Month: June 2024

Fiddling Before Firing

The Gun Thing

Here’s something I’ve noticed recently during my ahem occasional visits to the range.

A guy will come in with a gun bag containing an AR-15, take the gun out and then spend a few minutes fiddling with the thing — adjusting the scope (most commonly), tightening screws and so on, all before getting down to business.  I’m not talking about loading up, although it’s beyond me why someone would arrive at the range with unloaded mags and then spend a few precious (and expensive) minutes pushing cartridges into the mag when he should be shooting.

I don’t know if I’ve ever taken more than a minute, tops, between arrival at the bay and the first shot sent on its way.

I’m also not talking about guys who have arrived specifically to zero in a scope, or test something, by the way.  I know the difference between that and a shooting session.

But one of the things I want to practice most is how long (or little time) it takes me to get going.  And if I’m practicing with my carry gun, that first round is on its way in seconds, not minutes.

A couple of weeks ago, a guy showed up with a pistol bag.  He sent his target out to 10 yards, opened the bag, took out his gun (Glock) and started shooting.  No buggering around at all.  He fired off four mags, checked his (very acceptable) grouping, put his gun away and left.  Total time taken:  about 20 minutes.  Perfect.

My sessions take a tad longer, but that’s only because I typically shoot off more than sixty rounds, and have to change mags more often.

One other thing I’ve become aware of is how often people’s guns seem to be breaking down — once again, I’m not talking about a simple failure-to-feed, but something that requires getting the screwdriver out.  (Nobody is immune to a breakdown, of course;  I documented my own experience with my S&W Mod 65 a little while ago.)  But other than that occasion, I would have to really search my memory to remember when last something like that happened to me at the range.

Nowadays?  Guys let three or four rounds go, then down goes the gun and out come the tools.

This is one of the reasons why I like my guns simple:  they have to work without any fuss or tinkering, right out of the bag or holster.  Anything less, and I lose confidence in the thing and start thinking about a replacement.

So I’m seeing people coming to the range, but very little actual shooting practice seems to be taking place.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Electoral Maps

Elections

Remember this?

(Yeah, I know:  good times, good times…)

How about this, from the recent European Parliament elections:

For those unfamiliar with the parties, the “National Rally” is the “ultra-right” political party of Marine Le Pen.

France’s electoral map very much resembles that of a typical U.S. state, where the major metro center is irredeemably Socialist and the rest mostly conservative.  Here’s Illinois, for example, also from 2016:

Going back to France for a moment:  I’d feel a great deal better if that was the map for the French national election (as opposed to the EU one), and who knows?  it may actually turn out that way, as ordinary Frogs seem to be tiring of their government’s laissez-faire  [sic] attitude towards unregulated immigration and the concomitant lawlessness and social alienation that has ensued.  (Ring any bells, Over Here?  It fucking well should.)

Let’s hope that this is a foretaste of what’s to come, in both countries.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From Kurt Schlichter:

There’s a term for when there’s at least one gun for every single citizen. That term is “a good start.”

But we own nowhere near enough guns. In fact, the bare minimum number of firearms for an individual is three: a solid handgun, a solid shotgun, and a modern combat rifle.

Hear, hear.

Noticeably missing from his (and my) list is something that shoots rimfire cartridges because, as any fule kno, a .22 (rifle or pistol) is a household appliance and not a firearm.  Ditto rimfire cartridges, which are not “bullets” but a household commodity like flour, sugar or salt.

Anyway, by Kurt’s estimation, there should be over a billion more serious guns extant in civilian hands — and that doesn’t mean ten million heavily-armed assholes (like me) who need a crane to move their guns safe(s) from one house to another.

It means, in essence, a rifle behind every blade of grass or (if I may be so bold) a Nation of Riflemen.

Preach the gospel, O my Readers.  Encourage those poor unenlightened souls into the Way Of The Gun.

And just in case anyone has doubts about what we’re really talking about here, this is as good an explanation as any.

And my shameful admission:  I still do not own a solid shotgun;  in fact, I don’t own a shotgun at all.  I need to sell or trade one of my (ahem) few rifles or handguns… trouble is, I’m down to the bare essentials in that regard.  What to do, what to do?

Groundwork

Elections, Legal Stuff

We’ve all seen how the Democrat Socialists have tried to prevent Donald Trump from even running for office, by means of lawfare, crooked politicians and district attorneys and trumped-up (Trumped-up?) bogus criminal charges, all to drain his funds and keep him in court (and even muzzled) as he pushes on in his quest to become POTUS 45/47.

As that seems to have failed, quite spectacularly, the next step would be to engage in the time-honored (for Democrats) practice of fiddling with the ballots (see:  2020 election).

I am therefore heartened to see this development:

Lara Trump is building an army of ‘100,000 poll watchers and over 500 lawyers’ to ‘deploy’ across America in November.

Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump announced Friday from behind a podium in a Detroit suburb that she and the RNC are working to raise a veritable army of “over 100,000 poll watchers and over 500 lawyers” to “deploy” at election sites across the country in November. 

These volunteers will have three missions: Watch people vote, watch people count votes, and sue anybody who gets in the way.

Lara Trump’s vision is to have people “in the room” whenever votes are being counted or cast. 

The former president’s daughter-in-law also envisions teams upon teams of (surprisingly free) volunteer lawyers that can respond to any resistance from poll officials on the ground with “quick and effective” litigation. 

Far be it for me to criticize this extremely-laudable initiative, but I hope they’re also lining up a bunch of judges who can hear and rule on such litigation.  It’s no good filing a legal protest when all the judges are “asleep” or “unavailable” to hear the protests.  (And if you think the local Democrats wouldn’t dare try to engineer such a thing, I have a NY bridge and Covid vaccination drug to sell you.)

Frankly, I’d feel better if there were half a million volunteer poll-watchers and ten thousand lawyers on hand to combat Democrat lawlessness and skulduggery, such is the deep suspicion and apprehension with which I view the democratic process, as practiced in America at present.  I’d also like a couple hundred thousand impartial cops on hand to enforce existing election law, when the scumbag Democrat fraudsters attempt to circumvent it.

But good on ya Lara, me old darling.  It’s the right thing you’re doing.  Let’s hope it works, or the fucking Socialists will just steal another one.

Mugged While Working

Crime

Go to California on business, get robbed:

A member of the Secret Service was robbed at gunpoint during President Joe Biden‘s visit to California over the weekend, according to authorities.

Police in Tustin said in a press release that officers responded to the call of a possible robbery at around 9:36 p.m. PT on Saturday in a local residential community.

Officers found a member of the Secret Service whose bag was stolen at gunpoint, Tustin police said, adding that an “officer (agent) involved shooting occurred” during the incident.

Tustin police said it was unclear whether any suspect was injured as a result of the shooting, but officers did locate some of the victim’s belongings in the area.

I would really like to know if the SecServ flunky actually shot the scrote.  Also, the report doesn’t say if it was a male or female agent;  and I would really, really like to know that little snippet.

Just, you know, for the record.