Why It’s A Good Idea For The Senate To Vote On The Gun Control Bill

On April 11, 2013 By Tom LindsayIn Gun Rights, Politics16 Comments

Okay, this is as political as I am ever going to get in this blog.

I think it’s a good idea to let the new gun control bill come to the floor of the Senate, to be debated and voted on. Here are my reasons.

In the debates all the senators who speak will be on the record about where they stand, and all the senators’ votes will be on record. Then we can vote accordingly the next election.
People like Diane Feinstein and Chuck Schumer will get a spotlight to say something really ignorant and stupid, which can be replayed at our leisure for the rest of time.
The anti-gun faction will finally get a chance to say things that, if enacted, would violate the Second Amendment, and probably other parts of the Constitution as well.
Eventually, the bill will be voted down. In this I have no doubt.
The anti-gun faction will not be able to claim that they never got their chance to make their point or be heard. In fact, their illogical and unconstitutional points will be part of the public record.
The anti-gun faction will blame the NRA, (which will be true, especially when you consider all the NRA members who are swamping their senators right now) and the NRA’s membership will grow even more.

My two senators, Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, are both on record saying they think this bill violates the Second Amendment, and will vote against it on the floor, but they voted for cloture to let that happen.

If we don’t give this bad bill it’s day, the anti-gun faction will just whine and complain, and it will be televised and marketed by their media friends, and we will be back in this situation again.

I’m willing to let the system do what it is designed to do.

What Do Police Think Of Gun Control?

On April 10, 2013 By Tom LindsayIn Self Defense1 Comment

Here is an interesting poll from PoliceOne.com.

Virtually all respondents (95 percent) say that a federal ban on manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds would not reduce violent crime.

The majority of respondents — 71 percent — say a federal ban on the manufacture and sale of some semi-automatics would have no effect on reducing violent crime. However, more than 20 percent say any ban would actually have a negative effect on reducing violent crime.

The overwhelming majority (almost 90 percent) of officers believe that casualties would be decreased if armed citizens were present at the onset of an active-shooter incident.

An interesting read.

Range Report

On April 10, 2013 By Tom LindsayIn AR, Ol' Painless, Vera1 Comment

O’l Painless.

On Saturday, I got up before the rest of the family and stole away to the WMA shooting range, to fire my new AR, Ol’ Painless.

It was a great morning, and I was at the range in about an hour. I joined a couple of pistol shooters, and a father and two sons who were shooting muzzle loaders.

I didn’t try to do anything very rigorous, but I did want to be observant. First, I set up my video on a tripod, and loaded a single round into Mag 01, and fired it off free handed. A still of the first shot is shown above.

I then loaded Mag 01 with 10 more rounds and fired them in 5 shot groups at the 50 yard target, resting the rifle on my range bag.

The resulting groups weren’t Olympic caliber, but they were okay to me, probably 3 inch groups.

The target has two 5 shot groups, plus the first shot. For the first group I held on the red center dot, and for the second I held a little below the top of the target.

My point wasn’t to produce an Appleseed group but to put rounds on target, which I did.

Subsequent targets turned out about the same. I also shot a 100 yard target and put all 30 rounds on the target, which was my goal.

Last, I shot a target standing, handheld, at 50 yards, including the last 10 rounds fired pretty much as fast as I felt comfortable shooting. I found 28 holes on that target, which makes Ol’ Painless a threat in my eyes.

In all I was very pleased with the trigger, and I soon got used to shooting from reset like I do with my Glocks. The single stage military trigger broke crisply, and I felt it was just what I need at this time.

Magazines were PMAGS and were perfect.

I shot a mix of brass GI ball ammo, and TULA steel cased ammo. I can’t honestly tell you anything about accuracy, except to say they both hit the target. It’s interesting to note that all the brass casings flew to one spot aft of me, while the steel cases all ended up about 5 feet in front of the brass.

The brass cases all ended up with a slightly dented flat spot on the case mouth, which was in line with a small indentation about half way down the case. I;m sure this is an artifact of the ejection process. I sure wish I had a high speed camera to see how they were being dented and dinged.

All in all it was a great range trip. I even got to shoot a box of 9mm, using some of my usual range drills.

Now, to save up for reloading equipment . . .