting an impromptu class on how to lobby your representatives. George at Newbie Shooter wrote it all down and wants to share it with you.

Let’s talk about how the sausage is made.

We have a Federal system in the US. We have a tendency to focus on the national government, and the antics of the clowns in Washington DC. I’m not sure why, but I think it has to do with the fact that it’s easier for the networks to cover one National capital than to try to find out what’s happening at 50 state ones. But look at who actually makes the laws you have to live with.

Imagine that you went out right now and shot your neighbor. Who would arrest you? Which court would you end up in for your trial? And most importantly, which set of laws would you be tried under, State or Federal?

That’s why I’ve been telling people for years that the real action in gun rights is at the State level. The laws that determine what you can carry, where you can carry it, and what laws you have to follow before hauling it out and shooting someone are all made at the State level. If you can get what you want out of the State, you can basically ignore all but the worst federal attempts at gun law changes.

Your representative is a local resident. With 120 seats in the NC House, each one represents about 77,500 people. This sounds like a lot until you realize that the Representatives at the National level have districts nearly 10 times as large. This means that you have a much better chance of influencing your State representative.

The final thing to consider is that State representative jobs are often stepping-stones to higher political office. These guys want to move up. They don’t want to piss you off, which could end up messing up their future chances.

So get to your State capital (or at least the local office) and start telling your representative what you want them to do. Get their email address and their office phone number. Make sure that when they think of your issue they think of you first.

And what do you say once you get face to face with your representative? Click over to George’s post and he’ll tell you.

Preach it, sister!

Rachel Lucas goes after one of America’s cherished myths. So many Americans thing that the Brits are somehow smarter because of their accents.

I think it was Adam Carolla the other day that I heard lamenting that Americans are impressed by a British accent because we stupidly think it sounds smart. I admit, I shared that utterly baseless bias before four years ago but it was annihilated after about three days of living in England.

Trust me, folks. The British have just as many inbred dipshits with goat-like IQ as America has. I heard just as much moronic, ill-reasoned, poorly-enunciated and blatantly fuckin’ dumbassed nonsense in “posh” Surrey and around London as I ever did during my hickbilly childhood in hickbilly Missouri.

She goes on to point out how incredibly stupid Piers Morgan is, despite the number of people who think he’s just so smart because he sounds like something straight out of My Fair Lady.

I posted this to my Facebook page and got a response from my brother.

Huh. You couldn’t figure out that out by listening to our relatives?

I hadn’t really thought about it, mostly because I rarely think about my mother’s family. He’s right. I’ve heard some really stupid, thoughtless, ill-considered crap delivered with a “posh” accent during my childhood. Maybe that’s why I am immune to the whole “British accents sound smart” garbage. I don’t care how you pronounce it. Being a snob doesn’t make you intelligent.

 

How murderous is the USA anyway? or Piers Morgan really is racist!

Miguel points out that the USA is listed 108th in intentional homicide rate. He points out that for Piers Morgan to say

“And you have by far the worst rate of gun murder and gun crime of any of the civilized countries in this world.”

It’s both disingenuous AND racist. Let’s look at the Wiki page “List of Countries by Intentional Homicide Rate.” Taking that data, organizing it and turning it into a bar graph we get this.

Murder Rate Overall

See that little red circle? That’s “murderous” USA compared to everyone else. We barely beat out Turkmenistan for 108th place.

That graph is hard to see, so here’s all the graphs.

Countries with homicide rates 20 or above per 100K

 Murder Rate above 20

Countries with homicide rates 10 to <20 per 100K

Murder Rate 10 to 20

Countries with homicide rates 5 to <10 per 100K

Murder Rate 5 to 10

Countries with homicide rates 2 to <5 per 100K

Murder Rate 2 to 5

Countries with homicide rates 1 to <2 per 100K

Murder Rate 1 to 2

Countries with homicide rates <1 per 100K

Murder Rate 0 to 1

I’ve helpfully colored in the USA at 4.2 murders per 100K. You should also bear in mind that our rate of 4.2 is not just murder, but murder and non-negligent homicide. It’s an entirely different discussion when we start comparing how different countries report their data. (TL/DR version: Japan lies as a matter of police procedure)

Piers Morgan is being disingenuous when he points solely to “gun murder” and “gun crime.” We as Americans don’t care if a murder is committed with a gun or a knife, or with “personal weapons.” Dead is dead. I’ll be happy to accept 4.2 per 100K rather than worse in 107 other countries.

Piers Morgan is also a racist when he says that any country with worse murder rates is not civilized. Like Miguel says, perhaps Piers longs for the days of British Imperialism, where Englishmen went abroad to force other “uncivilized” nations to be more like (Formerly Great) Britain.

Let’s take Piers Morgan EXACTLY at his word. He only wants to talk about GUN murder. Here’s a graph of the Wiki data from “List of Countries by Firearm Death Rates.” I’ve organized it by firearm homicide rate, highest to lowest.

Murder Rate Guns

For those of you who can’t read tiny print, let me make a list of all the “Uncivilized” countries that Piers Morgan dismisses.

  1. El Salvador
  2.  Jamaica
  3.  Honduras
  4.  Guatemala
  5.  Swaziland
  6.  Colombia
  7.  Brazil
  8.  Panama
  9.  Mexico
  10.  Philippines
  11.  Paraguay
  12.  Nicaragua
  13.  Zimbabwe
  14.  Costa Rica
  15.  Uruguay
  16.  Argentina
  17.  Barbados
  18.  United States

Hell, some of those places are so civilized that rich white folks go there on vacation.

Near as I can tell, the majority of these countries they are modern representative democracies.There are a few hell holes on the list, but taken as a whole, the only difference between most of these countries and the USA is the fact that the USA is majority white. So when he says we have the worst “Gun Murder” and worst “Gun Crime” rates of any “Civilized” nation, what he’s really saying is that we’re the worst in that category for “white” nations. He sees civilization strictly in terms of race. If that’s not racist, I don’t know what is.

I dare Piers Morgan to go to each of these countries embassies and tell them that he thinks that they are “uncivilized.” If he’d film it, his network would be able to make Super Bowl level advertising rates on his program. Everyone would tune in to watch an annoying racist prick get his ass kicked.

Buy your leather sap before Raymond sells them all!

I’ve shown you my sap already.

Mine’s the one on the bottom. It was handmade by Raymond, here in Raleigh.

Now’s the time to get your very own sap. Raymond is clearing out his inventory at rock bottom prices. He has some very fine saps, nothing over $50! And that includes shipping. So hop on over there and grab yours before he sells them all. Tell him Sean sent you.

There is no law against carrying a sap in North Carolina. I carry mine into restaurants that serve alcohol because NC prohibits me from carrying my gun. The State bans me from carrying one tool, so I carry another. Remember that YOU are the weapon. The gun is just a tool.

FTC disclaimer: Raymond did not pay me for this link or endorsement. I paid good hard cash for my sap. If you don’t agree that my endorsement is based upon the quality and usefulness of my Raymond Sap, feel free to come over and I will demonstrate how well it works.

Someone made a video for me!

Watch the video.

Barron Barnett made this video based upon my comments when the kerfuffle started.

My new sap has arrived!

I posted a while ago about leather saps as defensive tools and Raymond’s handmade leather saps. In that post I said that Raymond was working on a version of the four-ply Junior sap, but with lead shot instead of a solid head. He came through for me.

The photo above is of a Boston Leathers “Junior” sap, as well as a clone that I worked up for Sean. It was tricky, as it took more layers and hardware than I usually use, but the end result came out pretty solid. If I can streamline the process, I’ll be doing more of this style in the future, but in the meantime, I’m focusing on the basic 8″ design that I get the most requests for

It looks cool

The sap on the left is a genuine Boston Leather Four-Ply Junior. The one on the right is my lead shot version. It doesn’t have the spring shank or the cast lead head, so I think it will be a bit less brutal, but still effective. I also like the fact it was handmade just for me.

Raymond has plenty of styles, so check him out. And remember, even if you can’t own a sap in your state, Raymond can make you a leather and lead shot fish billy. Or a tire pressure checker. Or even a book weight. You can contact him directly at

r.desmarais – at – netzero – dot – net

Tam asks, I answer

Reflecting upon the silly stories written about the unfortunate adoptive father who shot a burglar who attacked him with a knife only to find out that the attacker was his adopted 16 year old son, Tam asks

I would like to see a Venn diagram of the following sets of people:

1.Those who say that rape and other crimes of violence aren’t usually perpetrated by masked strangers in bushes, but rather by acquaintances or even family members, and…

2.Those who say you shouldn’t own a firearm because statistics show that it is more likely to be used on a family member or acquaintance than on a masked stranger in the bushes.

 Well, here’s your answer

 Rapists should be shot. Who they know and who they are related to is completely irrelevant.

A funnier answer here.

Elliot Fineman and the Professional Anti-Gun Leadership

This started out as a comment but morphed into a post. Thirdpower points out Elliot Fineman of National Gun Victims Action Council (NCVAC)’s apparent descent into lunacy. I don’t think he “descended” at all. I think he started out there and hasn’t stopped digging.

I think that Elliot is the reason NGVAC started and he’s the reason that NGVAC has suddenly stopped being newsworthy. Fineman thought he was the Honey Badger, but in reality he was the crazy aunt in the anti-gun attic. No one on his side had the balls to go out on the offensive against the “gun lobby.” He alone made the gutsy call to lead the 300 anti-Spartans through the Hot Gates and on to the open beach below. The reason that he alone had the balls to do that is because everyone else has enough sense to see that he and his 300 would get their asses kicked from here to Timbuktu.

The genius of the anti-gun lobby has been to occupy the key terrain of the Media and the Beltway. For 40 plus years they tried to turn this into a national level fight. They got GCA68 and then the AWB by fighting in Congress instead of trying to work on 50 State capitals. They got their media allies to act as a megaphone to make them look like a national organization when they were actually just a couple of lobbyists in DC. You see, they recognized that they were small and professional so if they could avoid fighting in all 50 legislatures they would have a chance. If they got outside of that very small location, they would be massively outnumbered.

Some time in the last 4 years the anti-gun lobby realized that they were permanently screwed. The AWB was an overreach, making gun control basically a death sentence to Dems in moderate districts. The anti-gun lobby then got the worst news ever. The 2010 elections not only wiped out the US House of Representatives, it absolutely CRUSHED the Dems in State legislatures all over the USA. And it happened in the election right before redistricting. This meant a more or less permanent Republican majority in most state legislatures. The anti-gunners wanted the fight to be Federal, where they could look relatively equal, but the vast majority of the laws that affect guns and self-defense are State level laws. You don’t go to Federal prison if your State doesn’t have Castle Doctrine.

Correctly reading the writing on the wall, the anti-gun groups have decided that they have lost. But that’s no reason not to make some money. Brady staked out the squishy center-left. They try to look mainstream, and they’ve hired a fundraiser whose brother was shot by a likely terrorist to be their President and a photogenic gunshot survivor to being their mouthpiece. CSGV has staked out the loony Left. They’re acting like total kooks online in order to attract donations. Hey, it’s a living. What’s a little dignity when you’re faced with a mortgage payment in this economy? Fineman must have gotten angry with the “establishment” anti-gun groups. I think they told him, “cool your jets, Pops. You’re here to be a sad looking figurehead. You’re here to be our human shield. Leave the actual decision making to us professionals, and we say that we should just try to make a little cash.”

Big Daddy Elliot, who made fat cash in “Strategic Marketing,” doesn’t need to hear that crap from nobody. He grabbed some other true believers and sold them some beachfront property in Arizona. He told them that if they just got one big win against squishy Starbucks, they’d scare every other business into putting up “No Guns Allowed!!!111Eleventy!” signs rather than face the wrath of Elliot NGVAC. The true believers leapt to their feet and followed Pied Piper Elliot right straight into the river where their dreams of a gun free latte promptly drowned.

Meanwhile the anti-gun establishment sat back and laughed at them. The “professional” anti-gunners knew that gun control was a lost cause. It was sad that Elliot had to go out and prove it, but that wouldn’t stop them from conning some other anti-gunners out of some pocket change. In a country of over 300 million there are enough stupid people to keep PETA afloat so there’s certainly enough to pay Ladd Everitt’s salary. Whatever else happens, they’ve got to protect their phony baloney jobs.

So there it is. Elliot Fineman was the only person who could have done what he did. No one else is crazy enough to have led a doomed cause straight into the brick wall of reality. The people who run the actual anti-gun groups know that their first requirement is to pay their own salaries. They can’t pay their salaries if they do stupid things like prove how toothless their organizations actually are. Now that Elliot’s insanity is revealed, the media avoids him like the plague. It’s only when the crazy person espouses Conservative ideas that they stick a camera in his face. No sense damaging their pet causes by showing what a lunatic one of their leaders is.