Well, another year is upon us.In retrospect, 2008 was an excellent year. Job is excellent, no worries about my future here. Home is likewise excellent with a loving fiancee who will become my wife this year along with my adopted, four-legged furry son. Life with a dingo is never boring. I call it toddler boot camp. And no, following my April w...

I got asked the horrible question the other night of "When will your gun collection be complete?".Apparently the answer "Never." doesn't go over well in wife land.We also have a disconnect on the meaning of the word "recent". In past conversations, my acquisition plans have been addressed along the lines of "How many guns am I allowed to purchase ...

Yes folks, I am still alive. I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Been absolutely slammed at work trying to get this software project deployed for testing and it has been one problem after another. I have been working 12 hour days for the past two weeks and just haven't had time to get material together.On a brighter note, I did make a ho...

I would like to engage you in a thought exercise.At age 18, you become a legal adult with all the rights and responsibilities that come with it. Except for one. You don't have the right to vote immediately. Instead, in order to vote, you have to prove yourself worth of such a responsibility. To do so, you are required to do the following:File F...

CNN had this article up regarding the movie "A Christmas Story" that has become a sort of modern Christmas tradition for many Americans. I like the movie even though my Christmas tradition was the black-and-white version of "A Christmas Carol" starring Alastair Sim.What I want to point out in the article is an amusing case of journalistic restrain...

Dock, in relation to this post, asks:I have read, and re-read, your post with a certain fascination.Please do not mistake my tone for anything more than sheer curiosity... but...... your position is that you would take up arms against the Quebecois if they declared sovereignty? Why would you feel the need to do that?The short answer to your questio...

A conversation at work recently went something like this...Co-worker: What are you doing to deal with keeping to lose money in this economy?Me: I'm investing in commodities.Co-worker: Really? Which ones? Gold, silver?Me: No. Can't afford gold or silver. I'm investing in copper, brass, lead, steel and aluminum.It took them several second to real...

You want to know one of the differences between the Armed Canadian and my American compatriots?You've never had to contemplate actually bearing arms against your own countrymen in your lifetime.Sebastian and others have talked about the "Three Percenters". Like everyone, I have my own "line in the sand" and when I think it would be appropriate to ...

Happiness is getting a package from DSA!Inside were things to make Baby Obama cry. We had long, lethal, accuracy enhancing flash hiders (two of them!), a hip-hugger, blood rage pistol grip, those murderous high-capacity 20 round magazines that no mere mortal civilian can possibly control and worst of all, a tome of pure, undistilled, pants-wetting...

I don't normally do "Quotes of the Day" but this one is too good to let go. From the comment thread on David Kopel's treatment of Judge Wilkinson's disagreement about Heller comes this beauty from user NaG on the Volokh Conspiracy. Specifically, against Judge Wilkinson's notion that the Courts should defer to the legislatures in matters of regula...

Greg did it so here's my list...1. Started your own blog. - You're here, aren't you?2. Slept under the stars. - Yes. Many places.3. Played in a band. - No. Can't play an instrument to save my life.4. Visited Hawaii. - Someday. Want to get my "4 Iowa-class battleship card" and USS Missouri is #3. Also want to visit the Keck Telescope. Told you ...

Joanna has her thoughts up on her shooting introduction. Go give it a read! I'm glad she had fun and sorry about her bruise. Yes, Joanna, tucking the stock into the pocket of your shoulder will prevent that from happening. Hence why I use AR-15s and not Mosin-Nagants! I come home with bruises from those rifles.They gave us a little holiday bon...

Greg of West, By God, posted a question to me on this post:Does anyone use original muskets for reenactments? Do you know anything about the value of originals?I found an interesting one for sale locally... I'm trying to figure out if its a good deal or not. It looks like a springfield 1863 with the breechloading modification. To answer your first ...

On Saturday, I did another new shooter introduction. In this case, it was a regular reader who maintains her own blog. Joanna and Jonathan were down for Thanksgiving and Joanna asked if I would be willing to do an introduction for her. Although being pro-2nd Amendment, she felt she was hypocritical for having never handled or fired a gun. This she ...

Well, DS Arms billed me. Unfortunately, I was short-billed by around $70 which means the hammer, trigger and sear (HTS) kit is probably back-ordered. I can't tell since their site isn't displaying the order contents nor does the e-mail they sent me. All I have is the confirmation screen I printed out when I placed the order.The good news is bei...

CNN is running a cute little piece giving President-Elect Obama six pieces of advice from blunders made by past Presidents. I thought I would offer Mr. Obama another one.Lesson Seven: Remember 1994Clinton yet again. The Democratic majority through 1993 and into 1994 was pushing for a comprehensive "assault weapon" ban at the behest of anti-gun gr...

My wallet is calling me some vile names right now.I have done my National Ammo Day duty and added just under 3300 rounds to the pile. The maxim with ammunition is "Stack it high, stack it deep.". I follow my own corollary on the topic of "If you can't stack it deep, go broad.".I was at the gun show Friday afternoon at 1pm to get advance tickets. ...

I have been in a real punchy mood lately. I have been commenting on blogs the past couple days at a rate I never have before and have been enjoying it.With the folks I have commented to (Robb, JTBolt, Mad Rocket Scientist, tgirsch and others), it would be huge fun to be at a table with you all surrounded by drink and appetizers and just having a g...

Well, I'm pleased with myself. I got a two-fer yesterday.Thanks Robb for the Quote of the Day! The quote is in regard to hunters and other gun owners who don't see a problem with "reasonable restrictions" on non-traditional looking rifles up to and including bans on them. Sportsmen often don't care about gun uses outside of their own and many do...

Why on Earth are Somali pirates even still breathing?!?You want to know how the "Golden Age of Piracy" came to an end back in the day? The various seafaring nations of the world hired privateers to hunt them down while they built up their naval forces. Once they had their naval forces, they sent their navies out to deal with the issue. No quarte...

Four days to the last Nation's Gun Show of the year in this area in Chantilly, VA. I scheduled a half-day off work to attend so I could get in line early. I think that is very prudent planning given the frenzied chaos I am expecting to see.I predict two things for this show: 1) Practically no ammo available in .308, .223, 7.62x39mm and several co...

I just got off the phone with DS Arms. My order status changed to "Backordered" and the items on the list disappeared. Not knowing what that meant, I gave them a call asking to see how bad it was.The fellow I spoke to was friendly and certainly willing to talk! Quite hurriedly too. He told me DSA was at least 10 days behind on order processing ...

I need to ask a supremely idiotic question here....Why is everyone scrambling to buy stripped AR-15 lower receivers on the chance of a future AWB ("assault weapon" ban)?I've come to the conclusion that there is no rationale behind it with the exception that if you don't have an EBR (evil black rifle), why not use this as an excuse to buy one? And ...

I would like to expand a little on my Remembrance Day post from yesterday.Given I am from Canada, I view Veteran's Day, as you call it here, a little differently than most Americans. I don't know how things are done here or were done when other 30 something year old Americans were in school. For me, Remembrance Day was the same affair year after ...

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I am not succumbing to the panic buying. I will take opportunities to stock but I am not going out of my way to acquire anything that wasn't already on the immediate list. Just shuffling things up and down on the list.So the only order I've made is for a can of 8x56R for my Steyr M95. I figured that caliber won't exactly be flying off shelves. ...

Obama has his transition policy up on his website. Of course, it contains the Democratic Party position on guns straight from their platform:- Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police ...

I know I'm small-time in the blog world but my traffic has gone up quite a bit in the past week. I've been checking the referral logs and I thought you might want to see the search terms that are landing people here. Some of the terms include:obama is going to take our gunsObama's first act in office constitutionobama awbbiden ammo taxcan the gov...

Since the rest of the world seems ecstatic at the rise of Obama to the Presidency, the expectation is in their minds that those war-mongering, pesky, ignorant, brutal Americans won't be butting their noses where they don't belong. Given his stated intention to hobble the military, bloggers are already reporting people planning to leave the service...

Well, he won. I guess America liked the nice, deep hole and decided to see what it was like to leap in.Oh well, no use crying about it now. It is what it is and we'll just have to deal with each issue and attempted infringement as it comes.I received but a single instruction from my fiancee: "Don't go overboard". She knows I'm upset and how I fe...

Just a last minute prediction before I head home.If this election is close, within perhaps 1% of each other, I fully expect to be a whole range of debates, challenges, recounts, lawsuits and so on. I don't think either candidate is going to concede until the last ballot is counted. This one is going to the mat and may take weeks to fully resolve ...

An anonymous commenter posted the following on yesterday's post:I have no problem, with Obama being black (although he really isn't); what I strenuously object to is the fact that he is RED.Sir or madam, kudos right there!So what if Obama wins today?I'm not quite the pessimist that Tam is. I happen to agree that it is one possible outcome and one ...

With the election tomorrow and yours truly consigned to the sidelines this time, all I can offer are my predictions on the outcome. Tomorrow I plan to be sitting in front of my computer, TV off and doing my best to kill virtual battleships for the greater glory of my corporation in EVE Online. Or avoiding radioactive raiders in Fallout 3. Either...

This guy's house would be very popular in my neighborhood. Check out the Predator pumpkin! These are works of art....

If you are a hunter, target shooter or individual with a fair amount of money to spend on a new bolt-action rifle in any caliber, may I recommend that you NOT purchase a Cooper Arms rifle (link not provided deliberately).Why? Because Dan Cooper, CEO of the company, has decided to back Senator Obama as President. In this regard, I see him no diffe...

I got to have some fun over the weekend and shot a silhouette black powder match at the Fairfax Rod and Gun Club. One of the members of the Blue rifles invited me out to shoot it with one of his muskets. Since the team decided not to shoot one of the end season skirmishes, he had ammo made up he "needed" to shoot off. So he enlisted my help and ...

Dave Hardy points to an article in the New York Times about some right-leaning judges being upset over the Heller ruling as judicial activism.I would like to make a comment on this because I think notions of left and right justice are dangerous to hold.I think the difference between left and right judicial philosophies is the left wants to have max...

Tam has a post up talking about the often misused term of "arsenal" as applied to the media whenever someone is found with guns. To the media, anything more than two guns is an "arsenal". Anything more than 100 rounds is preparation for a shooting spree.I've heard those loose definitions bandied about over the years and when I started collecting ...

No, not guns. I bought a new laptop yesterday. I've been without since I sold my netbook and my old G3 iBook just doesn't cut it for what I want to do. I have three tasks I want to partake in with one being optional. They are:Write software.Write.Play EVE Online.The third is a "nice to have". But it did shape the choice. I wanted a basic machi...

Robb and Roberta ask "Why do you shoot?". Hmm, something I can answer since my blog muse seems to be on vacation lately.Why do I shoot?The bare truth of the matter is because I can and to seek out the forbidden. My mother hates guns and discouraged their use when I was younger. My neighbor had an air rifle he would shoot in his backyard and let ...

Some people have weekend projects like to build cabinets, cut the lawn or put new plumbing in the bathroom. You know, typical handyman activities around the house. Normal things. Civilized things.Me, I've found some time to start restoring a 100+ year old piece of history. Most folks think home work as removing scum from tile. I removed scum fr...

What a week! First, I'm sick. I've gotten my bi-yearly cold and just getting over that. I didn't take Sebastian's advice and I did look. Lost nearly 30% of my total 401(k) value in under a week.Glad I don't work that portfolio right now. I take a positive view to the whole thing. So far, the losses haven't wiped out my employer contributions ye...

Weekend was fun. Went to Fort Shenandoah on Friday for the N-SSA Nationals. Got my most of my uniform bits and ordered those they didn't have. Started to pick up my supplies. Now all I need to do is figure out my musket and get headed down the path of learning the secret art of black powder and casting lead bullets. Saturday I went to Quantico....

Going to Quantico tomorrow. 100 yards only in the morning and I'm trying to figure out what to bring. Leaning towards .17HMR and an AR-15 to do some sight in. Any local area readers interested in tagging along? I'm going to be there between 9am and 12pm (range is only open for four hours starting at 8am). If interested in coming along, drop me ...

Starting today, the USCIS (that's INS for you older folks) have introduced a new US citizenship test. This replaces the current citizenship test and actually, gasp, requires its takers to know stuff in abstract ways. In addition, it is no longer multiple choice! The questions will be asked to the prospective citizen in English and they must give...

Reading stuff like this always helps to renew my faith that We the People still are in control when it comes to deciding the fate of this nation.Here's why:"What this showed more than anything else was that not even members of Congress can ignore a switchboard system of Capitol Hill that is so totally jammed," said Peter Sepp, a conservative oppone...

Is it me or do the rest of you find this hilarious?Somali pirates seized a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 32 T-72 tanks plus a full load of ammunition for same as well as infantry small arms. That's a handy little combined arms battalion right there.Sometimes, you just can't make this stuff up. The best stories often occur right here in real life....

Today is a special day. It means nothing to most people but to me it is a milestone. It is one year from today that I will be filing my N-400 "Application for Naturalization". This is the big one, the one I've been waiting five years for. The USCIS rules allow you to file your application for US citizenship 90 days out from your 5 year anniversar...

So go the words that we are probably all familiar with thanks to Charles Schultz and Snoopy. There is a writing contest called the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest where one is supposed to write the opening sentence of a really bad novel in the spirit of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, author of "Paul Clifford" that began with those immortal words.Since I am w...

Breda should be pleased. It looks like being a bookworm and helping folks navigate the stacks pays pretty well. And has some growth potential in the future. From the article:Librarians Annual median income: $50,970* Projected employment in 2016: 164,000 Increase between 2006 and 2016: 4 percentNot too shabby. Perhaps a part-time for me in my se...