The day started with the Members meeting. There were no surprises here. There were two resolutions presented, one to start a petition to have Wayne LaPierre awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and one to have the NRA always refer to members by the gender listed on their birth certificate.
Really? In 2017 in the face of assault on the second amendment on every front, this is what you want me to think about?
This resolution resulted in overwhelming appathy and scoff. It was withdrawn by its presenter. And we moved on.
Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals from a trusted friend!
$50 cash out the door for an Anderson lower. (I can’t promise it has the Gadsden flag on it.) Must be a Georgia resident, or have an FFL that can accept it for you.
Bob Mayne’s video on the modifications to his Glock 19 reminded me of changes I made to my Glock 19 Liberty shortly after I got it a few years ago.
For me the impetus was the design of the grip on the Glock 19. Understand, I have no disagreement with finger grooves per se, but Glock decided that the 19 was going to be designed for people with smaller hands than those who bought the 17, it seems, because the grooves are closer together on the 19. For someone like me with wide hands, this can be an issue.
Add to that the fact that my Glock 17 Bruce is a Gen2, and doesn’t even have finger grooves. But I’ve used a slip-on Hogue grip since about the second week I’ve owned it, and to be honest it completes the feel of the gun for me.
So, the answer, for me, was to take off the grooves on Liberty altogether, and add a Hogue grip.
Then over the space of a few months, I relieved the trigger guard, too.
I also did some relief work on the edges of the mag release and the inside of the mag well.
The result is that the grips on Liberty and Bruce match very closely, and the feel is much closer than before. While they’re not identical, to me they’re as close as they can be.
I haven’t made a big deal of it, but some time back I published The Pledge, my effort to bring civility to discussion about guns and gear. Specifically, the whole issue of Clips versus Magazines makes me laugh, as if it really matters.
Really.
Most recently comes this celebration of ignorance from California State Senator Kevin De Leon:
Okay, yes, what he says is ludicrous and totally wrong. But I believe that’s out of ignorance. What irks me is the way gun people make fun of what he says, as if that will change anyone’s opinion of what he is trying to do.
Yes, there is a difference between a clip and a magazine. Yes, that gun cannot shoot 30 rounds in half a second. But making fun of that does nothing to change the Senator’s mind about gun control, and, more importantly, it doesn’t change the minds of his voters, who are likely just as ignorant and just as determined to do away with the Second Amendment.
In fact, let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine that I am trying to sell rattlesnakes to school children. Imagine there is no law against that. So, you make an impassioned plea to change the law so that no one can sell poisonous animals to school children. You get up in front of the city council and make your case. It gets noticed on the news, and on YouTube.
Only, now I come in, and I make a rebuttal YouTube video that points out how stupid you are, how monstrously dumb, because, stupid, rattlesnakes aren’t poisonous at all. Stupid.
And, of course, I’m right. They aren’t poisonous at all. Yes, they are venomous. But does my pointing out how stupidly wrong you are change your mind about rattlesnakes? No. In fact, I am guessing (providing you are still reading this) that you are now more disposed to ban rattlesnakes of all sizes, and probably thinking about banning every snake and narrow animal down to earthworms as well.
Why? Because ridicule is a very poor tool for convincing someone to change their minds, and, in fact, more likely leads to the opposite.
So, this brings me to Pledge Item Number 1. Let’s stop ridiculing people who use incorrect gun terms like clip and magazine, especially pro-gun new gun owners. But let’s also extend this to the anti-gun side.
Now, don’t get me wrong. If the terminology they are using is inherently wrong, yes, let’s gently correct them, to the extent that we show how the use of the wrong terminology is dangerous or actually makes their proposals more onerous.
If we don’t, in my opinion we risk making the clash with those who want to take away our rights a lot worse, which would have unknown consequences at best.
So, I restate The Pledge:
When posting on-line, I will never:
1. criticize anyone for using “clip” instead of “magazine”
2. get in a discussion about which caliber is acceptable in a gunfight*
3. get in a discussion about whether you should use a Glock grip plug
4. criticize anyone about how often they clean their gun
5. criticize anyone for what cleaner or lubricant they use
6. call a shotgun a shottie
7. call a revolver a wheelgun
8. call Walmart “wally world “
9. post simply “+1”, “well said,” or some similar agreement, except as part of a retweet, thereby showing my endorsement and agreement
10. accuse anyone of kool-aid drinking
11. tell you that your gun or ammo is unsafe** or junk
12. change your words and say I “fixed it for ya”
13. tell you to move to a gun friendly state
14. use profanity frivolously
15. have a contest that is announced on one or more sites but only available to members of another site. I.e. no “Facebook only” contests that are announced on Twitter.
** unless I think it is unsafe in my opinion as a Certified Glock Armorer, in which case I will tell you why I think so, and what I think you should do about it.
Fill Yer Hands 