Alarming Comparisons

Saw these SOTI:


…which made me ROFL.  That’s a good reason right there where one should strive for excellence over average, and I’m proud to say that I am — although I must say that several if not most of my Readers are probably more excellenter than I am, if you get my drift.

The second thing, though, is somewhat more alarming:

I mean, WTF?  We Texans are beaten by those rednecks I mean our fine neighbors in Oklahoma and Louisiana?  Like Orwell’s Snowball, we Texans will just have to Try Harder, and although I would like to Do My Bit, I’m only one Pore Ole Man…

I would be embarrassed by the folks in Montana and Wyoming, except that only about fifty people live there in total so the sample skews the average.

And it must be said, speaking of rednecks and hillbillies, that I am mightily impressed by the good people of West Virginia.

And on a branch line in my train of thought, I wouldn’t mind one of these, in .357 Magnum:


…or, if I don’t want to be too show-offy:


…because that case-hardened receiver is just too purty for words.

Then again, the brass Henry Golden Boy is made in Murka, while the Cimarron isn’t.

And lastly:  that Citadel thing is just too fugly for words.


…I mean, I know that to sell anything these days to the Operator 5.11 crowd you have to make it all tactical ‘n stuff, but seriously?

19 comments

  1. I started assembling a flintlock pistol kit in .50 cal recently and when completed will start a full length rifle in the same caliber. I likes working on guns and am aggressively searching for a frame for a Glock 19 Gen 1, and several other “bangers” that I can strip down to basics and rebuild all new and custom. I already have under my belt over the past few years, an AR15, Rem 870, Rug 10-22, S&W M+P 9mm and .22, and have fully restored a 100 yo Win mod 12 and a Win mod 71 in .348. Can’t get enough of this stuff.

  2. I think the rate in Texas is probably reduced by all those guns that were lost in boating accidents a few years back. No idea why you folks take all your guns with you when canoeing on the Brazos River. Such a tragedy.

    I also think the rates in Kentucky and West Virginia were probably calculated not by how many households admitted to owning guns, but by how many pollsters never made it back to the office.

  3. One, Texas has a whole lot of non-Texans in it, so that probably brings our rate down some. If only those Cali transplants would go home our rate would certainly go up by several percentages.

    Two, the Henry is nice but you can get a Rossi for half the price. I’m happy with mine, shoots good and looks good. Some aftermarket support too, if one gets a hankering for special sights or large loop lever. And kinda made in America, if you count South America.

  4. Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey numbers skewed low because pollsters were not allowed to check areas deemed ” too dangerous to poll”.

    1. I’m frequently befuddled by states like Massachusetts, with its low gun ownership rates and some of the most effed-up gun laws in the country,was where the Revolutionary War went hot over… government attempts to seize civilian arms.

  5. Does anyone answer these surveys honestly?

    I’m behind enemy lines in a blue state and I’d never that question directly

    1. I already have a Winchester 92 in .30-30. I’m looking for a companion piece for my .357 revolvers.

        1. Sorry, I meant “94” Winchester.
          As to which brand, I’d rather have a nice-looking rifle (brass or color-case receiver, with an octagonal barrel) than the plainer Marlin.

          1. You wouldn’t want to see my “3-gun set” from Cimarron/Uberti:
            1873 Long Range (30″ octagon bbl);
            1873 SAA Mdl P – Old Mdl (7-1/2″);
            1873 SAA Thunderer Old Mdl (3-1/2″);
            all in .44WCF and Charcoal Blue/Color-case.

  6. Those can’t be right. It claims that Florida only has 35% of its adults owning firearms. Do the math:
    79% of the population is under the age of 18. That means 22.5 million adults are in Florida. Despite the fact that concealed weapons permits aren’t required, there are 2.5 million permit holders.

    Automatically, one in ten adults in Florida have firearms, or they wouldn’t need a permit.

  7. Those can’t be right. It claims that Florida only has 35% of its adults owning firearms. Do the math:
    79% of the population is under the age of 18. That means 22.5 million adults are in Florida. Despite the fact that concealed weapons permits aren’t required, there are 2.5 million permit holders.

    Automatically, one in ten adults in Florida have firearms, or they wouldn’t need a permit. How many more there are without permits is anyone’s guess, but the “official” number claimed by the government is 500,000. That is demonstrably false.

  8. Even my current home state of California has a 28% rating. How dare us arrogant individualists cling to our guns in the Age of Endarkenment. I hope that number has Little Benito Newsom and his commie fellow travelers seething in impotent rage. May they all have strokes and die choking on their own puke.

    That said, I am a big fan of the 357 magnum in a carbine. I own three Marlin 1894’s and a Ruger 77-357 bolt action in the caliber. Any of the above would make a good walkabout gun. Even though my hunting days are pretty much behind me, my heart still lusts after a Henry Big Boy All Weather also in the venerable 357 magnum caliber.

    Maybe I am still just a cowboy at heart or an incurable romantic but I find even the ugliest lever gun has more soul than the finest AR.

    1. There’s no such thing as an ugly lever gun, unless it’s been gussied up to look like an AR-15. Like that Citadel thing.

    2. parabarbarian: My wife and I have a couple of Marlin’s in .357. One of ’em has a full-round barrel, but the purty one has a half-octagonal barrel. I found them used from a private party in almost-new condition and it’s a darned shame they were lost in that kayak accident on the river. We don’t (wait, “didn’t) shoot them much, but will (oops, “used to”) occasionally haul them out to the range or the desert to put a few rounds through when we’re shooting .357 revolvers.

      And Mr. du Toit, while there may be only 50 of us in WY and MT, but the 25 here in WY all have a minimum of a dozen firearms each, so I have to question the accuracy of that “poll”. And you should see some the shotguns that get pulled out of cases for a sporting clays shoot…some of them probably cost more than my truck (which isn’t tough).

  9. As noted above, the numbers in Texas have likely been diluted by the influx of “furiners” from blue states. Yes, I am one. However as you well know, my arrival tipped the numbers in our favor. I did not leave Kalifornia, it left me long ago.

  10. I strongly suspect the percentages are not accurate.

    If asked about firearm ownership, no one I know would respond to a pollster, or to anyone else.

    I once had a neighbor who asked me if my firearms were listed on my home insurance.

    I explained to him, as nicely as I could, that my firearms “are” my home insurance.

    To round out the story, his firearms had recently been stolen by his dirt bag daughter’s dirt bag boyfriend.

  11. I strongly suspect the percentages are not accurate.

    If asked about firearm ownership, no one I know would respond to a pollster, or to anyone else.

    I once had a neighbor who asked me if my firearms were listed on my home insurance.

    I explained to him, as nicely as I could, that my firearms “are” my home insurance, and that no one, not anyone, has a need or a right to know whether I own any firearms.

    To round out his story, his firearms had recently been stolen by his dirt bag daughter’s dirt bag boyfriend.

    Of course, in my state, if you are a concealed carry permit holder, it is coded into your driver’s license, so at any traffic stop, law enforcement knows, as soon as they input your license, that you are most likely armed.

    I support “right to carry,” with no permit required, for the entire U.S.

    Criminals are already carrying without a permit, and decent, law-abiding people are prevented, in many states, from even defending themselves.

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