Shooting, shooting, shooting

I don't know what's gotten into my dad, but he's been shooting more this summer than the previous 20 years altogether. He's not competing or playing any gun games, he just screwed a long board onto a sawhorse out at his fishing pond and set it in front of a small hill. He plinks bottles and cans off that board for hours at a time from a range of roughly 10 yards, and the boys and I are usually invited. It's been awhile since I just plinked rather than practicing for USPSA or highpower, and it's a nice change of pace.

Just the other day dad brought out his old Winchester in 5mm Magnum. These things were made in the 1960's, but the caliber never caught on and it all but died out. Dad bought a few of the rifles when the ammo was impossible to find and stuck them on the wall. Now the 5mm ammunition is being made by a few companies, and he's got enough accumulated to feel comfortable shooting some of it up. It's a rimfire round, but you can tell it's hitting a little faster than .22 Magnum (dad's first love) even at such close range. Recoil is still nil . . . . it's a nifty little round. I can see why it was designed, but I can also see how .22 Magnum killed it off the first time. My guess is that without the internet, no one company would be able to make enough money on this caliber to justify producing it today, but happily, customers can find the stuff from across the country nowadays, so the relatively few people buying it can be exploited by one or two companies. Welcome to the future, where your dead old calibers are resurrected as terrifying rimfire zombies.

Today dad took his trap thrower out to the pond, and when his mowing was done, he taught Kane to shoot clay pigeons with a sweet little Stevens .410 SxS that's just about his size. He also stopped in at the local Military Surplus/Shrine to John Wayne (just look for the place with the 8-foot-long M16 on top of the sign) called "Birds and Brooks" to get more plinking ammunition. This time he came away with .32 Long for his MAS 1935 and 7x57mm for his funky little cut-down Mauser 1893 carbine.

And that's why grandpa's house is more fun than home, kids. ;)

Ack!

Illinois Carry and the Examiner publishing tool are both down . . . and I have the shakes. I guess I have to go do more actual work.

Obama "Kenyan Birth Certificate" Hoax

Why, it can't be! I'm SHOCKED, I tell you!

No, wait, no I'm not. This was completely predictable and widely predicted. Sorry, I forgot for a minute there.

Fine cotton business paper: $11

Inkjet printer: $35

1940 Royal Model KMM manual typewriter: $10

2 Shilling coin: $1

Pilot Varsity fountain pen: $3

Punkin' the Birthers: Priceless

Before you get your panties in a knot, observe that those aren't my words. I'm quoting the person who used a few dollars worth of office supplies to expose Birthers as what they are: people who really, truly believe in the power of magical thinking.

Hat Tip to Little Green Footballs.

Chicago GRE: SAF and Heller attorney file new suit over D.C.'s ban on bearing arms

SAF and Heller attorney file new suit

over D.C.'s ban on bearing arms

Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation are headed back to court, this time suing the District of Columbia to force it to issue concealed carry permits. They've got four plaintiffs who should all have standing. If you're keeping track, this is three current lawsuits by Gura and the SAF that could all end up back in the Supreme Court before we're through.

Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman has a piece on the same subject from a different angle; Dave writes from Seattle, near the home of the Second Amendment Foundation.
"Sotomayor confirmed as SAF sues District of Columbia over gun rights"

And the Gun Rights Examiners welcome a new GRE today, Grand Rapids Gun Rights Examiner Skip Coryell. Skip is an author and firearms trainer who founded the Second Amendment March and is active with MCRGO, the organization that inspired much of the current pro-gun movement in Illinois.

So there you have your daily assignments . . . . go read!

Back off, Montag!

Piss Tam off any more than she already is, and you might not live long enough to worry about the Mechanical Hound.

Personally, I have a large stash of old books of all stripes, including lots and lots of children's books. But what about the next generation? What are they supposed to read, Mama Voted for Obama! and a picture book with sissy, sparkly vampires in it?
Won't someone please think of the children?

Chicago GRE:Yet another anti-NRA hit piece misses the mark

Newest Chicago Gun Rights Examiner piece is up here:

Yet another anti-NRA hit piece misses the mark
A Sun-Times columnist apparently figured she'd dash off a little hit piece decrying the NRA for standing in the way of Important Scientific Research on Gun Violence. She killed her credibility in a couple of ways, though:

• She quoted Kristen Rand of the VPC approvingly and without questioning Rand's assertion that "information is the enemy for the gun lobby." Coming from someone who falsifies "research" and puts "IMPORTANT STUDY" labels on Google searches for a living--and makes high six figures doing it because the Joyce Foundation isn't selective enough to ask where their money is going--that's risible.
• She quoted Todd Vandermyde of the NRA, but she completely ignored what he said and simply stated that it was an admission of guilt, as if saying it made it so. What he actually did was to explain the bias that has been practiced in so-called "public health research on gun violence" for the last 20 years. It may or may not be convincing, but pretending that it was never said is not terribly convincing on her part.
• She conveniently didn't mention the numerous examples of troubled public health research ranging from bad methods to outright fraud that took me literally a few seconds to find and a few minutes to confirm. I didn't have room to mention all of them, either . . . . but the link is there. Reading them makes it obvious why the NRA would say that federal funding shouldn't be going to these quacks.

Go read the whole thing and tell a friend, please. I don't make much money on these columns, but I'm finding that they're important in other ways. If you think so too, then spread the word every chance you get.

Good Luck With That, Chi-Town

I doubt it'll matter much to the elderly widows turning in their husbands' rusty Iver-Johnson revolvers, but the Chicago Police Department is advertising that their gun turn-in next weekend will pass out Mastercard debit cards that can be used anywhere "except gun shops."

Three days after calling and being passed from department to department, I got a call back today . . . . it seems that they're simply "requesting" that people not use the filthy lucre in a filthy gunseller's den, because that would subvert the "intent" of the program.

Right. Have these people even met an American?

On the bright side, I think we're just about done with the polite fiction that they're purchasing weapons the state used to own (this is a "turn-in," not a "buy-back") and might even have seen the end of the old "criminals are turning in these guns" canard. I'd say they just admitted that they expect their customers to be people who take requests from police departments.