The Gunner's Blog

I would like to refer you to a very good article about the Second Amendment by Edward J. Erler, a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino. Do not roll your eyes. He is among the academics who have taken a broad-minded look at gun rights, rather than a frowning, squinting and supercilious one. There are a few some such, just not enough of them. He writes: Now it’s undeniable, Senator Dianne Feinstein to the contrary notwithstanding, that semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15 are extremely well-adapted for home defense—especially against a crime that is becoming more and more popular among criminals, the home invasion... Consider also that assault rifles are rarely used by criminals, because they are neither easily portable nor easily concealed. In Chicago, the murder capital of America—a city with draconian gun laws—pistols are the weapon of choice, even for gang-related executions. But of course there are the horrible exceptions—t...

The gun works the bolt for you, which is really all that "semi-automatic" means.  The modern sporting rifle is self-loading and feeds from detachable magazines, which may be of any convenient size. These weapons are mischaracterized by anti-gunners as battlefield weapons of mass death, which no mere private citizen should have, but that's nonsense. These are not machine guns. You aim, press the trigger, a bullet comes out, and then you must aim again and press again if you wish to fire another shot. So then each trigger press releases a single shot, and each shot must be aimed if you want to hit anything. Some of these guns share the basic action designs of military full-auto rifles, but that is because the military actions have proven reliable. It makes sense to base a sporting or general purpose rifle on a proven mechanism. That is why the sporting rifle looks like the military rifle, a matter which frightens and confuses the ignorant. But after all it is only...

I settled years ago on my favorite type of defense gun. It is the riot gun, 12 gauge. I refer to the repeater, either pump or semi automatic, not Joe Biden's silly double barrel. The double is a fine gun for dealing with wabbitty wascallity , but let's be real here. If you "Buy a shotgun, buy a shotgun," make sure it holds plenty of ammo. Buy a riot shotgun. Since nearly all justifiable self defense shootings are at short range, it makes sense to choose the best short range gun. This is it, beyond doubt. That's a big claim I made. Want proof? I have several points for you to ponder. A JSSAP study rated the shotgun as having twice the hit probability of an assault rifle and nearly half again better than a submachine gun. Furthermore, the word on the street is that someone put down with "the gauge" is generally down for the long count. Criminals fear this gun, for it has done away with many of their friends and relatives. For most of the last centur...

Do you want to see how socialism works? Gather a class of third grader children, or older or younger as you have available. Give into each hand a variable number of candies, give to some one, some three, some two or four or five. Tell them not to eat them; they are to play a game. Place before them a large bowl. Each is to put the candy into the bowl. After all have done this, each is to take out his or her candy. Line them up in an orderly fashion each time. The result that at the end of the line, or maybe a good deal before, there is no candy and there are still children. That is socialism as I understand it. I am clearer on this than most, because I traveled in the old Soviet Union, while there still was such a thing,  and heard the best joke of the century. "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under socialism, the reverse is true." Whoever said that was a genius. Unfortunately, he may have also been shot. If you know who said it and he is still alive, tell...

It's the crazies, stupid.  I hoped I was wrong, but what I thought would happen, did. The "broad national conversation"  Obama called for turned out to be a monologue. Instead of focusing on the problems of the violently insane, leftists went after your gun rights instead. They don't want to talk about anything but broad restrictions on your choices and new infringements on your privacy. They went after their same old anti-gun agenda that they have been flogging for years, not measures that match up with the reason we began the conversation in the first place. It was a matter of not letting a serious crisis go to waste . Obama said he wanted the conversation because of the recent series of mass shootings and called for it after the Newtown massacre. Not that anyone on the Obama Left is listening, but let's talk about the string of mass murders: Newtown, Aurora, Tucson, Virginia Tech. There is a common denominator. Each one was done by a young man who wa...

Currently underway: A push to outlaw lead bullets . Of course the real reason is not because they are lead but because they are bullets. The pretext is that we are doing huge damage to the environment by shooting lead bullets. California is leading the Greek chorus on this one but legislators elsewhere are taking up the chant. Notice that bullets made of nearly anything besides lead were banned years ago, on a pretext; see  http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/921#a_17 So then, you cannot make them of "tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium." Add lead to the list and there are few substances left that posses the density and hardness needed. Those that remain are costly in themselves or too difficult to make bullets out of. The law covers bullets "which may be used in a handgun." The breadth of that "may be" is apparently a matter of regulatory discretion, and  exceptions  by ruling may be gr...

The only good news coming out of the place is that some politicians who foisted new gun control laws on the public are facing recall elections , if the signatures are there, and I am pretty sure they are. The legislators broke an unspoken rule. If you are a Colorado Democrat, you are supposed to respect Western custom and culture, not go lockstep on everything with the national Democratic machine. That includes being at least a little circumspect on the gun issue. It certainly does not include climbing onto New York City Mayor Bloomberg's anti-gun bandwagon. All hat and no cattle. The way things used to work was that Democrats got elected on the understanding that there is a conservative streak in Colorado voters, even in a lot of Democrats. If you are a Democrat politician you may work all you like on a selection of public spirited causes, but you should soft-pedal it if you want to infringe gun rights or promote the idea that boys should marry boys. Now that t...

I love Colorado. I was not born there but I love her. The high mountains are the home my heart found. Of all the places I have been, they are to my eyes the loveliest. I saw clouds fill a valley below me until they looked liked heaped up mashed potatoes in a bowl. The weather was clear, up where I was. There are not many places on earth where you can watch weather happen from above. Mountain marmots chirp like bad automobile brakes. Mountain lions steal puppies from  back yards. Bears mainly want to be left alone. Squirrels are curious, always looking around the branch or trunk to see the funny man with the rifle. The very plentiful squirrels give rise to a mountain aphorism: If you want to see squirrels, just go out in the woods and act like a nut. Marmot The people who live out in the country are generally conservative. They are few enough that they do not actually need many gun laws. Nearly everyone up there has a gun, knows not to po...

If you are not allowed to have a gun that a reasonable man might choose as a good one to bring to a gunfight , your right is infringed. Whatever crazy new laws we get, the American people must retain, somehow, arms suitable for the purposes in view in the Second Amendment. Note that the Bill of Rights does not create or confer rights, but acknowledges rights evident under any  well-regulated  understanding of natural law. The rights pre-exist the document. Even if we lose the Bill of Rights, indeed especially then, we need to keep our guns. Of course the purposes of the guns are to protect life, protect liberty and to arm state forces raised at need. The Second Amendment is about protecting your own life against criminals and oppressors and being armed to take part in a state defense force or a resistance movement if you have to. Duck hunting and raccoon chasing don't enter into it. Some guns are adequate equipment for protecting your life and liber...

If you've been reading along in this blog, you are doubtless aware that I think most of the gun control measures being proposed these days are wrongheaded. There are, though, a few measures that I think we could implement for the greater safety of us all. Gun storage is one area where I'd like to see some improvement. When I read stories about kids getting their hands on their parents' guns and doing something stupid, and sometimes tragic, I cringe a bit. But I do not think we need new laws on the matter. Most state legal codes already cover the matter adequately. What we need is a talking-up campaign to inform or remind people about their responsibilities. Though the details are unknown, the broad outline of the Newtown massacre suggests that it began with a failure in safe gun storage. The wrong person got hold of the guns, murdered their owner and went on a shooting spree. It was questionable judgment even to have guns in the same house with Adam Lanza; off site sto...

Former Secret Service agent    Dan Bongino has a clear and compelling vision of where we are as a country: We live in a "post-constitutional society" in which government is running wild. He's active in Republican politics and has a  web site  you might want to check out.

As I reported previously, Joe Biden is telling America that a double barrel shotgun is more appropriate for self defense than an AR-15. That is wrong on its face, but Joe's advice gets even nuttier. "You want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door."  If you do that, you will likely be charged with reckless endangerment, negligent homicide, or something worse. It is a violation of gun safety rules two and four.  It is a very stupid idea, perhaps the worst yet, from a man whose previous pontifications on what sort of gun you should have, and how you should use it, set a new standard for stupid. An on-the-ball reporter covering Biden pointed out that a man recently did what Biden recommends and ended up in the calabozo , charged with reckless use of a firearm. We ought not have gun policies recommended or dictated by people who have no idea what they are talking about.  But that is just what is going on. When the presid...