After all this time...

The idea of "Muscle Memory" holds up.

I took the H&K out to the trash heap this evening, in the interests of perforating tin and styrofoam. I wasn't terribly impressed with my marksmanship at first--the first twenty rounds went left and low of my mark, but once I got past flinching, and got into my focus, I hit my targets (paper plates and the top of a soup can, from 15-20 yards) a good 80% of the time for the remaining 30 rounds I had brought with me.

Not impressive, but satisfactory, and certainly encouraging for someone who hasn't squeezed off rounds since this past March or April.

I experimented with a new grip I had seen on one of the other gun blogs. Here's my approximation of it:


















It's OK, not that much of a change from the grip I normally use:




















While I feel a little more in control of the gun with the first grip, I'll have to shoot with it some more to see if it really offers any better benefits for me than the one I have been using for about 10 years. I'm comfortable with it, am accurate with it, and I'm pretty sure that in a stress situation, this is the grip I'd naturally fall into.

I saved most of my brass from the plinking spree. Once I get some more cash, I'll have to look into reloading components for .45 ACP. If anyone has any recipes they like for self-defense loads, I'll be happy to look at them.

Normally, I'd just buy a couple of boxes of Cor-Bon, but given the rising cost of ammunition, it may behoove me to roll my own for this caliber.

Some More Thoughts...

I was near a near-shootout a couple of weeks ago. Delta had a standoff situation about two Wednesdays ago. A fellow who thought he had enough of life's bad hands decided to take a shotgun and high-power rifle, walk into a Texaco station, and hold two girls hostage.

I was in town making the mail run, when I noticed the barricades. I thought "this is odd," but made my rounds. Along the way, I heard more of the story...about two hours before I arrived in town was when the whole thing started. The guy took hostages, holed up in a room upstairs, and shot out the window when State Troopers tried to approach.

I was supposed to have dropped off a tire at that same Texaco. Obviously, I didn't get to do it.

Now, I was armed that day...which is not terribly unusual when I go into town. But I got to thinking about what I would have done if I had been one of the ones taken upstairs in that Texaco that day.

Someone threatens me with a firearm. Same person shoots at State LEOs. Under those conditions, I would have tried to bury at least 2 230gr slugs in his head at the best opportunity I would have had.

I'm not saying this to be macho. I'm telling you what my reaction would have been. Unstable guy, with weapons, threatens me, others, and actually shoots at others. Someone may very well die by his hands. I have a .45. I am going to make sure the person to die isn't me.

The State Troopers handled the situation better than I would have, I will admit. They brought in a negotiator from Anchorage. He managed to talk the guy into releasing the hostages and getting the guy to surrender.

No one was hurt. Happy ending, I guess.


On McCain's VP pick: I am an Alaskan. You can guess the rest.

This was no doubt the best thing McCain could have done. I had pretty much lost interest in the race...actually, I had ever since Fred Thompson stepped out of the race. I really thought he was the best choice out of all of them.

But once it got down to Boy Wonder and the Angry Maverick...meh. I was seriously thinking about voting Libertarian, if only out of protest.

Then comes along our governor and SHAZAM! It just got interesting again.

I'm not reacting too much to the lame attempts the lefties are making to try to find some fault with her...Bristol's pregnancy...Todd's former AIP affiliations...it just shows how desperate the propaganda department is to find dirt on the best female executive prospect this nation has seen. Remember the furor they made over Quayle and Murphy Brown and "Potatoe"? They couldn't find any real dirt on him. And it drove them nuts.

Nope, they're just jealous because there's a lot more enthusiasm over her than Hillary.















Heh. Now, as far as my take on experience is concerned, I was doing a little research myself on Boy Wonder. He's been in the Illinois State Senate. He's been junior federal state senator for Illinois for about three years.

What I've read about his activity doesn't impress me. He's able to cast his vote on issues, go along with the crowd on issues...but I haven't seen him take much initiative at all. And yet his people have gotten on our CIC's case for being too reliant on Dick Cheney for decisions.

Now, Sarah hasn't played in senate arenas much, but being the main figurehead of a town and a state, she has been the one to steer issues along (and has done a fine job of it, too). In short, she shows a lot more resolve and initiative than Boy Wonder.

My only concern about Sarah is that I hope that life at the Federal level doesn't corrupt her.

Here's a reaction to an entry found on A Keyboard and a .45:
Demorrhoids want to call those of us not under the spell of Boy Wonder's white teeth "mentally ill, mentally disabled, or mentally disturbed."

But, if I recall correctly, people seeking psychiatric help in 2004 were not conservatives. C'mon, going to a shrink because of an election? Who's really wearing the straitjacket?


Finally, a little errata to post. My last post back in April represented something not entirely true. The numbers involving our casualties under GW's rule have not been less than Clinton's during peacetime. Armed conflict tends to raise the casualty rates any way you look at it.

Here's some food for thought

The more I see stuff like this, the more I know the MSM is not trustworthy.

I have long heard that the war on terror is actually doing better than the media would have you think.

Found this commentary in cartoon form over at Red Planet Cartoons:

Leftists Being Less than Honest?

The horror!


According to Michelle Malkin, Obama has been getting some support from a Hunting/Shooting sports organization that wants to ban handguns.

Sound fishy to you? I mean, what shooting sports enthusiast would endorse a stance that could very well lead up to outlawing his sport? It makes no sense.

Well, it turns out to be a bogus organization, and it's called the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA).

But the truth of the organization is as follows:

It was founded in 2005 by Ray Schoenke, a Kos diarist who, in fairness, really does shoot ducks, apparently. At least, most of his conversations seem to take place in a duck blind. Schoenke has pissed away thousands on Handgun Control, Inc., Americans Coming Together and a dozen of the sleazeballingest Democrats ever to run for public office. So when Schoenke says “nonpartisan” you can be sure he’s just said a word that has four syllables.

More about the organization and how it reveals Obama's gun stance at Conservative Superiority.

Bloating votes and bloating opinion. I used to think Obama to be fairly decent. Now I know better.

I'll tell you what this "Gun Nut" is not

You've heard the emotionally-charged labels before, all alluding to some sort of mental deficiency simply because we have safely locked somewhere in our homes a piece of hardware that we have had a right to own ever since the 1780s.

I just feel the need to set the record straight.

My name is Jeremy T. Hatfield, and I am a gun owner. Been owning guns ever since August of 1999. Longer, if you count the BB guns I grew up with as a kid.

I have owned five firearms in my lifetime: four pistols, and one rifle.

I am not a member of any firearm advocacy group, although I definitely advocate 2A. I've never given a dime to the NRA nor GOA. My support for 2A comes in the form of writing on the matter fairly infrequently, reading regularly national happenings regarding firearms, supervising neighbors' kids when they go plinking, teaching them how to responsibly use them, and safely handling my own firearms.

I was raised in the South. Appalachia, to be specific. I have lived in a trailer at one time in my life (for about a month, before I left for TN to start grad school).

I'll also say that I hold two degrees, including a Master's in German Literature, am an expert on a certain period of Germany's History, speak five languages other than English (working on my sixth) and can read from a dozen others.

I have worked in Europe. Been there twice, as a matter of fact. Set foot on three continents and seven foreign countries.

I've had friends from every continent, and meet Europeans on a regular basis, so, no, you can't honestly say that I am ignorant of the world.

I am a believer in God--and come from matters of faith as someone who used to be a skeptic.


So much for stereotypes.

Requiescat in Pace, Charlton Heston

October 4, 1923 - April 5, 2008

I am a recent newcomer to 2A issues. I got my first handgun in 1999, along with my concealed carry permit from the State of Florida. Because of the potential legal issues involved with concealed carry, I have since then made effort to find out about issues concerning gun rights.

In doing so, you can't help but come across the NRA and Charlton Heston. Oh, the way the left vilifies both! Even at his death, your more encephalitic lib (i.e. your typical Democratic Underground poster) can't help but spit on his grave.

Here are some jewels as quoted by The Jawa Report:

"1 less right wingnut to worry about"

"Quick, someone pry out his gun!"

"Is he soylent green yet??"

"If Heston lived another 20 years would the world be a better place? no. I think not. Its just that simple. So break out the good wine. Drink to vanquished enemies."

"Their brain-eroding diseases coincided with their rightwing turns." (referencing Heston and Reagan)

"I'll see you at Nancy Reagan's funeral. I will be the guy with the air horn and a big ol' grin."

"Rest in Hell is where I am coming from."

"I had no empathy for the aging Nazis, either."

"he was scum"

"He was a mediocre actor who believed he was Moses."

"If "liberal" means...feeling any sense of loss that some sorry piece of shithumanity such as C Heston has checked out?...Then sign me out."

In my experience, though, vitriol often follows a man of character. Heston most definitely had that. I recall a published speech given by him that put his character on open display, and I found it over here. It had to do with the Culture War that was very much noticeable in the late 1990s. Excerpt:

As I've stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are -- are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain accepted thoughts and speech are mandated.

For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 -- and long before Hollywood found it acceptable, I may say. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist.

I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life -- throughout my whole career. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe.

I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out the innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.

Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution I'm talking about, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.

From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying, "Chuck, how dare you speak your mind like that. You are using language not authorized for public consumption."

But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys -- subjects bound to the British crown.

This is the part of the speech that I remembered, talking about the price of standing up for what you believe:

In that same spirit, I' m asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives, and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom.

But be careful. It hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated, to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water Cannons at Selma. You must be willing to experience discomfort. Now, I'm not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have left their mark on me. Let me tell you a story.

A few years ago, I heard about a -- a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer," celebrating the ambushing and of murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the country -- in the world. Police across the country were outraged. And rightfully so. At least one of them had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the -- the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around because the rapper was black. I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills, and I owned some shares of Time/Warner at the time, so I decided to attend the meeting.

What I did was against the advice of my family and my colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer" -- every vicious, vulgar, instructional word:

I got my 12-Gauge sawed-off. I got my headlights turned off. I'm about to bust some shots off. I'm about to dust some cops off.

It got worse, a lot worse. Now, I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyrics brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing the two 12-year-old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore:

She pushed her butt against my --

No. No, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in stunned silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps outside, one of them said, "We can't print that, you know." "I know," I said, "but Time/Warner is still selling it."

Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner Brothers, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you have to be willing to act, not just talk.

That is character, friends. That is proper use of 1A to address serious problems. But the left-leaning radical ideologues, for all the value they put on 1A, will only sing its praises for as long as it is used to distribute their views and agendas. All others are seen as a good reason for censorship.

Especially if the views come from a former member of their number. Another great conservative was the same way: Ronald Reagan.

This is the sort of opposition you and I have to be ready to face, and some of us do. We have a very good example in Charlton Heston.

As far as his acting is concerned, I'm no theatrical critic. I can't say if Charlton were among the best actors America ever produced. But I will say that The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur were both a regular part of my viewing diet at certain times of the year, even before I took my relationship with Christ seriously.

There was also The Planet of the Apes, which I do remember with fondness from my childhood. But the last bit of acting I ever saw him take a leading role was his son's production of A Man For All Seasons. Partially because of his acting, and his choice for a well-written drama with a worthwhile message, it became my favorite drama in English.

We'll see you on the other side, Charles.

U.S. News & World Report article from Last Month

It's not that I'm slow to read. It's just that I stopped subscribing to mainstream media rags the very day I got an issue of Newsweek (a magazine I grew up with) that featured Saddam's capture on the cover, but only gave a page-long story, and a very lukewarm one at that.

If ever there were an evident lack of media support for our military and our efforts to bring order to Iraq, that was it.

My folks in N.C. asked me if I wanted them to renew the subscription. I said flat-out, "No."

At any rate, someone apparently was done with the March 6 issue of USN & WR, covering the Heller case. On the cover, for those of you who remember, was a prominently-displayed Beretta 92 and something about the new battle over guns in bold block print.

Naturally, it aroused my curiosity. So, I flipped through the articles featured.

They were all written by an Emma Schwartz. And the articles appearing in that issue can be found here, here, here, and here. Since that issue, she has written another article concerning the Heller case, appearing March 18, here.

In the March 6 issue, she seems to be rather confounded that most people saw 2A as an individual right. The tone of her articles seem to take on the assumption that the collective right view is the normal way to look at 2A. She even tries to say that Circuit Courts have often ruled in favor of the collective.

But that is simply not the case. Let us refer again to Guy Smith's Gun Facts 4.2:

St. George Tucker, any early legal commentator and authority of the original meaning of the constitution wrote in Blackstone’s Commentaries "… nor will the constitution permit any prohibition of arms to the people”

The Second Amendment was listed in a Supreme Court ruling as an individual right.

The Supreme Court specifically reaffirmed that the right to keep and bear arms did not belong to the government.

In 22 of the 27 instances where the Supreme Court mentions the Second Amendment, they quote the rights clause and not the justification clause.

Now, you would figure that someone who graduated with honors in history would have been able to dig this stuff up. But, her degree was from California at Berkeley. She herself is from San Francisco. It adds up.

It would also explain the other assumptions she makes in her articles--the typical media angle of focusing on guns used in crime, while any meaningful discussion over the successful use of firearms in self-defense is very lacking. Painting the NRA in a negative light. Blaming the Bush administration for doing nothing about gun-control issues.

So, it's not all that hard to understand how someone who graduated from UCB in 2004 managed to land a job writing major articles for major news corporations almost straight out of school. The leftists take care of their own.

But getting back to her confusion over collective vs. individual right--the reality is, if it were indeed a collective right as opposed to an individual one, then I would not have been able to obtain the five firearms I have owned in my lifetime (3 bought during the Clinton years), nor my fathers before me. And there would have been no way 250 million firearms would be in private possession here in our country (this is her own quote of a Virginia gun-control group).

That explains the opinions on 2A that she came across, and the Supreme Court's leaning towards individual rights that she reports about in the March 18 article.

There is a world that functions outside your ideology, sweetie. It's a shame that someone who reports about this world can't see that.