Monthly Archives: December 2013

Always trust Erin Palette

I had a conversation with Erin Palette a few weeks ago about some unrelated role playing gaming information when she asked me why my blog had gone downhill. She was very polite and even anxious not to cause offense. It’s hard to be offended when a friend tells you what you already know. I’ve been posting Felons Behaving Badly stuff almost exclusively. Nothing original, just filler. I offered her some excuses.

There’s three things going on.

#1. I’m primarily a political gun blogger rather than a gear hound or a social blogger. The NC General Assembly is not in session.

#2. I’ve been distracted by gaming two nights a week at the new local game store.

#3. I’m a bit burned out. Not bad enough to quit or to want to quit, but enough that it’s not been a priority. You’ve managed to catch me at the point where I had already been thinking that I should focus a little more on the blog.

Oh, and maybe a #4. Facebook. I’ve been using Facebook to do some of the blogging that I should consider putting on the blog.

But these are just excuses, and the maximum effective range of an excuse is Zero meters.

So I resolved to do better. Here’s results of the last month’s efforts.

December Numbers

Pretty good, I’d say. I’m glad I took her advice and got back in front of the keyboard and started writing. Did you see that Adam Baldwin tweeted the #GunBullies story yesterday? That was sweet! It was a good end to a pretty good year. In the middle of the #GunBullies and @MomsDemand stuff my hit counter rolled over 500K. That’s just since moving my blog to WordPress.

A big surprise is that the post from April “Why you should never shoot all your ammo at the range” is doing so well recently. My dad tells good stories. It’s cool to see his story still getting some hits. I just wish I knew who had suddenly linked it. Go read it if you’ve never read it before. My dad was a gun nut before being a gun nut was cool.

So the moral of the story is, if Erin tells you that you should consider stepping up your game, take her advice.

The Gun as Rorschach Test

You’ve heard the joke before,

A guy goes into a psychologist’s office and says “Dr, I have a problem.”

The doctor draws two small x’s on a piece of paper.”I’m going to draw some pictures and I’m going to ask what you see. What are these.”

His patient replies, “Two ants having sex.”

The doctor draws two slightly larger x’s on the paper. “And now?”

“That’s two dogs having sex.”

The doctor draws two big X’s on the paper. “What about now?”

“That’s two people having sex.”

“Ah,” says the doctor. “You’re obsessed with sex!”

“What are you talking about?” says the patient. “I’m not the one obsessed with sex! You’re the one drawing the dirty pictures!”

We’re gun owners. We’ve all had this discussion before. Gun haters absolutely fear and loathe us because we carry guns. They are so terrified of their neighbors carrying guns that they try to pass laws banning the practice. They get so angry that restaurants don’t ban law abiding concealed carriers that they print up their own “no guns” signs and post them without consulting the owners. And then they turn around and accuse us of being cowards, living in fear.

Firearms are like a Rorschach test. Show an Anti a gun and he’ll tell you how bad a mass murderer you are. Case in point.










Yeah, he’s the nut all right. You see a gun on the hip of a 70-year-old man in the Safeway. He addresses you very politely. You “babble” in fear. But he’s the nut.

I’m really losing patience with these crazy people. They can’t be bothered to deal with their irrational fear of their law-abiding neighbors. They immediately assume that all handguns are pointed at them. It’s like they have a guilty conscience. They know that I’m not going to shoot them unless they try to harm me, yet they fear and loathe me just the same. What were they planning on doing to me?

The more I consider it, the more I agree that it’s just a manifestation of their own cowardice. They fear, and they are ashamed of that fear. They can’t deal with the shame of that fear so they hate anyone who has learned to deal with their fear. Because as people who have dealt with our fear and have taken reasonable precautions against danger, our mere existence is a rebuke to them for letting their fear rule their lives. And as soon as they see or hear of a gun, that fear, loathing, and hatred spills out.

But we’re the ones drawing the dirty pictures.

HT: Captains Journal

How many convictions can one man get?

I think there’s a time when the State should decide that someone isn’t ever going to be a decent person and lock them up for life. This guy sounds like a good candidate.

Police arrested a man a half-hour after a robbery at a BB&T bank branch Tuesday afternoon and charged him with that holdup, two earlier ones and an attempted robbery.

Why do I say that he should be locked up forever?


Keep scrolling.

I’m one of the #GunBullies. Why aren’t you?

Want to join the #GunBullies list? Tweet this by clicking and you’re a shoe in!

Why won’t @Guitars4Guns add me and @Instapundit to the #GunBullies list?

UPDATE 3: Answer to Glenn Reynolds. Only if the rest of us get to hold him while you do.

Via Miguel at

Did you know that fiercely defending your rights to keep and bear arms made you a bully? Did you know that your proper place was to shut your piehole and accept whatever new infringements came your way?

Gun hater @Guitars4Guns tries to couch it in terms of us “doing more damage to the pro-gun side,” but the reality is that he just doesn’t want to hear what we are saying. Most importantly, he doesn’t want anyone else to hear what we are saying.

UPDATE: He’s “password protected” his list! Now we’re all on Double Secret Probation!
UPDATE 2: Now he’s stripped the list down to only two people. Because? Well, who knows. I don’t think he’s exactly sane.


Behold, the list!

  1. @11b2p
  2. @2ANow
  3. @51Hitman51
  4. @AE68W
  5. @AmmoLand
  6. @anothergunblog
  7. @AnonyPunkZ
  8. @ANYAGV2
  9. @BadBlueGuns
  10. @BigFatDave
  11. @bitterclingerpa
  12. @bob_owens
  13. @CalmGunowner
  14. @cjgrisham
  15. @cemeterygunblob
  16. @Cmf68Kevin
  17. @chronovarience
  18. @DanielESmall
  19. @DixieSportsman
  20. @dmbatten
  21. @Dr_2A
  22. @dthurston
  23. @DVCMAC
  24. @FirearmsPDX
  25. @GlomarResponder
  26. @GunFreeZone
  27. @GunsnCoasters
  28. @gunsafetyblog
  29. @GunSenseUSA
  30. @GunzAreBad
  31. @hazmatpat
  32. @HomeGunTraining
  33. @HowardW56
  34. @HASOGCA
  35. @InfidelMonster
  36. @JamesViser
  37. @JasonSlusher
  38. @JBurt73
  39. @JerryMcClellan2
  40. @JillJillthePill
  41. @Jim____Johnson
  42. @JonEMTP
  43. @JPFOAlert
  44. @k0diak314
  45. @KentAtwater
  46. @KentAtwater2
  47. @KoryDWatkins
  48. @LawSelfDefense
  49. @lee10011
  50. @LibertyArmsMN
  51. @linoge_wotc
  52. @MarineReconDad
  53. @Marsellus666
  54. @MDGunsBen
  55. @MicekJosh23
  56. @MickyBaker1
  57. @MolonLabeNJ
  58. @MomsNeedHobbies
  59. @MonsantoBadGuns
  60. @muddman97
  61. @MuttonChopsRock
  62. @notplainjoe
  63. @OpenCarryTexas
  64. @PRoseish
  65. @PRoseish_2
  66. @quixxdraw
  67. @reaper11b81
  68. @ReviveLiberty
  69. @RobAlexandr
  70. @robdoar
  71. @rolloutside
  72. @RonPaul2012FTW
  73. @sdsorrentino (ME!!! Definitely follow me!!!)
  74. @ShantBe
  75. @SmartGunLaw (Originally I mistook this for another group. Fixed!)
  76. @soderstromk
  77. @Sparticus33W
  78. @State_Control
  79. @StrippedLower
  80. @TacticoolRonald
  81. @TCguns_carry
  82. @toyotahater
  83. @TyreByter
  84. @WildBillBaldwin

Thanks @Guitars4Guns, I’m honored to be counted among these patriots. I pledge to redouble my efforts so that I’m worthy to remain in their company.

Can you believe that he didn’t even make the list hyperlinked so you could follow your allies? I’ve fixed that. If you’re on Twitter, click the link and follow each and every one. The more followers each of us has, the harder it is for the haters to exploit the SpamBlock feature to get us kicked off Twitter. And make no mistake. If this guy could do it, he would get us all thrown off Twitter in a heartbeat.

Moms Demand goes RED QUEEN!

Oh, those wacky Moms running about Demanding things. Like this, for example.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America Pennsylvania Chapter is shocked and devastated to learn of the death of a two-month-old Lancaster County girl who was shot and killed by a family member who was negligently handling a handgun on Christmas Eve. No charges have yet been filed against the adult who shot and killed an infant.

Moms Demand Action is urging District Attorney Craig Stedman and local authorities to press charges immediately in this case. Mothers across the country are heartbroken about the loss of yet another child to preventable gun violence, and we expect an adult to be held accountable for such a negligent act.

No investigation. No discussion of whether or not it makes any sense to punish a person for what may have been a complete accident. Remind you of anyone?





‘I won’t!’ said Alice.


Yep, those Moms are Demanding their own version of “Justice” which in their tiny minds means

In addition, we call on media reporting on this incident to use the words “criminally negligent” instead of “accidental.” Shooting and killing a human being due to an unsecured firearm should and must be considered more severe than an “accident.”

The gun haters at Moms Demand Action, a wholly owned subsidiary of Michael Bloomberg, Inc, want to transform gun ownership into a strict liability issue. The mere fact that you own a firearm means you are liable for ANYTHING that happens with the gun. Kid gets it and shoots himself? You go to jail. Someone steals it and commits a crime? You go to jail. And if we disagree with them in any way, off with our heads.

You see, they don’t want you to have a gun. If they can make it as legally dangerous as possible, you will choose to comply.

HT: Sipsey Street for reminding me of the concept.

Why the Metric System sucks

Oleg Volk, who is an awesome photographer and is a really nice guy (seriously, ask anyone who knows him) has a partiality to the Metric system. From Facebook, Oleg points to this really cool graphic.

Sweet. Now if only I had some wall space near my kitchen I could use this graphic instead of constantly asking my wife.

Oleg, being from Russia, wonders why we don’t use the Metric system and save ourselves the problem of conversions back and forth in the US Customary System. I hate the Metric system. I hate it with the passion of pretty much any system that someone dreams up to replace a perfectly useful system we already have. The reason? Here’s the comment I left.

The metric system is based upon two arbitrary things. #1. The number of fingers normally present in humans. #2. The distance from the equator to the North Pole at sea level divided by 10,000,000. It’s now defined as “the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.” Or, basically the length of the agreed upon metal bar in a museum in France.

Riddle me this. Who actually measured that distance and divided it up into meters? So basically, we’ve got a system that’s exactly as arbitrary as the old “foot” meaning “Ehh, about *that* much” as the person holds their hands a random distance apart. In this case that random distance is about three times the random distance of the guy showing you the foot.

Now, please divide the meter by 2, 3, 4, & 6 and give me rational number usable by normal humans. Base 10 happens to be how our number system is designed, and it’s based upon the arbitrary use of the number of fingers the average human is born with. It’s no better and no worse than any other number base. The advantage to using base 12, as the foot uses is that it is easily divisible by 2, 3, 4, & 6. Half a foot? 6 inches. 1/3rd of a foot? 4 inches. All helpfully marked on your handy measuring stick. Please pull out your measuring stick and measure me 1/3rd of a meter. Be precise.

So if the metric system is so awesome, how come we don’t have metric clocks? 10 hours in a day? 100 minutes per hour? Nope, we use 24 hours, which is, as you might be aware, 2 x 12 hour half days. Which is really helpful when working out longitude. All you need to know is what time it is in England when the sun is at it’s apogee (Archer, in comments, correctly points out that I meant ZENITH, not apogee), multiply the hours by 15, and BAM, there’s your longitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds. Let’s see you try that with a radian.

Then there’s the silly attempt by non North Americans at using some “rational” base for electricity. We use 60Hz. The quick among you will recognize that 60 is merely 12 times 5. That means it can be easily divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, & 30. This is important when you wish to use some speed on your electric motor other than 60 revolutions per second. Simply wire the motor in a different way and you can have a motor that turns at any of those fractions of 60 revs per second. This doesn’t work in Europe because they got all metric with it and specified 50Hz. Because? I don’t know why. Perhaps they were just being obstinate.

Then there’s the fact that it’s French. That’s enough to doom it as far as most of us are concerned.

UPDATE: Thanks to Robert Evans in comments. Check out this section of Tristan Jones’ Saga of a Wayward Sailor. He hits the same points as I do. Start from “Shocking Harridan” in chapter 15 and keep reading. I wish I could cut and paste, but it’s not set up to allow that.

A Mom comes to my blog and Demands

Let’s review the case of Susan K Browder’s daughter, Sara Browder Harris,

Davie County Sheriff Andy Stokes announced Thursday a Greensboro woman who was hospitalized earlier this week after being shot by her husband in Advance has died.

According to Stokes, Sara Browder Harris, 29, passed away Thursday morning at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital.

Sara Harris was shot around 5:30 a.m. Sunday by her husband, 26-year-old (Murder’s name redacted. No fame for killers) of Jacksonville, outside his parents’ home at 628 Riverbend Drive in Advance.

(Murderer) was an active-duty Marine based at Camp Lejeune who had recently returned from Afghanistan.

“He was on leave and visiting with his wife at his parents’ house,” Stokes said.

Newspaper delivery workers called 911 around 6:30 a.m. after finding Sara Harris outside a neighbor’s home across the street. She had been shot in the neck and shoulder.

Deputies said (Murderer) took his own life after shooting his wife. His body was found in the driveway of his parents’ home.

A disgusting crime that would have been punished with life imprisonment had he not took the coward’s way out.

Yesterday I posted about (Ex) mayor Bloomberg’s idiotic cry for more infringements on that which shall not be infringed. He couldn’t even give us Christmas as a day of rest. This morning I received this comment from the murder victim’s mother.

Susan K Browder | December 26, 2013 at 10:36 AM |

My daughter was murdered by a man whose only prior convictions were misdemeanors, numbers 1 and 3, per Mr. Bloomberg’s criteria. I am sure that hers would not have been the only life saved if these criteria had been available as preventative tools. The right to life should preempt the right of a nut case to have easy access to a murder weapon. Why is that concept not easy to grasp?

I responded with

Susan: Your daughter was murdered by an active duty Marine, with access to weapons far beyond what he could have purchased at the store.

I reiterate what I said. If his crimes were serious enough that they warranted the loss of his civil rights, he should have been charged with and convicted of a felony. Until that time, he was a free man living in a free country.

Your pain and loss does not give you the power to take our rights away. None of us was involved in murdering your daughter, so please do us the courtesy of leaving us alone.

Why do people believe that their pain and loss means I should lose my rights? Why do they believe that they have some sort of supreme moral authority to order us to abandon our rights?

Most of all, why do they believe that when they invoke their “authority” as associated victims of violent crime that we will meekly stand and refuse to tell them that they overstep the bounds of decency? They will, of course, scream that I am a terrible person for not immediately bowing to the demands of a woman whose daughter was murdered.

Comments are open on the other post if you have your own questions to ask Ms. Browder. Unlike the anti-gunners, I won’t censor their answers.


Can’t Bloomberg give us even one day of peace?

Merry Christmas, everyone. Want to see (Former) Mayor Bloomberg’s Christmas wish?

States should make background checks for firearm buyers a stronger tool to prevent gun violence by focusing not only on applicants with mental illness but also on whether they have been violent or abused alcohol or drugs, a group of experts says.

Oh, lovely. I just want to spend the day with my family and I get attacked by Bloomie’s anti-gun minions on my holiday.

So what do they propose?

Determining ahead of time who is most likely to shoot others or themselves is the challenge, he said. So the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy has come up with recommendations focused on the past behavior of those who want to buy guns. The report urges states to temporarily suspend gun rights to those who meet these profiles:

  1. Anyone convicted of a violent misdemeanor.
  2. Anyone subject to a temporary domestic-violence restraining order.
  3. Anyone convicted of two or more driving while impaired or misdemeanor controlled substance convictions within five years.

The report recommends temporarily confiscating guns from those who have been briefly held involuntarily in a mental health facility, even if they haven’t been formally committed by a judicial or administrative order. The report suggests states also develop specific timelines and processes for restoring gun rights.

Are you kidding me?

1. “Violent” misdemeanor? They plan on taking away a fundamental civil right based upon a misdemeanor? Of course they do. Never mind that the majority of murders are committed by people with FELONY criminal records. For them, gun ownership and self defense are privileges extended by the state. And since they are not natural civil rights, the State can take those privileges away. No. If it’s serious enough to lose your fundamental civil rights over, it’s serious enough to be a felony.

2. Your civil rights taken away based upon the unsupported word of a woman to a judge in a legal proceeding where you are not even invited to defend yourself sounds more like the workings of a Communist show trial than it sounds like the faithful following of the Constitution, doesn’t it? The problem is that this is already the law. If your wife wants to divorce you, she need only tell a judge that she’d like a restraining order and you’re banned from possessing a firearm in the State. You don’t even get to appear at the first hearing to defend yourself. It sounds like a nightmare to me, but it’s embraced wholeheartedly by the gun ban crowd.

3. Again with the misdemeanors taking away your civil rights. If it’s serious enough to warrant taking away civil rights, it’s serious enough to be a felony.

The best part of this is how they skip over the problem of enforcement. We see “felon in possession” charges punished with 9 months to 18 months in prison. We never see actual hard time. Do these people ask for the serious criminals to get serious jail time for their crimes? No. Whenever something bad happens they run to the nearest podium and demand more restrictions on the people who didn’t do it.

Go home, (Former) mayor Bloomberg, you’re drunk, on power.

A Sad Trombone for (Former) Mayor Jackie Holcombe



Awww. Sad Trombone.


Go listen to the 9 minute pair of interviews HERE.

Good news/bad news

The good news is they caught him.

Raleigh-Durham International Airport police say they were chasing a Raleigh man with a bag stolen from a luggage carousel when he flipped across Glenwood Avenue on Tuesday afternoon.

He was really trying to get away. So much so that he took some serious risks.

(Suspect)’s Ford passenger car was traveling at 75 mph when he attempted to exit Interstate 540 onto Glenwood Avenue, just outside the airport, according to Raleigh police.

(Suspect) lost control and slid off the exit ramp and across two lanes of Glenwood before hitting a concrete median and flipping into the avenue’s central pair of lanes, according to the accident report. Raleigh police say speed and reckless driving contributed to the crash.

“He definitely was airborne for a minute once he hit that rail,” said Daniel Goodwin, who was eastbound on Glenwood Avenue when the Ford somersaulted into the lanes about 75 feet ahead of him. “The concrete median wasn’t even fazed.”

The car was still moving at 65 mph when it hit the median, according to the report. Goodwin estimated that one end of the car somersaulted about 10 feet in the air before landing upside down.

“When it flipped over and landed, it almost pancaked the car,” said Goodwin, a 26-year-old mechanic. “I assumed when it first happened – ‘Oh my gosh, whoever’s in there’s dead.”

So, now for the bad news

In fact, (Suspect), who was wearing a seat belt, according to the accident report, was transported with apparent minor injuries to Duke Hospital in Durham.

And some more bad news


And the worse news. They will eventually let him out to commit more crimes.