Tag: Guns and such

My favorite toy

Virginia Flashpoint #4

Marxists, Politics, The Gun Thing

If there’s any silver lining to the dire situation that ordinary Virginians are finding themselves (being at the mercy of a Democrat-dominated legislature and executive, that is), it’s that the latter bastards are showing the rest of us Americans exactly what they would do if they held the keys to the national  levers of power.

By now, we’re all familiar with the gun banning / confiscation / criminalization intent of Virginia’s state government — even to the extent of Head Bastard Gov. Northam having a tidy little budget set aside for prosecution and incarceration of law-abiding criminalized gun owners.  How nice.

But it doesn’t end there.  These fucking Commies are going after suburbanites, too [emphasis added]:

Democrats in Virginia may override local zoning to bring high-density housing, including public housing, to every neighborhood statewide — whether residents want it or not.
The measure could quickly transform the suburban lifestyle enjoyed by millions, permitting duplexes to be built on suburban lots in neighborhoods previously consisting of quiet streets and open green spaces. Proponents of “upzoning” say the changes are necessary because suburbs are bastions of segregation and elitism, as well as bad for the environment.

Of course, the environment just has  to be dragged in to support their weak-assed argument.  Although if anyone wants to see a truly  ravaged environment, I invite them to visit a low-income neighborhood, anywhere in the world.  Middle-class suburbs, likewise anywhere in the world, are paradise by comparison — until “affordable” housing is brought in, that is.  And right on cue:

The move, which aims to provide “affordable housing,” might be fiercely opposed by local officials throughout the state, who have deliberately created and preserved neighborhoods with particular character — some dense and walkable, others semi-rural and private — to accommodate people’s various preferences.

But Democrats tout a state-level law’s ability to replace “not in my backyard” with “yes, in your backyard.”

And if you think that this blight would not be inflicted on the rest of us with a Democrat-controlled U.S. House, Senate and Presidency, I have a New York bridge to sell you.

No doubt, as time goes by the Virginia pols are going to find more and more bastardy to inflict on their hapless citizenry.

I don’t think that this was quite what the Founders intended with the “laboratory of the states”;  but then they could never have conceived  of a socio-political statist condition such as “Marxism”.  Thank goodness, however, that in their wisdom they gave us the means to resist such iniquity, if conditions were to become intolerable.

Which is why the Marxists are so set on disarming us.

And here we are.  So what are we to do?  Well, duh:

And if we’re talking rooftops, then:

 

And if you think these fuckers won’t classify your beloved hunting rifles as “sniper” rifles, there’s another bridge in the New York area going cheap.  We won’t even talk about the “serious” rooftop option:

They’re already  going after these — no doubt because so many are used in drive-by shootings, of course. [eyecross]

Virginians, take note.  Ditto the rest of us.  Because the Communists will not stop until everyone is completely disarmed.

If you want more details about this bastardy, see Don Surber’s take, which is like mine only without the guns.

Virginia Flashpoint #3

Legal Stuff, Politics, The Gun Thing

According to Virginia’s Attorney-General, Second Amendment “sanctuary” cities [and counties] have no force in law.

“Neither local governments nor local constitutional officers have the authority to declare state statutes unconstitutional or decline to follow them on that basis,” Herring wrote in the opinion. “Neither the Federal Constitution nor Virginia law recognizes any ‘anti-commandeering’ principle that allows localities or local constitutional officers to refuse to participate in the enforcement of state law.”

Really?  So you’re insisting that police department have to enforce blatantly un-Constitutional laws, despite their oaths to the contrary?  So if, say, under an overwhelmingly Republican-controlled  legislature and ditto governor a state law was passed which forbade the practice of Islam in Virginia, that would be all tickety-boo and Virginian police departments could start arresting Muslims outside mosques, while halaal  butcheries and restaurants would be declared illegal and shut down?

Asking for a friend.

Virginia Flashpoint #2

Politics, The Gun Thing

“When the vast majority of Virginia counties declare themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries and tell the government to back off, the Senate, the House of Delegates, and Democrat governor Ralph Northam need to pull their heads out of the sand and take notice. They need to listen to their fellow citizens, and then they need to burn and bury that bill. To pass it into law in the face of such resistance is not only an act of tyranny. It’s just plain old stupid.”

And its corollary:

“The Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia features an armed Roman goddess of virtue standing with her foot on top of a fallen figure representing tyranny. Above her is the state motto  Sic Semper Tyrannis, which translates: ‘Thus always to tyrants’.”

 

Virginia Flashpoint #1

Marxists, Politics, The Gun Thing

From Reader Mike C comes this email:

Like many Virginia voters, the speed at which the combination of the legislators and governor moving to the Democrat side and the pending legislative session yielding draconian gun laws and possible door to door confiscation caught me by surprise. Politics up to this point has been a bit of a genteel affair, with the Dems and Reps making small changes one way or another and the pendulum swinging slowly this way and that.. until now. As I’m sure you have heard, it’s about to get real here.
So to summarize what I’m sure you already know, they are set to pass gun control laws outlawing evil black guns, any pistol that holds more than 9 rounds, any shotgun that holds more than 6, and similar magazine restrictions on rifles. Apparently it will be a felony to own any of these. Most counties including mine have passed resolutions saying they will not enforce such laws. However, for my purple county, the board of supervisors will turn into a Democrat majority in January and that resolution will be overturned. Since the new laws will not grandfather in previously purchased firearms, it will have the immediate effect of making millions of lawful gun owners instant felons. If that doesn’t make your blood run cold, nothing will.
How does this affect me personally? Well, as perhaps you may recall from previous discussions, I have never liked pistols much as I never was very good with one, even though I was a competitive rifle shooter as a young man and qualified and carried a 1911 in the army. That, coupled with living and working in the pastoral suburbs means I never felt the need to carry and don’t own a pistol, evil large mag or otherwise. I do own a few bolt action classics in various calibers and a few single shot shotguns that for now are safe from prosecution. Having carried and disliked the M16 during my Army days, I am not a fan of nor own any evil black rifles. However I do have what you would call a standard plinking tool, a semi-auto .22 whose round count in the tube capacity will run afoul of the new law and make me a felon.
While I can stow my felony-inducing .22 with relatives in another state, the question is, should I, and what should / can I do to protect myself and my family from this tyranny where millions of Virginians will now face a midnight knock on the door because some neighborhood informant has clued the Stasi in on our felony possession of a semi-auto .22 (which frankly doesn’t shoot that well, is a pain to clean, an antique, and frequently jams and misfires)?
The rebel in me wants to go to the final gun show of the year (or ever) this coming weekend and purchase a evil black rifle lower, just so I can show solidarity with the black rifle brethren. What if a lot of people did that? On one hand, it would definitely send a message. On the other hand prosecutors across the state would rejoice, because they would significantly increase their conviction rates due to better leverage in plea bargain negotiations.
A friend tells me there is going to be a rally on the 20th in Richmond to let the legislators know how we feel. Having gone that route with the tea party on the Mall and seen it have no real effect, and knowing the new legislators and governor are sufficiently bought and paid for, I know such demonstrations are really just pissing in the wind. I would not be surprised to see Antifa and even neo-Nazis show up just to make the legitimate protesters look like kooks for the media. Worse yet, just like the tea party and anti-abortion yearly protest, these demonstrations will probably be ignored by the media, no matter how many people show up.
The question still remains though, what is the right thing for an average guy to do? It’s all well and good to speak of pitchforks, ropes, and trees, but having faced down apartheid, you know better than most how quickly and devastatingly resistance can degenerate into Sarah Host’s dystopian “blood in the streets”. I fear for my state in this. Worse, the police here will be faced with millions of newly minted, hostile felons. What then? On top of that, with so many new “criminal class” citizens, what will be the real criminal class response against the weakened sheep and hunkered down police?
The best case here is that the police will take no positive action as a result of this new legislation. While there will be millions of new de facto felons, they will only be changed incidental to detainment for other reasons – traffic stops, self defense, 911 calls, divorce fights, and Swatting incidents among them. The only real recourse I see for us is to try to do something about our severely compromised voting system and hope that enough Virginians remain enraged enough to overcome the fraud factor in a year or two. Or move, and a few years after that pen a heart rendering ode entitled “Let Virginia Sink”.
Your thoughts?

Let’s address the low-hanging fruit here first.  My advice:  ditch the unreliable old .22 rifle and get yourself a new one — say a Ruger 10/22 — which has the advantage of being so popular, not to say ubiquitous and which means that (bet on it) that any future legislation will “grandfather” ownership of said rifles.  Also, get a boatload of spare 10-round mags (5-10 would be a good benchmark) in case your politicians ban future sales thereof.  Also, at least a couple thousand rounds of .22 LR in case the fuckers ban purchase of “large” quantities.

In that same vein, let’s talk about getting an Evil Black Rifle (EBR).  Don’t get an AR-15 lower, because these bastards will just include them in the ban and worse, you won’t have a usable gun.  Get a working gun — AR or AK — and if you want to circumvent a magazine ban, get an SKS.  I know, it only has a 5  10-round mag, but you would be surprised how quickly you can load 7.62x39mm rounds with a stripper clip.  Ordinarily, I’d recommend getting a Russian one (as below, with integrated eeeevil bayonet), and not the non-Chinese Type 56 SKS, but if needs must… [sigh]

What’s more important is to lay in not a boatload, but a Carnival Cruise liner-sized load of ammo.

Here’s why I want you to get an EBR:  the more EBRs that are out there in citizens’ hands, the more difficult it would be to pass legislation against them, and even greater the difficulty in confiscation thereof.

If you are worried about doing this (and I can quite understand your trepidation, btw), then you must  get a semi-auto 12- or 20-gauge shotgun, which are pretty much un-bannable because of their ubiquity.  I’ll leave the brand choice up to you, but if there’s a money constraint, Mossberg makes an excellent line of budget guns, such as the 930 or SA-20, for around $500.  (Get the wooden-stocked “sporting” model so it looks less scawwwy to the gun-grabbing assholes.)

Now all that said, I think the Bastard Gun Controllers [some redundancy]  may find it a little more difficult to start their little confiscation reindeer games, if people like this are to be believed (emphasis added):

If the Virginia legislators want to push this issue, it could get ugly. And oh, by the way, plan on seeing the vast majority of the Virginia National Guard become Conscientious Objectors. It will be really hard for them to arrest cops and confiscate guns when none of them will carry the necessary arms to enforce said arrests and confiscations.
How do I know this? I am one of them and will be one of the first to lay down my gun and walk away. I will not be a pawn in a tyrannical game of human chess. Neither will most of the men and women I serve with.

Bravo, my son.  Let’s hope it never gets this far.

And for the rest of us, who live in the United States and not Virginia, California, New York or Illinois, etc., we need to be on our guard, constantly, lest our own states start moving in this direction.  With the constant invasion of fucking socialists from so-called “liberal” states, what’s happened in Virginia could happen to any of us.

Let’s start talking to our local pols, and remind all of them exactly what they’re up against if they even begin  to think of cute little stunts like Virginia’s pols are planning to enact.  Start with the city and town politicians, move out to the county government, and make sure they and the state legislators know exactly where they stand.  Let’s get into their  faces first.

And FFS, join your local 2A organization like the TSRA and such, no matter how ineffectual you think they are, because if their numbers are suddenly swelled by a hundred thousand new (and more fervent) 2A supporters, they will have to change too.  Never mind the NRA for the moment — because this battleground is going to be in your area and in your face, not at the national level;  and to be honest, the NRA is often worse than useless in any kind of local activism.

Good Shooting

Gun/Ammo Tests, The Gun Thing

Some guy has put together a video of the Best-Shooting Pistols.  Frankly, I’ll take his word for it, because I do not ever  want to get into a gunfight with him.  Watch the video to see why.

This, folks, is why one needs to practice a lot — although I will admit that having a little gun range in one’s backyard (as he does) without any discernible neighbors in the area doesn’t hurt.  If I had one of those, I’d be the world’s best .22 rifle shooter (and have the world’s largest collection of .22 rifles with burnt-out barrels).

Anyway, the pistols (from #5 to #1):

  • CZ P10-F (full-size version of the P10-C)
  • Walther PPQ Q5 Match (steel-frame)
  • Archon Type B (I’d heard of this German gun, but never actually seen one before)
  • CZ 75 Shadow 2 Black & Blue (finally, a decent and affordable DA/SA competition-ready pistol, and even the base 75B is hardly a slouch)
  • STI 2011 (beloved by competitive shooters;  also:  available in .45 ACP or 9mm — apparently, any caliber — but its 9mm mags hold 27 rounds).

Honorable mentions:  Browning P35 High Power;  S&W M&P 2.0 5″, Glock 34.

After watching the video a couple-three times, I came to realize two things:  1) I have got  to shoot more often, and 2) I need to look at the CZ Shadow 2.  (Forget about the STI;  I can’t even afford the “base” model Staccato P.)

Hell, at least I have a High Power.  Now all I have to do is ahem  practice a bit more.

Musketry

Military, The Gun Thing

I have spoken often of my old high school, St. John’s College in Johannesburg, and of its rigorous academic- and sporting regimen.

What I haven’t talked much about was one of the extra-curricular activities called “cadets”.  This was a military course:  close-order drill, full dress uniforms and discipline.  It took place once a week during school hours, and would involve getting dressed into uniform before school started, then breaking from class, going to the armory, drawing our drill rifles (decommissioned SMLEs), then running in formation down the stairs you see in the above pic, and drilling on the “A” rugby field.  (pic is not of us, but another school)

At the end of the drill period, we would run back up the stairs to the school and to our houses, where we showered, changed back into school uniform and continued with regular classes.

Of course, discipline was harsh because private school duh (to the point where most private schoolboys, once drafted, would find actual Army boot camp not too onerous).  “Defaulters” was feared — boots not shiny enough?  uniform not pressed?  not drilling properly?  late for parade?  etc. — and Defaulters involved one hour after school or on Saturday morning spent running up and down said stairs (two hundred and twenty-seven, ask me how I know this), carrying the aforesaid rifles overhead and shouting “Coll-ege!  Coll-ege!”

Secretly, I loved cadets.  I loved the polishing of my boots (to where you could tell the time in their toecaps’ reflection), I loved the precision of the drill, I liked the camaraderie of the shared misery with my buddies;  but most of all, I loved Musketry.

Once a week, instead of drawing SMLEs, one lucky platoon would draw BSA-Martini falling-block single-shot .22 rifles from the armory and head off to the 50-yard shooting range for an hour and a half of target shooting.  Here’s the rifle we used:

…the rear aperture sights requiring adjustment (“side screw one click, top screw two clicks”) as we shot.  (The range master was a U.S. Marine Corps Korean veteran from Georgia, a.k.a. the school chaplain.)  We shot from prone, unsupported (“no dead-resting!”) and the greatest disappointment of the day was the final “Cease Fire!  Cease Fire!” command, delivered in Fr. Fitzhugh’s stentorian bellow (“Sayce Fahr!” was what it actually sounded like).

With my old and decrepit eyes, I probably couldn’t shoot this vintage thing for peanuts these days, but despite that I would head off to Collectors and get this beauty in a heartbeat, if I had the spare dollars.

Nostalgia is its own reward.