Some idiot:

Surely it’s time for climate-change deniers to have their opinions forcibly tattooed on their bodies.

Try it.

A band of 15-20 teens roaming Northwestern robbing and beating people. And why would you need a gun on campus?

Reader Scott emails:

A couple of days ago I posted a comment to your blog post about the Living Social coupon for CCW permit training. My dad, a 61-year old guy who moved to Tennessee with my Mom just a few years ago from Illinois, called me today to let me know that he passed the class with excellent scores. He got 100% on the written portion and 88 points out of 100 on the firing line. Now, it’s important to mention that the *only* formal experience he’s ever had with a sidearm was about 50 rounds that he put downrange just last weekend. I think he may have plinked around a bit while camping in N. Wisconsin with my uncle nearly 40 years ago but beyond that he’s had no exposure to guns.

So my first point: it’s ridiculously easy to get qualified to secure a CCW. One full Saturday in a classroom with a trainer well-versed in the legalities and practicalities of CC’ing was really all it took. That’s a minimal expenditure of effort as far as I’m concerned.

Now he’s debating whether to actually secure a permit. He really has little interest in CC’ing and has said that his only interest in guns would be to have a shotgun for home defense. But I got the distinct impression from him today that he’s more than chuffed with himself over his performance today and his instructor today seems to have been a genuinely engaging and informative mentor. I think it won’t take much to get him to “pull the trigger” and drop the $150 for the permit, even if he never purchases a sidearm.

Thus my second point: a partial victory is as good as a complete victory when it comes to normalizing gun ownership/rights. I’m certain some of your readers would scoff at the notion that my Dad is still just a willing victim-in-waiting, and there may be some merit in that. But here’s a guy who was, just a few short years ago, at the very opposite end of the spectrum in re: to gun rights (and don’t get me started on my Mom’s attitude toward guns, yet *she* was the one who purchased the Living Social coupon for him!), and today he’s qualified to head down the local PD and submit paperwork to carry concealed. More importantly, he sounded like a 6-year old who’d just learned to ride his bike without training wheels while I was on the phone with him this evening. Encouragement breeds acceptance breeds excitement breeds enthusiasm.

One at a time!

Mentioned I went and shot in the Glock Sport Shooting Foundation match this weekend. And let me tell you, I sucked. Chris from Glock told me I had too much going on in my head. It’s a trend I’ve noticed with me. After I do training with someone else and learn new stuff, I try to use it. And I focus more on that than on sight alignment and trigger squeeze. It was definitely mental. As the day wore on, I got worse.

For instance, on the Glock the Plates stage there were four strings. My first string I did in about 8 seconds, next two were in the nines. So, getting worse. Then, on the fourth string, I couldn’t knock over the last three plates. In 14.5 seconds I left 3 plates standing.

I need to shoot more.

Miami cops allegedly point guns and demand a camera from someone filming them. Then smash a cell phone camera. The police managed to shoot 4 bystanders. No wonder they don’t want the video out.

Much ado about nothing.

And a word on Bimbo’s in East Tennessee. Heh.

Bob as a report and video.

And hickok45 has a video report.

11 year-old McKenzie at the range:

I love this country. Some times.

A man accidentally shoots himself in the leg. Twice. Really? Twice?

So, Jihad Joe gets on the internet and tells Al Qaeda followers in the US that they can go right to the gun show and buy fully automatic weapons with no ID or background checks. It’s like they’re getting their info from the press or something. Generally, no you can’t do that. And after about one minute of research, the press and Jihad Joe would know that.

All part of a larger plan to dupe the gullible in power?

Garand

Patton’s guns

FN’s striker fired pistol

Ruger LC9 review

Went to the Glock Sport Shooting Foundation match today (more on the match later) and had two interesting experiences. Glenn was there to do a show for Instavision and I got to play cameraman. After filming a brief intro, a Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency employee came up and asked us what we were doing. We told him, mentioned that GSSF said it was OK. He told us that filming was not allowed unless you had permission from Nashville, whatever that means. He was sure to point out that, while it was Glock’s shoot, he and the state bureaucracy were in charge.

Then he asks me if my holstered gun was loaded. I affirm that it is because it’s pointless to carry a gun if it’s unloaded. He tells me there’s a sign at the front that says no carrying loaded weapons. I missed it, apparently. Silly me, thinking that at a shooting range, competing in a shooting event that it was OK to carry a gun. What was I thinking?

Otherwise, I had a good time. GSSF is a great event to shoot. More on that later.

My trend of bad experiences at that range continues.

Update: To be clear, this was not GSSF’s doing. As always, they ran a great match. They rent the facility from the state and the state enforces their silly range rules. Another rule is all shooting at their open to the public range is from the bench, which kind of stinks for handguns.

Joel Rosenberg.

Judge rules: red light cameras carry two different penalities and thus violate the Equal Protection Clause. It’s not hard to imagine lawyers are scrambling all over the nation on this one, so the police cannot ticket.

Looks like Knoxville should be sued too.

By Apple, who thinks it’s a good idea to patent allowing their cameras to be disabled by transmitters.

Kevin in comments at Tam’s about the ammo girls:

The thing I enjoyed about the “ammo waitresses” as they’ve been referred to, was watching them shoot many of the weapons. One of the physically smallest of them sat down behind the BAR and ripped off a full magazine, and then got up with a smile that wrapped around her entire head.

This!

Hell yeah.

As Billy would say: I love what’s left of this country.

By the numbers

Biscuits

At the LuckyGunner shoot, they had ammo girls. You could give the ammo girls an order for ammo and they would bring it to you*. It was a good idea in that folks could do more shooting and less ammo hauling. But does having ammo girls perpetuate the myth that gun ownership and shooting are only a guy thing? Possibly. A more tragic impact would be if this actually repelled women from the shooting sports.

Tam: had the “ammo waitresses” been wearing khakis and polo shirts, all we’d be discussing right now is what a neat idea the “menus” were.

I think so.

* Anyone who’s met me knows I can’t sit still so I fetched my own ammo it’s just how I am.

The city of Chicago must pay both Gura and the NRA for attorney fees that resulted from the McDonald case. And, seriously NRA, if you’re gonna ride the coattails of SAF and Gura, try giving some credit.

The man responsible for James Bond packing a Walther PPK

From FoxNews:

1. U.S. Defense Department shipments to Latin America, known and tracked by the U.S. State Department as “foreign military sales.”
2. Weapons ordered by the Mexican government, tracked by the State Department as “direct commercial sales.”
3. Aging, but plentiful arsenals of military weapon stores in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

And they rightly note that, despite what the press and the anti-gunners (but I repeat myself), you cannot go to a gun show and buy grenades and machine guns.

Dave Kopel notes a San Diego case before the ninth circuit challenging Cali’s odd carry laws.

Guns are banned in Nashville parks!

You know it’s serious, when gun writers buy their own gun.

Schools rethinking zero tolerance. There really isn’t much to think about. It’s stupid.

Pics, report and video from a survivor.

Les Jones has more pics.

I think the most bad ass part was when he threw his tripod.

LC9

Miniature functional firearms.

Those cheap S&Ws mentioned here.

Scoped chipmunk