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Spamming Response

Bad News, Technology

I am totally unsurprised by this situation:

Robocallers and spam callers are getting quite good at masking their identify. They do this partly by “spoofing” local numbers, making it seem like a legitimate local number is calling to increase the likelihood that you’ll answer. That’s the reason, according to Hiya, that around 9 percent of spam calls a month actually get answered by phone owners even though they don’t recognize the number calling.
Nine percent might not sound like much, until you consider the fact that 26.3 billion robocalls were made to American phones in 2018.

Result:

The nearly 50 percent of phone calls that go unanswered jumps way up to 76 percent of calls left unanswered — a little more than three out of every four — when the call comes from an unidentified or unfamiliar number.

In my case, that would be 100 percent.  I never  answer a call if the caller is unidentified (i.e. isn’t among my saved contacts).  As a result, I always tell people to email their phone numbers to me first so I can add them to my contact list.  Otherwise, their calls will be met with indifference.

Sucks, but that’s what happens when people use technology indiscriminately and unprompted.

Not A Report

The Gun Thing

In the wake of last Saturday’s post about cheap carry guns, Reader Terry S. sent me this article, entitled “The Most Dangerous Handgun On The Planet?”  (talking about the Ruger SR40c).

I must be getting older and crankier [no shit] but I am getting sick of articles like this, which basically regurgitate the manufacturer’s spec sheet and throw in a little Wikipedia history on some part of the deal.  (In this case, the short history of the .40 S&W cartridge, linked back to the Miami Shootout.  Yeah, whatever — who cares? because we all know about that infamous stand-off between undergunned FBI agents and a couple of better-armed goblins.)

So what does this article tell us?  Nothing.  (Don’t even get me started on the breathless hyperbole of the headline, which is pure clickbait.) Here are a couple issues I would have addressed.

Sure, the .40 is more powerful than the 9mm Europellet.  How does that translate into a compact pistol like the SR40c?  My own experience with the .40 S&W has not been that pleasant:  the sharp snap! of the .40’s recoil makes target reacquisition slower, and the recoil affects my accuracy quite substantially — and this in a large-framed Beretta 92FS.  And I’m not alone in this:  several shooters have reported the same issues, and there are reports of female cops and agents having controllability problems when qualifying / requalifying with their weapons chambered in the .40 S&W.  So how does the SR40c handle the recoil?

Is this pistol better than, say, the diminutive Glock 27, with which the Ruger compact surely must compete?

The article does compare a few features (e.g. having an external safety — unusual in such guns), but those are peripheral issues.  Is the SR40c more reliable?  Can it feed a variety of different ammo brands and types (which the G27 seems to be able to do)?  Is it as rugged as the Glock or the mini-Springfield XD Mod 2?

(I have to tell you, I kinda prefer the Ruger’s looks:  that smoothed-down slide and grip just shouts “comfort” and “easy-draw” — but the article didn’t even give us that.)

Now I have to grant you that The National Interest  is most assuredly not a gun magazine, but that just means that in future I’ll be less likely to look at their gun articles if they’re going to be superficial puff pieces like this one,

And as for the silly headline:  does the Ruger even look  as dangerous as this SIG SG553P?

(My question:  is the SIG really a pistol, or just a chopped-down pistol-caliber carbine?  But that’s a topic for another day.)

A Tale Of Four Shitties

Gummint, The Gun Thing

…by which I mean shitty states to live in if you’re a gun owner, that is.

First up is our perennial anti-Constitutional state, California:

They’ve already proposed a requirement for gun owners to lock up their weapons, They’ve previously suggested a 10-year prohibition on firearm possession for anyone convicted of two drug or alcohol offenses within three years. They already have proposed a gun tax to fund violence prevention. It seems those things aren’t enough to add to their gun control basket.

Yup:  the Golden (Shower) State is going Full Europe (and you never  go Full Europe).  However, not even Europe is considering what Illinois is talking about:

That’s why [some asswipe from suburban Chicago — Kim]  is proposing gun buyers reveal their public social media accounts to Illinois police before they’re approved for a firearm license.

You have to know how bad a thing is when even the dickheads at the ACLU (who loathe  the Second Amendment) are opposing it.

And of course, New York is trying to be even worse than Illinois:

Fuckwit Didech says his bill is a less intrusive version of a similar measure that’s been proposed in New York state. That version allows police to recover a gun license applicant’s entire browsing history.

And then there’s Connecticut, which is trying to limit ammo purchasing through taxation:

A first-term Connecticut lawmaker wants to hike the price of ammunition in the state through the application of a special tax.
…
“I’m hearing push back about the need to protect one’s home… but how much ammunition does someone really need to do that?” Gilcrest said in a post to social media.

Anytime I hear someone say something like that, I buy another 500 rounds of ammo.

Man, it’s a Good Thing I don’t live in either Illinois or the Northeast anymore;  I’d be fucked harder than a $5 whore during Fleet Week.

The best thing I ever did was leave Chicago for Texas.  The second-best thing I did was toss my Illinois FOID card into the Mississippi River on my way down.

Cut-Price Popguns

The Gun Thing

Yeah, I’m exaggerating a little, but still.  Shooting Illustrated just published a list of cheap handguns, and the contents thereof are about what you’d expect.  I want to beat this drum just one more time.

Small-caliber handguns are useless as self-defense tools. 

There;  I’ve said it.  And yes, I know, I know:  having any gun is better than having no gun.  Sort of.  And yes I know too that women and older men sometimes have controllability issues with the larger-caliber handguns — my own Daughter carries a .380 ACP pistol — and let’s be honest:  as a backup, the .380 gun will do simply because you can cram it in your pocket.  But will  that .380 Beretta Pico do anything for you in a life-and-death situation?  Not as much as the 9mm Para Diamondback (also a cheap gun) can provide, and less still than (say) the .38 Spec/.357 Mag EAA Windicator or Taurus .357 Mag revolvers.  (How long that Taurus snubbie will last when shooting the magnum loads is a topic for another time;  my experience has not been good, although YMMV.)

So yeah, if you absolutely cannot afford to spend more than $300 on a handgun, then go ahead and get something from SI’s list of pistols.  I just hope you’ll never regret your decision.

Remember that I’ve recently been agonizing over using a 9mm Browning High Power as a carry piece, and I’m still  not convinced that I should use it as a substitute for my .45 ACP 1911 (especially as the lighter 185gr bullets seem to be doing the job)… but if I’m grudgingly going to concede that the 9mm (out of the BHP’s 4.5″ barrel) is just barely acceptable, it’s going to take a lot more convincing for me to accept the same ammo coming out of a shorty 2″ tube.  Hell, I consider my .38+P Spec S&W 637 to be my backup piece, and that’s way more powerful than anything delivered by the little budget pistols listed in the article.

So to sum up:  if you want a cheap, effective self-defense piece, then get a revolver — or alternatively, ignore the .380 ACP pistols for anything other than backup pieces.  But we all knew that anyway.

Oh, and one last thing.  The SI  article opens with this line:

“In the past couple of years, soft demand for firearms in general has led to great deals for anyone looking to buy a gun.”

Perhaps it has.  Just not on my planet.

Update:  If you are looking for a new/different carry gun, see what sold the best (both new and secondhand) in 2018.  (Note the positions of the BHP and 1911…)