Big weekend planned with the family. Up into the mountains, more off-roading, more good, clean fun. I figure since I spent several weekends this last Spring getting a new (used) tranny in my truck and getting it back on the road, it’s only fair that I get in at least that many weekends of wheeling before the snow flies. This should finally get me my equity. If the high mountain snow holds off maybe I can even get a few extra days in.
I’ve been working on the truck evenings, but at least now I’m getting to the little annoying things I’ve been putting off instead of monster jobs that kill days at a time. Like installing a new headlight fixture (the old one was cracked) and fixing the auxiliary power outlets I added in (hooked up straight to the battery so they’re always on) etc.
Below is a video interview with Arne Duncan by the Brady Campaign, a fierce anti-gunner when he was in Chicago and the motivation for one of my longest rants against self-righteous anti-gun people. And forgive me for quoting myself, but I really do think the whole thing is worth a read. I guarantee it will take much less time to read than it took to write .
But in any case I wonder how Mr. Duncan finds it morally acceptable to position the 3 – 4 million NRA members in the same category as “gang bangers and everyone else” who dare to disagree with him on the subject of the 2nd amendment and firearms. And I wonder if he remembers the adage that “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
Perhaps, Mr. Duncan, you would take a moment to read the below. And just perhaps you might realize there are intelligent people who also love children but disagree with you, and in fact think your goals will do more harm than good:
I am an NRA member, Sir. I’m a father of two beautiful children who mean more to me than my guns or ANY material thing in my life. As a live near Littleton I drive by Columbine High School on an almost daily basis. And I never cease to be reminded of that horrendous day in 1999 when two young men took so many lives, maimed others, and then committed suicide. Making that nightmare memory even more real in my mind is the realization that my beautiful girls may very well attend High School in that very building.
I’m aware of the dangers of the world, and if I could make the world safer for my children and the children of others by giving up my guns and supporting the anti-gun groups and their supposed “sensible gun laws” I would do so in a heartbeat. There is nothing more important to me than my girls, and destroying a couple of rifles and sending checks to the Brady Campaign would certainly be an easy and “feel good” solution.
But I think, Mr. Duncan, you have made some serious mistakes in your views; and that your political goals will make my girls’ world, and the country in general, more endangered, not less. And if we, as two adults who love children could converse intelligently for a moment, perhaps you might at least understand why some do not agree with your “common sense” stand, and argue that history reveals your stance to be naïve and short sighted.
Obviously Mr. Duncan is still throwing his full support behind the Brady Campaign … but watch how careful he is not to get nailed down on a specific issue. He stays very general, and when a man with a political position/political aspirations talks in such generalities it is because he wants to avoid being labeled. This is a big difference from his Chicago positions, when he did everything possible to be quoted on the anti-2nd amendment side of things.
I setup a 99 cent coupon for the E-version of my last novel, Off Road, from smashwords.com (coupon JJ72U, every format from Kindle to .pdf) for my FB and Blog friends, and I hope you’ll partake while you have the chance (it expires on Monday). In the meantime I thought I’d repost the series of articles I did earlier this year on the four main elements the story revolves around: traditional and uniquely American views on God, guns, big trucks, and family. If you don’t like Smashwords.com, you can also buy Off Road directly through the Amazon kindle store, in Nook version from Barnes & Noble, or paperback version from Amazon or B&N. On the left sidebar are recommendations from fellow bloggers and others.
First and foremost, of course, Off Road is a four wheeling adventure in the mountains of Colorado based on my own experiences. But at the center of the story is a family — a family torn by their different views of life. One son has become a self righteous progressive, who thinks he’s outgrown the poor rednecks of the family he was born into, while his father and brother still have faith in America as it was originally conceived.
Family:
People like to declare “family” as whatever politically correct relationship they are defending. But though “family” is an expansive term, it is definable: A Family is people who are related to each other, usually by blood, but also by marriage and adoption. And each of these relationships has different caveats, and they don’t indicate similar personalities; but they do mean the people involved are bound for life and beyond. Whether they like it or not. And thank God for that. Literally.
Family isn’t just a theme in Off Road, it’s the basis of the whole story. The “progressive” narrator is living a life based on his personal weaknesses and the emotional trauma he has experienced, and has decided his family represents all the bad things that have happened to him. He particularly despises their obsession with God, guns and big trucks. He has done his best to abandon his embarrassing family members, but the effort has left big holes in his life and personality. Holes that the forced off-road adventure with his father and brother reveal to him.
The moment that I, personally, came to understand what “Family” means — as well as the greatest moment of my life — was about 7 years ago. It was in the wee hours of the morning in a hospital room when my daughter, newborn and breathing her first breaths, reached up from the warming bassinet and grabbed my extended finger. A thrill ran through me like an electric shock, and I literally felt my entire body chemistry change and a hundred unexpected realizations become clear at the same moment.
No longer was I living for myself, now I would live for this little girl. For the first time I truly loved someone more than my own life, and that love would be unconditional and forever. Though that tiny infant couldn’t so much as exchange a single word, and I had just met her for the first time, I knew that if required I would die for her. Or kill for her. And less dramatically, but just as surely, I would sacrifice everything I ever earned for her success.
Then three years later I met my second daughter, whom I was afraid I would feel less for, because I couldn’t see how I could possibly feel as much. But while the father instincts were already activated, the rest of the reaction was no less powerful.
All the fathers I have ever talked to can relate to what I felt, though perhaps I felt it more intensely because I was older than most. In fact, my wife and I had pretty much given up on having children, and I was content with making other plans for my life, as I knew I could have a good life without dependents. We were both working professional jobs and keeping our bills low, and were on track with a plan from an investment counselor to retire at age 55. And we were taking yearly trips to Europe or overseas and heading out of town several weekends a year besides. Life was good, and the money flowed easily, and whatever expensive electronic gizmo I wanted was mine.
Friends my age with growing children could only look on with obvious envy in their eyes (though I noticed none were envious enough to regret their children), and in some ways I was almost glad to be childless.
But then came the magical night when my first daughter came into the world, and a just-as-magical night when my second daughter arrived. And the plan to retire at 55 was out the window (I will probably breathe my last as I hand off a cart as a greeter at Wal Mart) as were the trips to Europe. And the ability to buy whatever expensive toy caught my fancy was over. Because now I had to pay for baby furniture, pre-school, insurance, Tae Kwando … and on one paycheck, as my wife no longer brings in a regular paycheck (I can’t say she doesn’t work, because she works harder than ever).
But I wouldn’t have it any other way. As a friend said, “you can’t imagine having children until you have them, and then you can’t imagine NOT having children.” That is my life. And I love it.
In Off Road the narrator has a similar epiphany about family, but it’s over the course of a wild off-roading adventure and not from a single night and meeting his first born.
Off Road
The best book ever written!
By me, anyway.
Set against the background of the American civil war of “progressives” vs. patriotic American traditionalists and a family caught in the middle, Off Road is a journey into the uniquely American world of God, guns, big trucks … and family.
The Obama administration has been relatively careful about not showing its anti-gun colors, but they’ve failed this time. South Korea has thousands of rifles that we gave/leased to them (I’m not 100% sure which based on the stories I’ve read) and now they want to return them to the U.S. for sale via the CMP to US citizens. The CMP was originally setup by congress to sell surplus firearms to US citizens with a few extra caveats, and while it was privatized some years back it still funnels returned firearms from foreign armies to US citizens at affordable prices. And all weapons sold are background checked and go through a licensed firearms dealer.
Getting an M1 Garand, the kind of gun my father carried in WWII, is one of the few empty slots left on the short list of guns I’d like to own. And an M1 carbine, another WWII era weapon, is right below it.
M1 Garand -- the workhorse of WWII
What makes this Obama decision so criminally stupid … the M1 Garand does NOT take a “high capacity” magazine and CANNOT take a high capacity magazine. It uses an 8 round en bloc clip (and “clip” is the right term here) that you slap down through the top. And it fires the .30-06, a powerful rifle round. For both of those reasons you’ll not be finding any street gangs making use of it, and while it’s still an awesome weapon from an historical and civilian sport shooting viewpoint … it is obsolete from a military point of view.
M1 Carbine - a fine old weapon designed for a rather weak cartridge.
The M1 Carbine fires a relatively weak cartridge, .30 carbine, and while it does take a detachable magazine it’s a wooden stocked rifle that, again … I don’t think you’ll see any gang members attracted too. The few gang members who want a long gun are going to want an AK as a status symbol as they really don’t care for history … but in any case there are very few gangs that use or even want long rifles, as it is pistols that are concealable and used in almost all crimes.
It would be a crime to destroy these historical weapons. They should be returned to the people of the country that paid for them. And made available for future generations to shoot and enjoy and experience a major piece of history.
When I bought my first rifle last year I thought hard about an M1 Garand, but decided instead on an AR-15 because it’s modern and more buildable. I just hope these fine rifles are still available when I do come up with the money, as whenever I shoot one I’m reminded of the greatest generation and feel somehow closer to my own father, imagining him as an 18 year old small town boy suddenly drafted into a World War and sent overseas.
If Mr. Obama has his way, my chances of experiencing that with my own M1 will be diminished. And so will everyone else’s. For no reason except he just plain doesn’t like guns and doesn’t trust guns of any kind in the hands of the American people.
The Montreal Gazette has an article on the Canadian Parliament move to end their disastrous long gun registration scam — you know, the one that cost a billion dollars and did nothing to reduce crime — and in it they take the various common anti-gun control arguments and do a replacement of “car” for “gun” and believe it somehow means something. Anti-gunner Mike B. even points to it as though it’s not an exercise in idiocy, which prompts the question: Do anti-gun people even try to think these things through?
As you can see, when you read the article, sometimes the replacement of “gun” with “car” produces gibberish, and at other times it just proves the pro-gun logic. Just more proof on how out of touch the anti’s are. In any case, it just amazes me that anyone allowed all of these silly examples to actually be published. (NOTE: MikeB is is referring to a blog post from Laci, but I can’t even open her site without feeling I need a shower, whereas after reading Mike’s site I just feel as though I’ve been grading the homework from a 3rd grade special ed logic class)
All of these arguments I have found myself before pasting them here, so it’s not really a quote at all, which is why I’m using so much of it:
Cars don’t kill people, people kill people.
Do Canadians think that cars do kill people? Do Canadians think the Stephen King Movie/Book Christineis a documentary? Cars don’t kill people. Guns don’t kill people. The only machines that kill people are the fictional demonic vehicle Christine and the hunter/killer machines we see in Terminator. And I believe the former is possessed so really it’s the demon and not the machine in that case .
Criminals won’t register their cars, they’ll just go out and steal them or smuggle them in.
Correct. There are many people driving unlicensed vehicles in Colorado, particularly illegal aliens (ask any Cop) and many more (about 30%) do not get the legally mandated insurance.
Forcing me to keep my car and car keys separate when I’m not using them is dumb. What if there’s a coyote in my field and I have to run into the house to get my keys so I can go run the coyote over? By the time I get my keys, he’ll be gone. Yet if I leave my keys in the car and some kid steals it and kills someone with it, they think I’m the one acting irresponsibly! That’s crazy!
To some extent the above is gibberish, because anyone who takes their car out to kill a coyote in a field is stupid. But yes … if a kid steals your car and acts irresponsibly with it they are the one being the criminal, no matter where your keys are or how stupid you were about security. But in any case there is no law about keeping keys out of cars, even though doing otherwise is stupid. But it’s not like anybody wants to leave their guns sitting in the driveway fully loaded overnight. We just want to make the decision on how to keep our guns secure, rather than a law which doesn’t take anything of our particular situation into account and says we have to take the weapon apart and store it in a particular way. Just like we don’t want a law that says we have to remove the spark plugs from our car every night because somebody might steal it and go for a joy ride.
90% of car crimes are committed with sporty cars, not trucks, so why should truck owners by forced to register their vehicles?
The purpose of car registration was never to end crimes with cars, it was to bring money in for cars used on public streets. If car registration was to end car crime, and 90% of crimes were committed with truckss, then wouldn’t it make sense to only force registration of trucks? But in any case, car registration is a revenue issue. Gun registration isn’t a revenue issue, it’s a control issue.
The car registry penalizes the majority of vehicle owners, who are law abiding citizens, by imposing bureaucratic procedures and fees on them, as well as making them vulnerable to prosecution for failing to register their cars.
Again … car registration is for revenue, and law-abiding people pay revenue as well as anyone else. More than every one else. Duh.
If a lunatic decides to take a bunch of people out, it really won’t matter to him whether or not the car is registered.
Well … yeah. And again, duh. Does anyone think there’s someone out there who wants to take their car and drive it into a crowd of school children but haven’t done it because the car is licensed in their name?
It’s not the fear of registering cars, it’s the cost for each car, plus the hassle you have to go through. Plus you have to take a driver safety course in order to get a permit to drive the car. I’ve been driving without a license all my life, why should I have to take a safety course? My dad taught me everything I need to know.
Do you have to get a new license/take training for every new car you buy in Canada? It is a hassle to register something whether it’s a gun or a car. With cars we have to do it for revenue generation and to pay for the roads the cars drive on. What infrastructure is it we need for people to own guns? They travel in our cars in the same cars that we license to pay for the roads. Just plain stupid.
The original cost of implementing the registry was estimated at approximately $120 million, with most of the costs being covered by registration fees. Subsequent reviews, however, have shown the actual cost to be closer to $2 billion.
How about you don’t keep throwing good money after bad? The $2 billion is gone, who throw another $2 billion after it?
As a note … I’ve always been a fan of the since you register cars you should register guns in the same way argument. Because I’d be fine with that. Because the thing is … you don’t HAVE to register a car to buy a car. I can buy as many cars as I want for my property in the mountains, and I have to pay sales tax but I don’t have to register or license them. Or have a driver’s license to drive them on anybody’s private property where I have the owner’s permission. Or even to transport them on city streets so long as I’m not driving them (i.e. on a trailer). And I can own any car I can afford to drive.
So … if Federal gun laws were reduced so that I could buy absolutely any gun I wanted, full auto or whatever, shoot it, transport it, but just not carry it loaded in public unless I got an easily obtainable shall-issue registration and license for that one particular gun … yeah. That wouldn’t be bad at all. I’d take it if it would end all the anti-gun crap.
Anti-gun people are just funny. They live in such a different world that they think comparisons like the one above somehow prove their viewpoint. I guess that’s why they’re still losing more than they’re winning.
So carry on anti-gun people. You’re doing JUST FINE!!!!
The title is intended to be a bit inflammatory … but in any case, this article was interesting. During most of my life growing up “bed bugs” were just a joke. I never heard of anyone actually seeing one or a house infected with them — and I grew up in a very poor and rural place. But just in the last few years the number of people I know affected is startling. There were some quite well-off friends of ours who picked them up in a hotel in Wyoming. Then the college student daughter of a friend of ours got them in her house (shared with several other students, of course). Those are the people I know well who were affected, but there are other’s I know of who have had the problem, and all the stories of dealing with them were pretty awful. And it turns out that bed bugs really are back, after being practically eradicated from between WWII and the mid 1990′s.
And for those of you who haven’t talked to someone who has experienced the bed bug resurgence … once you get bed bugs in your house, from any source, they are a seriously nasty infestation and can take forever to get rid of. Because after much, much labor you think you have them beat … and suddenly they’re back again. And it doesn’t matter how fastidious you are — bed bugs don’t go after dirt or filth, they’re there for you. And if you’re extremely clean … you’re just a hygienic eating environment.
Around when bed bugs started their resurgence, Congress passed a major pesticides law in 1996 and the Clinton EPA banned several classes of chemicals that had been effective bed bug killers.
The debate isn’t over long-banned DDT, since modern bed bugs have developed a tolerance for that chemical. But in the pre-1996 regime, experts say, bed bugs were “collateral damage” from broader and more aggressive use of now-banned pesticides like Malathion and Propoxur.
Now …I don’t follow the politics of pesticides, and have no idea what the debate was over these two particular chemicals was about or how serious … but I have read about other chemicals that were eliminated from usage and have caused considerably more harm to humanity from their elimination before there were satisfactory replacement than their existence. Such as when DDT was banned and malaria deaths in Africa skyrocketed. So now we’re sending mosquito nets to Africa to help save lives, but it’s still not as effective as DDT was (and BTW — the DDT link is obviously from a biased organization, but the info is good. And sending mosquito nets to Africa is also a good thing to do and I salute the effort … but there are other steps we could take that would be less politically correct but save more lives).
But that’s the trouble with the extreme “environmentalist” (or so they call themselves) left, as they have plenty of dogma but no common sense. Such as in Germany where they’ve outlawed nuclear power but allowed for no new means of generating power. Or here in the US, where we still use oil/still need oil/will continue to buy oil not matter what the price or source/still require cheap energy to keep our economy going and keep people employed … and the current administration is doing everything they can do keep us from getting more domestic oil from our greatest sources: Alaska and the Gulf. While railing against our usage of foreign oil!
As I have spoken of before, I am a person who cares deeply and personally about the environment. I spend every weekend I can in the great out doors and I know exactly what we are protecting and why. But as humans we still have to live on the Earth, and we need sensible environmental policies that take into account all aspects of human existence, not just an anti-energy/anti-technology dogma that somehow slowing down progress or taking away modern conveniences will make the world better.
I setup a 99 cent coupon for the E-version of my last novel, Off Road, from smashwords.com (coupon JJ72U, every format from Kindle to .pdf) for my FB and Blog friends, and I hope you’ll partake while you have the chance. In the meantime I thought I’d repost the series of articles I did earlier this year on the four main elements the story revolves around: traditional and uniquely American views on God, guns, big trucks, and family. If you don’t like Smashwords.com, you can also buy Off Road directly through the Amazon kindle store or in Nook version from Barnes & Noble, or paperback version from Amazon or B&N. On the left sidebar are some recommendations from fellow bloggers and others.
First and foremost, of course, Off Road is a four wheeling adventure in the mountains of Colorado based on my own experiences. So techniques of technical off-roading are pretty important, as well as some talk about vehicles.
Off Roading:
I’ve never seen a novel about technical off-roading. So I wrote one. I also enjoy introducing newbies with shiny SUV’s to remote trails, and watch them light up when they climb a gnarly obstacle in 4low. And my book attempts that introduction as well. And from the reviews I’ve gotten, it even looks like I managed to write a compelling story.
In terms of Off-Roading (big trucks), Off Road tells the story of a “progressive” who considers himself an environmentalist, even though he lives in the city and his idea of exploring nature is a picnic at a roadside table. He knows how to talk “green,” but now he’s forced to deal with the wilderness that he’s always considered himself a defender of. And he discovers that it’s not just worth protecting, it’s worth experiencing, and “protecting” doesn’t mean fencing it all off. Even if it’s not always friendly … and can kill you if you’re not prepared to meet it on its own terms.
When you start experimenting with off-roading the first technical trail you tackle is the one you’ll always remember. Like most people I tackled mine with normal sized street tires on an SUV I still owed payments on. And when I realized what that SUV was capable of and where it would take me, I was hooked. And though I never imagined I’d go further than a stock 4×4, before long I had bigger tires that were made for off-roading. Then came a winch. Then a rear locker. Then a mix of body lift and suspension lift to fit yet bigger tires. Then a front locker. Then a lower gear to put in the transfer case (if I’d gotten that last one earlier, I might not have had to spend several weekends last Spring replacing the tranny).
Now that I have the built-up vehicle I started dreaming about when I discovered how much fun off-roading was, I sometimes miss wheeling in a stocker. The challenges are greater, but so are the rewards. Especially when I would be sitting with my friends having lunch besides a nasty 4×4 trail and a group of Jeepers would come by and their jaw would drop at seeing my stock vehicle on the same trail they were struggling with.
So if you’re interested in off-roading, or are an off-roader, I think you’ll find this book interesting. Here’s an excerpt of the main character facing his first technical obstacle:
I looked the direction he was pointing. After a moment I realized I was looking not at raw wilderness but a road of sorts – two ruts the width of a vehicle running straight across big rocks blackened by tires. Trees on either side bracketed the road with barely enough room to pass between and their branches touched overhead.
It would have been a beautiful scene of a narrow track into the wilderness. Except for the sick feeling that came over me as I realized that this was what they wanted me to drive my forty thousand dollar vehicle up. This was off-roading. Scratchy trees and big rocks.
As I looked further, the sick feeling grew stronger. About two hundred yards away the road appeared to go straight up. I couldn’t imagine that was possible, but there were tire tracks climbing up a slope that most people would consider a cliff. Or at least nothing a sane person would try to drive up.
Gary clapped me on the back. “C’mon, Man. Let’s air down, lock ‘em up and get this show on the road!”
None of those words meant anything to me. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Gary said, as he pulled what looked like a set of bright blue tire valve caps out of his truck, “it’s time to air down the tires and lock up the hubs. Except your truck, which doesn’t have hubs to lock up.”
“Yeah,” Dad chimed in, “that truck is too civilized to make someone get out and touch the wheels. Might get mud on their tuxedo.” He laughed at his own joke.
I walked behind Gary as he bent down to one of his over sized tires and screwed on one of the blue valve caps. The tire hissed as air rushed out.
“You’re flattening the tires?” Seemed weird to me.
“Nah. Just bringing down the air pressure. Not all the way flat.”
I thought of how much my tires had cost. “Is that good for the tires?”
Dad had walked up behind me. “Damned right it’s good for the tires. If you don’t want a flat, you’ll air ‘em down here.”
Gary occasionally checked the tire with his gauge. “Yup. Airing ‘em down lets the tire fold over sharp rocks and tree roots and stuff. Instead of getting a puncture. Spreads the weight out so sharp stuff doesn’t tear them up.” He turned to Dad. “You know, Dad … sometimes I forget what it’s like when you haven’t done this stuff before. You sure it’s a good idea to take Paully up this road?”
“Hell,” Dad snapped back, “I took my Bronco up there just about brand new. And those Jap rigs are better than you think. It’ll do it.”
“Forget about the truck.” Gary looked for an answer in my facial expression, “I just don’t know if Paully’s ready.”
If you buy the book and enjoy it, let me know. If you don’t enjoy it … well, we need never speak of it.
Working the gun show today for the NRA/CSSA one particular gun really caught my attention: the Sig Sauer P238 with 6+1 rounds of .380 shooting goodness. It’s actually a gun that caught my attention before, at the NRA convention in 2009, but I’m giving my rejection of it a rethink. My only problem with this gun … it’s a single action (SA) pistol, which means to have it ready to shoot you have to carry it cocked and locked (hammer back/thumb safety on) but there is no grip safety, like you’d find on a 1911.
Sweet little .380, but single action with no grip safety. So do you carry it cocked and locked or have to thumb back the hammer?
I guess I’m kind of an old-timer by today’s standards, because even though I’ve VERY aware (please don’t email me or bother with comments questioning my gunnie cred) that no gun goes off unless the trigger is pulled I prefer another level of safety between me and the *bang*. Blame it on my own clumsiness if you want, I’m not asking everyone to take my position, but when I’m handling a gun almost every day I want a little extra protection from my own stupidity. So although my gun has to be ready to go in the highly unlikely event I ever need it, I also want to make sure that handling the gun isn’t bringing more risk into my life over a period of decades than less. So while some gunnie brethren will scoff, to put that into perspective: I probably carry 5 days a week or thereabouts, and if I do that for the next 30 years that’s 15,600 times I’ll handle my carry gun, figuring one time per carry day to strap it on and put it away. That’s a lot of chances to do something really, really clumsy or dumb.
So that’s my viewpoint. Share it, mock it, or quit reading.
But anyway … for semi-automatics, my preference is a frame mounted thumb safety that goes down for fire (such as on my favorite type of firearm, a 1911). So as much as I love Glocks, and as much as I’d probably carry one if I were a cop (like every cop I know), you won’t find one as my daily carry. At least as long as I’m a Suburbs dwelling computer guy and crime still at it’s current rather low level.
Basically, I want two levels of what I call “safety” barriers in a carry gun between me and the *bang*. A DA type trigger pull equals 1 and then I want another level of safety besides. So, surprisingly to some, who become scared at the sight of a hammer back, a cocked and locked 1911 meets that standard easily. For a cocked and locked 1911 you have the thumb safety, the grip safety, and the SA trigger. That’s a lot of things to have to go wrong to have a negligent misfire, and I’ve got no problem with one shoved into my belt while I’m hauling my kids around town or doing shopping.
My Bersa Ultra Compact 9mm (which I also love, BTW) also has two levels of safety, with one being the DA/SA trigger pull and the other the thumb safety. Labeled ultra compact or not, however, it’s a tad large to wear in my summer dress of blue jeans and T-shirt.
My normal carry is actually a revolver. And though I realize that with a revolver all you have is the trigger between you and *bang*, I still give it a pass. It’s a very hard trigger pull, and to fire in DA mode the cylinder has to turn and the hammer has to come back, so it’s not going to happen accidentally while carrying or handling.
But back to the Sig P238 … I’m going to give it some hard thought. It’s an awesome size for a carry gun, and I’ve got no problem with the .380 as a self defense round for my lifestyle (most CCW citizens I know carry .32′s). The problem is I don’t think I want to carry it cocked and locked. In all my years of carry and gun handling, I’ve never had a trigger accidentally get pulled in any fashion, but I have pulled a gun out of the holster and found the safety off.
So if I carried the P238 I’d probably carry it hammer down. Not only does hammer down mean I have to drop the hammer on a live round every time I load it, which I really only do once between every trip to the range (and I only shoot my carry gun once a year or so), it also means that if the unthinkable actually happens and I have to draw the weapon … at a time of great stress and possibly panic I have to successfully get the hammer back to turn my CCW rock into a gun. I feel pretty comfortable I can thumb a safety down — it’s something I do automatically at the range every time I raise my carry gun to fire, even if it’s already off, so it’s deep in my muscle memory. But having to pull the hammer back …
On the other hand, if I’m ever in what seems to be a bad situation, as it develops I can reach back and surreptitiously put the hammer back in advance.
I dunno. First I need to get the budget for a new gun and holster, then I need to decide what my priority is. The 5 shot snubby I currently carry most often may not be the most powerful handgun int he world, but it’s comfortable to carry/conceal and 5 rounds of .357 can really change a bad situation in my favor. Certainly better than no gun and a lot of pleading.
Below is a video if you’re really interested. It goes a bit slow but covers about everything about the gun, though the mag problem would seem to be fixed. Don’t bother watching it unless you seriously want some more info … because it’s a bit on the long side and he even responds to his cell phone while recording.
If anyone’s going to the GUN SHOW OF THE ROCKIES today at the Crowne Plaza/Holiday Inn at I-70 and Chambers Road in Aurora, CO, I’ll be working the CSSA booth and selling copies of my novel, Off Road, on the side. If anyone would like to buy an autographed copy or have their current copy autographed (why you’d want my scrawl on a nicely printed book I have no idea) come look me up. I’ll be the tall, well-fed guy with graying hair and goat’.
And of course it’s a good time to join the CSSA or NRA or renew a membership to either.
I sell books in person for $10 and give $1 to the CSSA as a donation.
I setup a 99 cent coupon for the E-version of my last novel, Off Road, from smashwords.com (coupon JJ72U, every format from Kindle to .pdf) for my FB and Blog friends, and I hope you’ll partake while you have the chance. In the meantime I thought I’d repost the series of articles I did earlier this year on the four main elements the story revolves around: traditional and uniquely American views on God, guns, big trucks, and family.
First and foremost, of course, Off Road is a four wheeling adventure in the mountains of Colorado based on my own experiences. And I think my FB friends and blog followers will enjoy seeing the main character, a “progressive” dweeb, get his eyes opened — it’s a lot of fun on many levels.
If you don’t like Smashwords.com, you can also buy Off Road directly through the Amazon kindle store or in Nook version from Barnes & Noble, or paperback version from Amazon or B&N. On the left sidebar are some recommendations from fellow bloggers and others.
This weekend I’ll actually be off roading in my truck (33″ Wrangler MT’s, lockers front and back, Teraflex low gear, winch) with my family in the beautiful mountains of Colorado (God’s country) so I’ll be experiencing the themes of the novel instead of blogging .
GUNS, American Style:
I don’t blindly accept gun ownership as a sacred right. I’ve often questioned the value of it very honestly, and always come to the same conclusion: the 2nd amendment is as important today as it ever was, and Americans should celebrate the right to own guns. Yes, we do have a violence problem in this country, but that problem is due to cultural issues and NOT access to firearms (it is what is in the heart, not the hand, that makes a man a murderer). And the violence issue is a reason to support legal gun ownership/legal carrying of guns, not oppose it.
In terms of guns, Off Road tells the story of a “progressive” who blindly follows the mantra of “more guns equals more crime” until he finds himself confronted by the facts of gun ownership. Not to mention the hazard of choosing to unilaterally disarm by NOT owning a gun in a country where every criminal has one. But more than that … what red blooded male doesn’t immediately learn to love the simple joy of handling and shooting guns? Particularly a model 1911 .45 that his own father carried in the Korean war?
I focused on the gun in my hands, the most foreign piece of metal I’d ever touched. I flipped it over a few times to get a feel for it. It looked robust, but rough around the edges. Definitely not the most finely crafted mechanism I’d ever held. It was lighter than I thought it would be.
Gary knelt beside me and held out a shiny box magazine with a fat bullet sticking through the top. He raised his voice louder than he should have to break the uncomfortable silence. “You ready to load her up, brother? Ready to cut loose?”
“Yeah.” I tried again. “Hell yeah! Let’s do this thing!”
…
My heart beat faster. For the first time in my life I was holding a loaded gun. A gun that had killed somebody. A gun that had saved a life. My hand shook and it was hard to keep the sights lined up on the now tiny upper target.
“Control your breathing,” Gary warned, “breathe out, hold your breath just a little bit, then squeeze the trigger.”
My finger moved to the trigger, a thin line of cold steel against my ultra sensitive skin. But I couldn’t bring myself to pull it back. I chided myself again that this was just a piece of hundred year old technology. But it was not technology I was accustomed to. I steadied my hands and through force of will began to tighten my grip.
*BANG!*
The facts on civilian gun ownership just seem simple to me:
When people who have money and don’t care about the law want something, they get it. i.e. the U.S. war on drugs, which has done nothing to stop drugs from being available to those who have money and don’t care about the law.
But the difference between drug control laws and gun control laws is:
Recreational drugs have virtually no positive value, and destroy many lives, so drug laws can be said to accomplish something worthwhile by at least keeping drugs away from people who care about the law.
But gun ownership does have a proven value to society, both in self defense for individuals and as the final balance against a government turned tyrannical (which is unthinkable now, but who’s to say what the country will be like in 30 years?).
I believe every American who doesn’t have a specific reason not to should own a firearm, and learn to use it. A nation of rifleman can never be conquered or truly opressed. And if you live in a minority subculture of some kind, be it by race or religion or whatever, all the more reason to own a firearm and talk your neighbors into owning one as well.
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