Out of town on travel and at a hotel. This means tonight will be the first full night’s sleep I’ve had in over 6 weeks.

Zzzzzz.

Lefty gun huggers are crawling out of the woodwork, and what’s even better is that lots of them are women.

Next weekend I’m hosting some hippy types in upstate New York. What typically happens on these weekends is that the men do a bunch of shooting. The women run away or watch (and cheer when the men hit the clay pigeons!) and maybe pop three or four rounds on the .22. Generally, the women won’t go near the 12-gauge or anything that looks scary.

After much discussion, we’ve decided to inaugurate a women’s-only shooting class. It will be taught by a female friend of ours who has been shooting since she was 7 and is a better shot than any of the men without professional shooting experience. It will be women only, although I’ve weasled an invite to “supervise”. I’ll actually just be listening and learning. It’s going to be a fun class.

In an effort to encourage more lefties to pick up guns, here’s a comic about peace crusaders and their love of guns.

Don’t tell some people but the army is happy with the 5.56 Nato:

The U.S. Army completed a study of current 5.56mm M855 round, in response to complaints from troops that this ammunition was in adequate in combat. Troops reported many instances where enemy fighters were hit with one or more M855 rounds and kept coming. The study confirmed that this happened, and discovered why. If the M855 bullet hits slender people at the right angle, and does not hit a bone, it goes right through. That will do some soft tissue damage, but nothing immediately incapacitating. The study examined other military and commercial 5.56mm rounds and found that none of them did the job any better. The study concluded that, if troops aimed higher, and fired two shots, they would have a better chance of dropping people right away. The report recommended more weapons training for the troops, so they will be better able to put two 5.56mm bullets where they will do enough damage to stop oncoming enemy troops.

The study did not address complaints about long range shots (over 100 meters), or the need for ammo that is better a blasting through doors and walls. The army had been considering a switch of a larger (6.8mm) round, and the Special Forces has been testing such a round in the field. But a switch is apparently off the table at the moment. The U.S. Marine Corps is doing its own study, but has not finished it yet.

Seems if you’re using two shots, you may as well use ammo that gets it right the first time. Now, you say, Uncle, I thought you dug the 5.56 Nato, being the AR nut that you are? I do in fact, if you use hollow point ammo. Ball ammo, which the military requires, tends to ice pick (which this report confirms by stating If the M855 bullet hits slender people at the right angle, and does not hit a bone, it goes right through) and is not effective unless you use big heavy ammo. Smaller rounds are effective if you use ammo that fragments or expands. It’s also why 9mm ammo is adequate in a civilian gun but the military version lacks oomph.

Via Granted.

I was once a heavy smoker. Then I became one of those drinker-smokers (who smokes when drinking) for a long time. Then, in the last couple of months, I kind of started doing it more and more again. That was mostly due to the lack of a job and more free time than in the past. The occasional smoke with a beer became one with morning coffee. Then one after lunch, etc. until I was smoking more. A lot more.

So, I’ve decided it’s time to just plain quit entirely. That means no more occasional smokes or I’m just one stressful situation from taking it up again. The issue is that, even though I can cut down, I can’t just plain stop completely, mostly because I fucking love to smoke. I basically want to quit because Junior is old enough to start figuring out what I’m doing on the back porch after dinner. And, let’s face it, it’s bad for you.

And, of course, as I type this I’m sitting on said screened in porch at 10:16 on Sunday (kids and wife in bed) enjoying a glass of Knob Creek bourbon and smoking. Said quitting should commence tomorrow.

I have a friend who quit for three months. I went by his house for poker one night and he had started again. I said Dude, you quit for months. Why’d you start again? I thought you had it beat. He said Because smoking was all I thought about. I can’t spend the rest of my life wanting something so bad I can’t stand it. That’s sort of what I fear. See, with the occasional smoking thing, I’d not worry about it because I knew when I got home, I’d pop open a frosty cold Sam Adams, sit on the screened-in porch and smoke. I would smoke eventually, just not all the time. And there are so many activities that are associated with smoking, such as morning coffee and this glass of Knob Creek. Maybe I’ll take up the occasional cigar. Or chew gum. Or, you now, crack.

I went to the doctor and asked about Zyban since others recommend it so highly for quitting smoking. My doctor (and this is why I love my doctor, who is a good ol’ country boy with an MD) said: You just need to cowboy up and quit. You can do anything for two weeks and after that, it’s gone. He’s not a fan of Zyban, I suppose. He also explained that cigarettes give you a fairly intense rush (you don’t notice it but your body does) and said a good way to quit is to level that rush. He said the patch was good for that and to avoid the gum because it mimics the rush. The patch gives a steady dose of nicotine throughout the day and, basically, you get over the habit part first and that is followed by getting over the nicotine addiction part. I think getting over the habit is more important than getting over the drug addiction part.

So, I bought the patch. One problem is I can’t get them to roll up tight enough to light. Any ideas?

It’s been six weeks since the second was born. Those of you with kids will know what this means. Those without will not. It’s also a time when women tend to be extra, err, fertile. So, and I shit you not, we have the pill, spermicide, condoms and plan on acting Catholic (you know, worshippers of Cathol?) for a while.

On travel. Blogging may be light or sporadic.

Eh, what’s the diff? You’re with us or against us, right.

David Hardy has more on our favorite anti-gun, pro-gun group:

Read somewhere they started with half a million in the bank. Pretty hard to find that, when you have no members at the outset.

Sticklers for paperwork:

A librarian is in administrative trouble for demanding that the police actually follow procedure and get (gasp!) a warrant before she released private information about a patron to the police.

On occasion when I send a letter to the editor or some such, I get a favorable response. Mostly, though, I get people either too invested or too stupid to realize their mistakes (mostly the former but enough of the latter to note). But David scored a couple of small victories with Bill Schneider Responds and Bob Confer Responds. Good job.

Kit has a suppressor mini-FAQ. I dig the evo-9. Anyone know if it will also work on fixed barreled pistols or rifles?

Ravenwood on accidental tasering:

I think this kind of mistake happens all the time. Just the other day I went to change the channel on my TV, and grabbed my gun instead of the remote. I shot the screen three times before I figured out why it wasn’t changing.

Heh.