Happy Thanksgiving!.

Day 14 of the remodel, and I'm taking it off. Here's hoping you and yours have a safe and happy holiday.

Ammo Day Wal*Mart Tally.

Per Dusty_C at AR15.com

.223 = 25,850
.45 = 12,950
.40 = 7,750
9mm = 34,980
.38 = 2500
.357 = 1300 (That last 300 rounds is mine!)
7.62 = 760
.22 = 14,150
12ga= 1500
.44 = 490
.243 = 20
.410 = 75
.308 = 120
.32 = 50
unk=640
total rounds 103,135

Hopefully that made a blip in a computer printout somewhere.

Reprinted with Permission of the Author

Dr. Peter Friedman is a professor of mechanical engineering at UMass Dartmouth who lives in South Dartmouth. He wrote an op-ed that was published online at the SouthCoastToday.com web site and on Page A16 of The Standard-Times on November 17, 2005. I wrote and asked him for his permission to reprint the piece in its entirety, and got his approval. (Hat tip, Jeff at Alphecca)

Gun control is not the answer to crime

The headline on his Web site reads, "Kennedy urges House to not weaken D.C. gun safety law."

In the statement that follows, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy asserts, "The House amendment would repeal the D.C. government's long-standing ban on firearms and would be a disastrous blow to gun safety in the district. For almost three decades, D.C.'s ban on handguns and assault weapons has helped reduce the risk of deadly handgun violence."

Could Sen. Kennedy actually believe that Washington's ban on firearms has been effective? Perhaps he could prove his sincerity by giving his bodyguards and servants the night off and taking a stroll alone around a few of Washington's low-income neighborhoods one night.

Sen. Kennedy's headline avoids the real purpose of the current law. It is not "gun safety"; it is to completely disarm the public. In fact, the D.C. law makes it almost impossible for anyone to legally obtain a firearm, and makes it illegal to use a gun for self-defense by mandating that all guns be kept in inoperable condition.

The result of the D.C. gun ban is a different reality than Sen. Kennedy's world. According to FBI crime statistics, before the ban in 1976, Washington's murder rate was declining. In the 15 years that followed the ban, Washington's murder rate climbed 200 percent, while the national rate climbed only 12 percent.

Washington, D.C., is now consistently one of the most dangerous cities in the country. In 2002, it overtook Detroit and claimed the title as the murder capital of the United States. During that year, it defied national trends of decreasing murder rates to post a 13 percent increase.
What Sen. Kennedy either fails to understand or intentionally ignores is that criminals will not stop carrying guns just because it is illegal. What the gun ban would do is make the law- abiding easy targets by preventing them from having the means to defend themselves.

For most gun owners, possessing a gun is like owning an insurance policy. You hope that you never need it, but if you do, it is a nice thing to have.

But gun ownership has another and more important impact: Statistical studies have shown that increasing citizens' rights to use firearms for self-defense reduces crime because criminals fear armed victims.

Because criminals do not know who is armed, non-gun owners also benefit. It is precisely for this reason that home invasions are rare in the United States; on the other hand, they have become common in Great Britain since that country passed its near-total gun ban.
In Washington, D.C., because residents are denied their right to self-defense, the criminals know that they have the streets to themselves.

If you are in favor of the D.C. gun ban, perhaps it is because you believe that the citizens can rely on their overworked Police Department to protect them. A series of court rulings, however, held that the police have no obligation to provide protection. In Warren v. District of Columbia, three women who were held captive for 14 hours and repeatedly beaten, raped and sodomized, sued the city after it failed to respond to their emergency calls.

D.C. Superior Court ruled, "A government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen."
The net result is that the law-abiding residents of Washington are not allowed to defend themselves, and cannot rely on the police to protect, defend or rescue them, either. They are left at the mercy of Washington's rampant criminal element. Instead of being a national showplace, Washington is a national disgrace!

The total gun ban that remains in D.C. also is in stark contrast to the right to carry laws that have swept across the nation. While gun control advocates predicted that increasing the self-defense rights of gun owners would turn the United States into the OK Corral, the opposite is true.

Solid and comprehensive statistical evidence from examination of crime trends in every county in the country has proven that states that have liberalized the right to self-defense have had a reduction in crime when compared to states that have not.

Because an entourage of bodyguards and police constantly surrounds him, Sen. Kennedy might not care that ordinary citizens of Washington would like to be safe in their homes.

I disagree with the senator, and feel that everybody -- not just the rich and powerful --has the right to protection from crime. It is time to restore the right to self-defense to the oppressed people of Washington, D.C. Perhaps then they will see their worst-in-the-nation murder rate turn around.

EXCELLENT piece, Dr. Friedman.

More on the Futility of Prohibition.

Via The War on Guns comes this little news snippet:

Prison search uncovers homemade weapons

November 19, 2005, 3:04 PM EST

FORT ANN, N.Y. -- A search that was launched after a bullet was discovered in a jail's metal shop uncovered more than a dozen homemade weapons, officials said.

Linda Foglia, spokeswoman for the state Department of Correctional Services, said 13 weapons were found hidden in common areas and two weapons were found inside cells at the maximum-security Great Meadow Correctional Facility.

Wilson Chapman, chief union sector steward at the prison, said a metal pipe resembling a gun barrel was also found. The discovery raised concerns that someone was trying to assemble a device to fire the .22-caliber round found Nov. 10, he said.

The investigation of how the bullet got in the prison continued this week.

So, even in a jail, the inmates are able to build home-made firearms. I suppose since they can't keep drugs out, it should be no surprise that they can't stop gun manufacturing either.

Status Update, 11/21/05

Well, the remodel/repainting progresses. The kitchen and two bedrooms are painted, the kitchen cabinets are about 75% installed (there were some install problems) and the installers will be back today... sometime. The island won't fit as planned, but I've rearranged the components and it will work out OK. I've got to do some surgery to the cabinet the cooktop will be installed over. Oh fun.

We had a bee swarm in the front yard on Sunday. $150 worth of dead bees is not that big a pile, let me tell you.

And I am sick of having my house screwed up.

Tile and carpet installation begins Dec. 5.

Please. Shoot me now.

Another Kaboom!.

Via AR15.com I found another case of a kaboomed revolver, this time a Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum. From the story:

I once again load up the revolver and step to the line. First shot was a bullseye, as was typical for this rig. Second shot - KABOOM. I felt an unbelievable recoil and was pelted all over my face, chest and arms by fragments of metal and glass. An incredible pressure wave stunned me as if I were punched in the head. I shook it off and looked around. The scope was on the floor. The gun was still in my hand, but didn't look as it did mere seconds ago. A friend rushed over and with clear presence of mind, checked me for injuries. Whew. I emerge without so much as a scratch. Miraculous, considering what just happened. The shooting stall contained the flying shrapnel. Approved safety glasses, without a doubt, saved my vision. Long sleeves, a cap and good ear protection also prevented certain injury. I hate to say it, but dumb luck played a part as well.

The verdict? Most probably an error during reloading - a double-charge of Titegroup; 18.0 grains instead of 9.0 grains. 10.0 is listed as a max charge.

IF YOU HANDLOAD YOU MUST PAY ATTENTION AT ALL TIMES, OR THIS MIGHT HAPPEN TO YOU!

Ammo Day Update:.

At approximately 2:20PM MT (3:20 CT) I went to my nearest Wal*Mart and purchased 300 rounds of Remington 125gr .357 Magnum ammunition. They had Winchester, but it was the WinClean stuff (and only 200 rounds of it). The WinClean has a muzzle blast from my wife's 3" Model 60 that you'd have to see to believe. So I cleaned 'em out of Remington in that caliber & weight. The clerk's "All of it?" was worth it. The shelves were fairly well stocked in other calibers, however. 7.62x39, .40 S&W, .223 Remington, .380, 9mm. We needed more representation, obviously. And, though I searched, I was unable to find a DVD copy of Red Dawn - more's the pity.

Next year I shall endeavor to purchase more ammo, but the remodel has me fairly strapped at the moment. What's worse, every day this week has been beautiful; calm & clear. And I can't go to the range!

Granny Deserves Self Defense.

She certainly does. That's the title of an excellent Townhall.com Cam Edwards piece. Highly recommended.

Remodel Update: We Have Cabinets!

Delivered as promised, this morning at 08:40. Lots and lots and lots of boxes. Installation is scheduled for tomorrow. Measurement for countertops is next Wednesday. A sheet of 3/4" marine-grade plywood is in my immediate future, I can see. I'm not going without any kind of kitchen sink for another four to six weeks.

In the mean time, prep and painting on the rest of the interior continues.

Painting isn't so bad. Prepping for paint sucks.

When Animals Attack.

Just another reason I don't hunt. (Via American Drumslinger. This and other funny, sick, NSFW and WTF? stuff available there.)

I'm HONORED!

Holy excrement, Batman, one of my posts is in a list of candidates for "Greatest Blog Post Ever" over at The Politburo Diktat, and the company it's keeping is some fine stuff indeed.

I don't know how Those Without Swords Can Still Die Upon Them got nominated, but I'm gratified that it made that fine list. (Edited to add: Now I know, I read the comments. Thanks, Publicola. That's high praise indeed.) I hold no hope of winning (the selection immediately above it is Steven Den Beste's Strategic Overview for example, and he-who-shall-not-be-named's Pussification of the Western Male is above that), but it really is an honor to be nominated (batting my extended eyelashes at the judges, and smiling my Vaselined Tooth smile...)

UPDATE, 11/17: [Sally Field]You like me! You really like me![/Sally Field] (Either that, or my six hundred hits a day come from twelve readers who have no lives of their own.) The field has been narrowed to ten nominees, and Those Without Swords is currently in second place behind LGF's TANG memo by only two votes. Charles' post is more important (but mine is better written!) Anyway, I'm stunned.

AmmoDay Update:.

Standard Mischief and I have had a short email discussion over the upcoming Wal*Mart group ammo buy. Initially, he wasn't too sanguine about it, given the fact that Louisiana Wal*Marts stopped selling firearms temporarily after hurricane Katrina rolled through. I think I've convinced him that it's a good idea.

Give it a read.

Please. Make it Stop.

Day #4 of the kitchen portion of the remodel of Casa Minority. All the cabinets (save one, that I'm still using) have been removed from the kitchen. The 12"x12" pressure-sensitive adhesive tiles (26 years old like everything else in the house) are removed from the kitchen floor. Spackle has been applied at strategic places where the drywall mud had detached from the metal corner flashing. Actually, I stripped damned near all of it off and redid it. The electrician comes tomorrow to run new circuits for the wall oven, cook top, microwave range hood, and center island. The plumber comes Tuesday to replace the hot and cold water valves and put in one to feed the icemaker on the new refrigerator. The cabinets show Thurdsay. Installation is supposed to start Friday. Three to four weeks more for countertops. Tile & carpet the first full week of December.

Painting starts tomorrow. My wife and I will be doing the painting. I have two gallons of primer (for the ceilings where I had the popcorn crap removed) and eleven gallons of paint in not two, not three, but four different colors.

I don't go back to "work" until 11/28.

By then, I'm going to need a vacation.

Dept. of Our Collapsinged Schools, Division of "OMFG!"

Via South Park Pundit comes this exposé of what passes for current "liberal" graduate education. Josh thought it was funny, since he's immersed in it currently, but if you sit back and think about it, it's not funny. At all. Excerpt:

Tina: “Greg, remember what you were telling me yesterday about your grading system? Would you like to share it with our teaching list?”

Greg: “Grades are competitive and competition ruins the cooperative nurturing environment necessary for education, so I ask students what grades they think they should get, and that's what I give them.”

Tina: “Competition is so destructive to effective learning, I'm so very glad you do this, Greg!”

Then everybody jumped in, and the stupidity began.

“Don't they all want As?”

“Yes.” (Nothing else: just this).

“Do you conference with them first, and ask them in conference?”

“No, I ask them in class on the first day.”

“That's such a GREAT idea! That way, you effectively destroy the competition before it begins!”

Here, let me interpret. What that last statement means is, “You effectively destroy any motivation for the students to do anything at all before it begins—provided they have any at all, after god knows how many idiots like Greg they had for their courses.”

“I do something like this. I ask my disadvantaged [read: female and non-white] students what they should get, and give that to them, but I grade my other [read: white male] students on a traditional A-B-C model.”

Ah, I'd better explain the “traditional A-B-C model” to you. You're thinking this is what you are familiar with, but you're wrong. These education school people don’t believe in giving anything lower than a C, except for “bad content” or “lack of critical thinking” (these mean, “content is not PC party line,” by the way—we'll get to that later).

Har-de-har-har.

I had a discussion with my parents the other day. My mom, who has gone nearly moonbat Left in her old age, was complaining about how hard it was for kids to get into college these days because of the cost; a college education being damned near a necessity for getting a decent job.

I don't know why that is, really, when college no longer serves to separate the wheat from the chaff, but instead produces huge quantities of fluff like that described. A college degree in a technical field may still have some meaning, but as far as I can tell, not in anything else.

But the majority of Americans seem to believe that a college education is some kind of birthright.

An Ammo Day Update.

In my previous post I mentioned that the AR15.com crew was going to put a bit of a twist on National Ammo Day. At 3:30PM CST (or as close as practicable) on Nov. 19 a lot of us will be going into the Wal*Mart nearest us and will purchase some, most, hopefully all of the Winchester "white box" ammo (or Remington bulk-packs) in stock in whatever caliber(s) we fancy. And some of us will be making another purchase as well. In my case, if they have it, a DVD copy of Red Dawn.

As I write this we have 1404 members from 46 states and Canada who have stated their intent to participate.

Not too shoddy.

Calling a Spade a Spade. (Speaking, of Course, About the Standard Garden Implement.)

This is why I love reading Gerard Van Der Leun's American Digest.

Read Ceci N'est Pas Une Bong and try not to crack a smile. Excerpt:

"These are bongs, Stephen," I tell him. "Remarkable, over-the-top and utterly dedicated bongs. Lovingly hand-made by craftsmen; by der Elves of the Black Forest; by people who blow something other than glass from time to time. They of the caliber of craft a friend of mine once called "Ghengis Bong."

"What's a bong?" Stephen asks. This from a man who also has a teen-aged daughter.

Poetry. Pure poetry.

One More Example of the Futility of Prohibition

I have posted previously on the illicit gun manufacturing industry in Pakistan. (Check out some of their work. It's exquisite.) Dave Kopel, in a February 6, 2002 NRO piece reported that residents of the island of Bouganville, blockaded by Australia in their fight against mining interests and the governments of both Papua New Guinea and Australia, had begun making functional copies of the fairly sophisticated M-16 automatic rifle. They'd started out with crude single-shot weapons, but had learned, rapidly.

So I'm not at all surprised to find out via David Hardy that there are gunmakers in the Phillipines manufacturing handguns and submachine guns at remarkably reasonable prices. Here are the key parts of the Taipei Times piece:

Ronberto Garcia picks up a freshly-made, well-oiled automatic sub-machine gun from a formica table under a huge gazebo and screws on a long silencer.

"We sell these guns to anyone, provided they have money," Garcia says, proudly showing the weapon to a group gathered in his heavily secured concrete home.

--

"We are just plain businessmen who sell something people want," the portly 53-year-old Garcia said in his home....

--

Guns made in Danao have become so famous that Japanese Yakuzas were known in the past to fly to the central Philippines to collect them, townsfolk say. Military officials as well as local politicians also buy them for their own purposes.

"Everyone buys from us. The military officials, some foreigners too, and civilians for their protection," Garcia says, but stops short when asked if he has ever sold firearms to communist guerrillas who proliferate in the countryside.

Danao guns are bought on a cash basis, and deals are done without any papers changing hands. Word of honor is important between buyer and seller and anyone seeking to buy is screened thoroughly.

--

There are no actual figures as to how many guns are produced in Danao at any given time, but Garcia estimates up to 500 units of various gun models are smuggled out of the area every month.

Father Guido Sarducci's Five-Minute University, Economics: "Supply and-a Demand. That's it."

When guns are severely legally restricted, a black market will spring up. A lucrative black market. And the people the legal restrictions were enacted to disarm will still be armed. But the law-abiding won't be. There's that cliché again: "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." And these manufacturers don't report to the government. They sell to anyone with the necessary cash.

Gun manufacturing isn't rocket science. Pakistanis with hand tools and bench vises can build perfectly functional automatic weapons. Take a look at an M3 "Grease Gun" some time. Here's one disassembled so you can see just how simple it is.

Stamped out in the thousands by GM's Guide Lamp division for WWII, it is simplicity itself. Each unit cost the U.S. government $20.94 in 1942, according to a recent issue of American Rifleman magazine. That's the equivalent today of $262.75, for a highly reliable, .45 caliber, fully-automatic weapon, at a profit. And I could build one in my garage today.

"Reducing gun availability" in an effort to "make us safer" is a pipe-dream, and always has been.

The Importance of Risk.

This is arguably copyright infringement, and I really don't care. I'm going to email the author for his permission to post this, but it's often easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission.

I picked up this month's edition of Hot Rod magazine off the newsstand. I do that from time to time when they have something I find interesting, and I need something to read at lunch. But this month's issue has a very interesting editorial that I can't find on their web site, so I'm going to reproduce it here.

They can sue me, but as far as I'm concerned this is fair-use.

The Importance of Risk

I just re-read my Bonneville story that's printed in this issue. It's about three weeks after I wrote it, and in retrospect it seems more personal than what we usually crank out for event coverage. How could it not be? After all, I was strapped into the race car when I got word there'd been a crash on the course. The car that had barrel-rolled was that of John Beckett, a guy I'd known and worked with for five or six years. He founded the East Coast Timing Association, where I'd raced a few times, and he'd helped with my Bonneville effort in 2004. He was tight with everyone in my race camp. After the course was cleared, I was second in line to make a pass on the Salt. As ECTA timer Joe Timney sat in the push truck with my wife, he got the call that Beckett had died. Keith Turk knew as he strapped me in. I found out five minutes later, sitting on the return road.

I can't claim that John Beckett was a close friend, but he's a guy whose life meant something to me and whose death could easily have been my own. Every Bonneville racer owes him the honor of learning from his incident and improving their own car. I've done that. I've also spent a lot of time considering why I need to run 260 mph in a stupid Camaro that was never meant to go over 110. It's a tough consideration after being so clearly presented with an awful reality, and my answers ring from the passionate to belligerent. In discussing it with Turk, I mentioned that hot rodding is its entirety is non-critical. No one needs speed parts, they just want them. No one has to race. Turk corrected me, pointing out that any hobby can seem frivolous to outsiders, but that it provides a mental exercise and a definition of self that's an important part of our existence. For goal-oriented people, racing keeps us going. It may just be hot rodding, but we are just hot rodders. We really do need it. I need it. John Beckett needed it. Sorry to drudge up the cliché, but Beckett died doing what he loved, and he'd arranged his entire life to be able to race. By all accounts, his family supported that. He helped me realize that, without risk, you are not living at all. Show-car competition and street machining doesn't fill that need for me.

Then there's the belligerence - that anti-society drive that makes us unique as hot rodders and some of us even more cliquish as Bonneville racers. I had resentment when the TV cameras rolled to the crash site. I feel that the mainstream media often encourages a victimized society of cowardice with its muckraking presentation of issues, and automotive niche interests are often the targets. There seems to be a prevalent notion that government must protect us from our own choices, and that's an ideal that I reject. Here's a perfect analogy from a story I once got from Chris Alston. He was on the NHRA safety committee, and there was a proposal for a new rule that he deemed excessive. Upon hearing his objection, the answer was "if it saves one life, it's worth it." So, at the next meeting, he proposed that all national-event racing venues should be cloaked in acres of mosquito netting. Naturally, that was deemed absurd. "But," said Chris, "lots of people are deathly allergic to bees. If the netting saves one life, wouldn't it be worth it?" Clearly not. So if one guy dies racing, should the rest of us stop? Since Sonny Bono died skiing into a tree, should we stop all skiing or should we cut down all the trees? No. The passions of the many outweigh the losses of a few.

Automotive competition brings inherent risk. Most racers accept responsibility rather than shirk it. I feel the onus is on the racer to ensure safety measures beyond those required, that the rule book cannot list every possible contingency, and that you are obligated to listen to the safety inspectors. Beyond that, I always presume that, as soon as you're behind the wheel, there's an implicit agreement that you're accountable for any outcome. John Beckett is not the first guy I've known who's been lost to racing, and he won't be the last. I understand how these horrible events stop some from racing. But I've decided to choose risk over fear. I'll keep racing. I'll stick with extreme four-wheeling. I'll always drive junk with no airbags or ABS, and I'll still work in the shop while wearing sandals.

And when I'm gone, you can call me foolish but hopefully not boring. I will have lived. - David Freiburger, Hot Rod, December 2005, pg. 12.

Now, replace racing with gun ownership. How many times have we heard "If it saves just one life"? And replace this line:

The passions of the many outweigh the losses of a few.

with this one:

The rights of all outweigh the passion of the few.

Because whatever else the gun control fight is, it is the passion of a few to make this a risk-free world, and that's an ideal I reject.

And I believe too, that "the mainstream media often encourages a victimized society of cowardice with its muckraking presentation of issues," and gun owners are often its target.

Mr. Freiburger writes more broadly than I think he realized, but he did it well.

But... But, I Thought ID Wasn't ABOUT Christianity Religion?

I heard this bit of news on the way home this evening.

Televangelist Robertson warns town of God's wrath

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them on Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck.

Robertson, a former Republican presidential candidate and founder of the influential conservative Christian Broadcasting Network and Christian Coalition, has a long record of similar apocalyptic warnings and provocative statements.

Last summer, he hit the headlines by calling for the assassination of leftist Venezuelan Present Hugo Chavez, one of President George W. Bush's most vocal international critics.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club."

"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.

Again, I have to insert one of my favorite Heinlein quotes:

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.

Ramen!

A local TV News report added this:

Plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit charged that intelligent design is biblical creationism in disguise. A federal judge must now decide if the ousted school board's policy is constitutional.

Intelligent Design is biblical creationism in disguise? Y'don't say!

I Resemble That Remark!.

(Found via Ry Jones's Mindless Bit Spew)

Someone has taken it upon themselves to characature (his word) all of the personality types who post to internet boards (and I'd say, by extention, the blogosphere as well). He calls it "the netizen's guide to Flame Warriors." I perused the list of over ninety types, and have concluded I'm either the Philsopher, or the Tireless Rebutter (or a combination of both).

I'm not quite sure if I should take offense, really.