Two Less Things To Worry About

Some time back, the state of Florida enacted a law to prevent doctors from asking patients whether they had guns in the home. I'm not going to discuss whether doctors were doing this because of their concern for patient safety or because of the well known anti-gun leanings of the American Medical Association.

I've had contact with several doctors about this, and the ones I chatted with seemed genuinely interested in patient safety, and the rest of their practice reflected that. For instance, they had lots of information on other child safety issues like swimming pools and car seats.

Then there is my own doctor. When I first moved to this area, I picked him because he was the closest family practitioner and because he's my age. I want a doctor my own age, or a little older, because I want him or her to believe me when I come in with some new ailment. The youngsters might not.

But I noticed a lack of patient safety brochures in the waiting room, and there were no outdoors magazines, much less hunting or firearms magazines. Yes, he asked on the patient information form whether I had a gun in the home, be I decided not to answer, and he never asked about it.

So, I didn't know his stance on gun issues, since it's never come up in the 9 years I've been his patient.

Nevertheless, when I went to see him last week for a regular checkup, I decided to ask him to check my blood lead levels, since I do shot indoors on occasion. I wanted him to know why, so I told him I did some target shooting indoors. This led to a small surprise, as he agreed, and told me owned a .357 magnum revolver himself.

He then told me to be sure to wear my hearing protection all the time, and told me how he used to shoot without hearing protection with his uncle when he was in high school, and had suffered some hearing loss in one ear as a result. I told him I have always used ear plugs or muffs, and indoors I use both.

So, that was that. They took my blood, and I found out later that my level was 15 micrograms/dL, which is in the normal range. So, add that to what I found out about whether my doctor is anti-gun, and I guess that's two less things to worry about.

So Much To Do

To say it has been a busy few months for us would be an understatement. So many things have brought us to this point that it's hard to know where to start.

I'm a carpenter by trade, and I got engaged a few months ago to a wonderful girl. Our families arranged it, as usual, but I got lucky. She's beautiful, and she's smart, and she's happy.

And, it turns out, she's pregnant.

I know the baby isn't mine, and, knowing the girl and her family, I know she had never been with any man before we met.

But even after I found out she was pregnant, she seems so happy and so confident that I have to believe her story. Her cousin had a baby a year ago, many years past the time when women should be having babies. The hand of God is with them both.

But, on top of what we're going through, the emperor decides he wants a census taken, and he wants the count done in everyone's home town. What can we do? My family roots are in Bethlehem, so we go.

Normally, two people on the road from Galilee to Bethlehem would be easy pickings for bands of robbers. But everyone is on the road, north and south, and we've been able to stay safe.

We arrived in town this morning, and right away I knew lodging would be a problem. I was right. There are no rooms anywhere in town.

But the last innkeeper I talked to is going to let us stay in his stable, so at least we have somewhere to sleep.

Now, riding on a donkey can make anyone sore, but it seems like this may be more than that. The baby may be on its way.

If the baby is born here, we'll be here for months. I'm grateful to be a carpenter, because I can find work anywhere, and support my family. But there is still so much to do, and so many questions.

But most of all, tonight, I trust God.

Stadium Snipers

You know they exist, but we never see them.

Check out this video that I found courtesy of RomeoTangoBravo.

My only comment is that I find it irresponsible for any of these snipers not to be using suppressors, as much for their own comfort and protection as for tactical reasons. After all, why assume there is no opposition? At the least, consider the surrounding bystanders.

Q&A With an AR Guy

Michael from the RKBArms blog. He's not the AR guy, but he wants to be.

A guy I met interviewed a guy I want to meet about ARs. It's worth reading.

Concealed Carry Myths

I ran across this story in Shooting Illustrated, courtesy of RomeoTangoBravo. It's about some of the myths that people propagate about carrying concealed. It's worth a read.

What other myths have you heard? I know I've heard more than these. I'd like to discuss further in a future post.

A Little Thin

I know my posting has been thin the last week, between work and family. I won't make excuses except to say that I shall endeavor to persevere.

The Range Idiot Song

We all know one. Or more. Enjoy.

The Road

My son, the Dauphin, is in 9th grade honors literature, and was assigned to read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Having not read the book nor seen the movie, I borrowed his copy over a couple of days, and read it myself.

He finished the book and completed the assignments his teacher had given, which were a nice mix of questions about the symbolism that McCarthy uses, along with questions about what he would have done in certain situations.

Since he finished the book, I slipped the movie into our Netflix queue, and we watched it last evening.

As you know, The Road is a story about a father and son making their way through a post-apocalyptic countryside. While the exact nature of the disaster that devastated their world is never revealed, either in the book or the movie, it's clear that it must have been some kind of EMP followed by wildfires, and societal collapse.

It wasn't an easy movie to watch, especially for a man with an only son. (My daughter is off at college, and told us recently that she has no desire to see the movie.) My wife felt the same way.

I'm sure others have discussed this book and movie from a preparation viewpoint, so I won't go there.

But I will share one observation from my son. We were talking after the movie about the gun they carried, and how they only had 2 bullets.

My son said, "Dad, now I know why you own four handguns. It's one for each of us."

Indeed.

Coming Soon - Gun Cart Mark II

Back in May I wrote about a gun cart I had put together using a used stroller I had bought at the thrift store.

I've used the stroller for a full shooting season now, with success. I took it to the LuckyGunner Blogger Shoot in May, and it was well received, and it sure saved my old back the trouble of schlepping four rifles, a shooting bag, a cooler, an ammo can, and a camp chair from the parking area to the firing line.

Likewise, for USPSA and Action Pistol matches, it's been handy not to have to lug my stuff up and down hills.

I would call the Gun Cart Mark I a success.

But I think I can do better.

While overall I've been very pleased with the cart, after 6 months of use, I think I can improve on the design. First of all, the performance of the small wheels over rough terrain left something to be desired. Yes, it worked, but I now know why so many of the commercial carts out there are built on a chassis of three large wheels.

Some things definitely worked well, even features that the commercial carts left out. The horizontal bar, which I call the Stock Bar (because that's where I lash the gun stocks) especially works well. I definitely think it's an improvement over individual clamps for each gun, which I've seen.

The large deck works well, too, and removing the seating area was a good thing. I sometimes see other carts that have been built from strollers, and the seating is left in place, and it limits the size of the shooting bag you can carry, without adding any positive feature.

It wasn't hard to build the cart, so my plans are soon to visit the local thrift stores and find a three wheel stroller, and build Mark II.

Look for a report when I'm done.

I Humbly Yield the Floor

A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.

Shane (1953)

Every death at the barrel of a gun is a tragedy. Whether an innocent victim is killed by a criminal, or that criminal is stopped by a law abiding citizen, or a group of gang bangers end up shooting each other, the resulting death could have been avoided, if one goes back far enough in the process.

One of the chief failings of the anti-gun crowd is their refusal to assign responsibility in this tragedy to those who are to blame. They choose to believe that, somehow, the gun - the tool - was at fault, and if all guns were eliminated, then the tragedies would cease.

Make no mistake, they will speak of "easy guns" or "illegal guns" or "assault weapons with high capacity clips and a shoulder thing that goes up," but what they really mean is all guns. Even the recent history of gun control in countries like England and Australia shows that.

Every time I read an anti-gun diatribe, I am tempted to write about it, and cite the truth - that the vast majority of gun deaths are due to criminals. You don't know how many draft posts I have saved, that are in this vein.

I forget exactly what I was reading today, but it was the same tired claim that "gun violence" could somehow be solved by more gun regulation. All I know is it got me to sounding and acting like Lewis Black - cussing and jabbing my fingers at the screen.

Fortunately, the next blog I read calmed me down. And for that reason, in matters related to who and what is to blame for "gun violence," I humbly yield the floor to Sean Sorrentino.

Many gun bloggers, like myself, choose to remain somewhat anonymous. For me, it's because my side passion might interfere in other areas of my business life, where, frankly, it should have no bearing at all.

When you meet Sean, though, he will be wearing a badge in the shape of the state of North Carolina, that says his name, and under that, An NC Gun Blog.

Sean deals frequently with legislators, anti-gunners, and pro-gun people alike, and, as he told me, he wants them to know where he stands.

I salute Sean not only for his forthrightness, but for his blog. The subject of his blog, more often than not, is to show you who the perpetrators of gun crime in North Carolina are, and what they have been up to all their life.

Sean tells you about the criminals and their records in a very civil manner. He doesn't name names, he doesn't throw stones. He just shows you the truth.

As a quasi-aside, Sean doesn't just write about guns, he shoots very well, too. He was my training partner in Knoxville earlier in the year.

So, in lieu of ranting, in the future, I will just point to An NC Gun Blog. Sean says it better than I can.

It's Getting to be That Time of Year

Christmas was on its way. Lovely, glorious, beautiful Christmas, upon which the entire kid year revolved.

Ralphie, A Christmas Story

The Christmas tree and all the decorations are already up at the FYH ranch. Thanks to a late Thanksgiving night Seal Team like Black Friday Raid, we have about 80 percent of the shopping done.

I like this kind of season, because it lets me relax, and enjoy Christmas. Ahead we still have tickets to the Atlanta Ballet's Nutcracker, and a trip to see the lights at Callaway Gardens. But we can just enjoy.

My wife and I started an interesting tradition about 4 years ago. When you've been married as long as we have, it's sometimes hard to think of inventive presents for each other. That year, we weren't really sure if we could afford to spend much. We don't go into debt for Christmas.

But I got a couple of commissions paid early, and on the morning of Christmas Eve, my wife surprised me. We were out driving ostensibly to pick up a Honey Baked Ham, and she pulled into the parking lot before the ham place.

The only interesting store in that place was a big box sporting goods store. I looked at her with a grin.

"Yes. Go buy yourself that 10/22."

I felt like Ralphie. I had wanted a 10/22 for a couple of years, but I'd put it off for some reason or another.

When I got it home I put it in the box and put it behind the tree, and on Christmas morning I said, "Oh, wait, what's that?"

Next, we drove to her favorite shop, and she got to pick out some comparable gifts.

Every year since then, we've gone out on Christmas Eve, and enjoyed ourselves as the other picks some gift that's meaningful, and oftentimes longed for. It's every bit as enjoyable for me to experience my wife's interest and expectation, as it is to open those presents on Christmas.

This year? I've got my eye on a Dillon 550 loading press. That cold steel beauty . . .

On Christmas Eve, we'll see.

How Many Guns Do I Need?

Michael over at the RKBArms Blog asked the same question recently. You can see his personal answers there.

First, let me say that I really think the question is almost invalid, especially to a law abiding American. On the one hand, the anti-gun crown will answer "zero," which just leads to a pointless discussion.

On the other hand, it's almost like asking how much money I need, or how many pages long should a resume be*. There is no real answer, or at best, any answers depend strongly on the assumptions that are made.

Here are the five essential guns Michael identified, which, given the nature of his blog, apply to a defense situation:

1. Every Day Carry
2. BUG (Back Up Gun)
3. Home Defense Sidearm
4. Home Defense Carbine
5. Home Defense Shotgun

I can't disagree with any of these from a defensive standpoint.

All I would add would be the caveat that there should be enough additions for each able bodied shooter in the household. In a SHTF situation, having a carbine and/or handgun for each person would make survival a lot more likely.

It also occurs to me that, depending on the size and layout of the house or area being defended, the number of Back-up Guns may need to increase.

For me, my guns are

1. Glock 21SF
2. Glock 19
3. Glock 17
4. SKS with detachable magazines
5. Mossberg 500

Admittedly, I sometimes carry the Glock 19 in lieu of the Glock 21, depending on my clothing choices.

In a SHTF situation, I would carry the G21 and SKS, my wife would carry the G17, and my son would carry a Ruger 10/22 with 4 - 30 round magazines.

The key here is making sure everyone is proficient with their assigned guns, and knows where spare ammo, holsters, etc. are stored. Then train, train, train.

++++++

On the gripping had, this list touches addresses defense needs only. One could make any number of lists based on the category in question:

Competition: One for each competition type and class. Skeet gun, trap gun. 3-gun rifle, Camp Perry rifle. SASS: 2 pistols, a rifle in pistol caliber, and a shotgun. (That's by far the easiest. Maybe.)

Hunting: Big game, small game, medium game.

Then there is collecting.






* On the issue of how many pages a resume should be, most people will respond one of two ways: either the resume should be all one page to make it easier to read, or the resume should be as many pages as it takes to convey the amount of information to get an interview.

But, in fact, this is a trick question: there is no answer any more, and here's why. Most resumes will never be printed on paper, they will only be viewed and read on a computer screen. So, since there are no pages, the question is invalid.

I suppose I would go with the second answer at that point - include everything you need to include so you get the interview. Remember, no one hires your resume, they hire the person, after an interview.

Disclosure: I work as an engineering recruiter, to pay for ammo and match fees.