Free In Idaho!

It’s official.  Sebastian has opened a website dedicated to the Gun Blog Rifle League he proposed earlier this month.  The first quarterly competition is up and running, and we have until mid-September to get it shot and submitted.  Check it out.

By the way, I’ll be ordering targets later today, and they come in pads of 100 each.  If the cost of targets is holding you back, and you’re in the SW Idaho area, leave me an email and I’ll be glad to help you out.  The more the merrier. 

Boise’s alternative weekly, the Boise Weekly, has an editorial today decrying the lack of gun controls in the state, especially as it applies to the mentally ill, public space, private transfers… well, in short, just about all aspects of current Idaho gun laws.  Try this out for a taste

A few months after Jason Hamilton killed his wife and then took two military rifles from his ample collection and opened fire on the Latah County Courthouse, killing a cop, a church caretaker and then himself, Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney floated the idea of a gun ban.

It would have only applied to city property and it was not a direct reaction to the shooting, Chaney said. The city never actually passed anything, after the Idaho attorney general suggested that cities and counties were not authorized to regulate guns.

Chaney’s idea was pilloried by Idaho’s ubiquitous and bombastic gun set.

The case he’s talking about happened in May of last year.  Joe Huffman posted about it at the time, and you can Google for more stories if you like.  Note the “not a direct reaction to the shooting”… you might sell that line to the average Weekly reader, but for the rest of us, does the term “that dog don’t hunt” mean anything to you or the Mayor?  The idea should rightly be pilloried because it was an emotional and unconstitutional reaction to something that was already a crime!  For the Weekly, this case is the jumpoff point for an editorial that tries to paint Idaho as some sort of crazy wild west, brands gun owners as “bombastic”, and suggests that the politicians and gun dealers and police in the state have some sort of under the table, wink-wink deal going whereby any old run of the mill nutbag can get a gun in Idaho and the aforementioned watchdogs promise to smile and look the other way, {shrug} “what else can we do?…”

But state police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that all of Hamilton’s gun purchases were legal.

“There was not an illegal purchase with any of the guns in his possession,” said Idaho State Police Lt. Charlie Spencer.

That means that no gun dealer did anything wrong in selling Hamilton his guns. But police have no idea where he got some of the guns and no record of sales on others. It is legal in Idaho to buy a gun with cash from, say, the back of a pickup truck at a construction site in Nampa.

Careful there Mr Hoffman, the BATFE doesn’t take kindly to people questioning their competence.  Just sayin’, you know? And really, there is no reason for it to be illegal to buy a gun for cash from a private party regardless of where the pickup truck is parked. (You mentioned Nampa… what are you implying there, eh? Do you have some kind of problem with the folks who live in Nampa?)

But throughout the whole editorial, the major point that seems to be lost is that another law on the books WON’T SOLVE ANYTHING!  Seriously.  It was already against the law for the Moscow shooter to take a gun into the courthouse and shoot people.  It was already against the law for the Virginia Tech shooter to take a weapon into the school and shoot people.  It was already illegal for the Boise shooter to shoot the three students from Lineman College, and it was already illegal for the 18 year old kid to shoot up the house and car in Canyon County this morning.  Does anyone really believe that another law on the books would stop any of this?

A group that includes the State Police, the Department of Health and Welfare, the courts and the Attorney General’s office has met a few times to devise a method for forwarding mental-health cases to the background check database. But Health and Welfare said it was up to the courts, and the courts said it was up to the police. No one at ISP was available to speak about it.

Wink-wink.  But no, I really don’t think the writer of the editorial, or the Weekly, is quite as naive as all that.  After all, they’re intelligent, educated adults.  So they understand that writing more laws, which will only infringe the rights of law abiding citizens (the key concept here is “law abiding“), will be meaningless to the hundreds of criminals, gang members, and the mentally disturbed, and more laws will ultimately be as ineffectual at stopping incidents of the sort we are all so disturbed by as the laws that we already have.  Really Mr Hoffman, do you honestly think gun owners WANT to see these kinds of incidents?

Gun-rights advocates want their privacy, their freedom of expression and their borne arms..
..The Jason Hamilton shooting raises another question: What kind of culture truly believes that the answer to epidemic and deranged gun violence is more guns?

Let me ask YOU something as well.  What kind of culture truly believes that more laws on the books is the answer to epidemic criminal activity of ANY kind?  It hasn’t worked in Washington D.C. or Chicago or New York City, all of which boast, not less violent crime than all of Idaho, but rather more, including gun crimes committed by criminals with illegal guns!  What’s your answer to that?  Take away all the guns?  Well, good luck with that.  And even if you could, before you suggest doing that, because it sounds like you’re headed that direction, ask the Japanese or the Brits how that’s working for them… and then try Googling “knife crime”.

America does not have a gun problem, we have a criminal problem.  Laws against things don’t work, and laws against criminals don’t either if you lack the conviction as a culture to actually deal with the criminals.

 Many times, I’ve been asked why I carry a gun.  Why do I go to the range so often, or out to the desert, and what’s the big deal about doing ePostals and stuff like that?  Or I’ll stumble upon a blog post at a site paTROLLed by more, ah, “progressive” souls than usually frequent my blog (Huckleberries Online  is a good example).  The last gun comment thread I joined over there, one of the regulars was deriding gun owners with the old ‘fragile manhood’ baloney, and mocking anyone who dared suggest we live in a world that isn’t completely safe, and peopled by enlightened beings like himself.  

Head over to Zavier’s and read his post for today, about “Evil Among Us“.  Like Zavier said, that is why I carry, and that is why I train.  And I always pray that I’ll never be tested in that place.   And if you don’t think it can happen in sleepy little Boise, think again, because it already has.

One of the problems that comes with owning more than one gun is stocking different sizes of ammo.  Like so many other guys I keep mine in surplus ammo cans, but I don’t write on the outside of the can what I’ve got in it.  That is a lazy thing more than anything else.  But to complicate the issue, I seem to have this habit of picking up a box or two of whatever is on sale whenever I go to the shooty store.   That isn’t the problem.

This afternoon I thought I’d better take a little inventory and just see where I’m at with my stock.  “What brought this on?” you might ask.  Well, have you ever found a box of something you didn’t know you had, in a place you didn’t expect to find it?  I was organizing the back of the truck and found a full box of duck shells left over, underneath the packing blanket, in the bag I use for my dry bag (socks, change of clothes, mre, flashlight…etc).  Hmmm.  Guess it’s time for a full count.

I’m thinking I’m in pretty good shape, especially for the reloading supplies for the .308, although it’s about time to start looking in the shotgun section of the stores again, since I’m really light on target and dove loads.  But the real shocker was finding out I’m 100% empty on .357s.  ZERO.  That is the wrong number!  And it’ll change tomorrow.

So consider this my gunblogger PSA for the week…

Go count.  If you’re out, go shopping! 

Sebastian has posted an update on the Gun Blog Rifle League on his blog.  He’s given it a lot of thought it, you can tell, and it looks like a great competition.  He’s picked out the targets and the course of fire, and he’s got classes for both centerfire and smallbore rifles.   He has decided to start with quarterly competitions, with the first one proposed to end at the end of September.  That gives us all a chance to round up (order) targets, and for me, make a bunch of handloads, and practice cycling the boltgun fast enough for the timelimits.

I’ve never shot a rifle competition, so this oughta be fun.  I’ll have to practice though, and take the bipod of the Remington.   I wonder if I can find an M1a to shoot it with?   I’m excited to try it, and I think it’ll be a great addition to Mr Completely’s handgun ePostals.  Head on over to Snowflakes in Hell and check it out.  Read the comments too, and speak up, the more the merrier!  After all, there probably isn’t a one of us who can’t use another excuse to go play reason to get more training in.  After all, it’s about hitting what you’re aiming at, isn’t it?  And since none of us live in Hollywood or own movie guns, practice is where it’s at.

UPDATE:  sign up here

My guess is, TJ didn’t much care for golf.

A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.
        - Thomas Jefferson

“Too violent for the body”… he must be talking about football and basketball, too. “Stamp no character on the mind”… baseball, perhaps? Nah, baseball is cool. He must have meant the moron beer commercials.

Hunting season starts in two months. Armed walks are always good!

The only thing Heller accomplishes is to lull that minority of the American people who really care about their Second Amendment rights into a false sense of security.- Mike Vanderboegh

I asked it before the decision, and I’ll ask it again today… how’d you sleep last night?
 

Speaking of ePostal matches, Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell is floating the idea of a gun blog rifle league.  He’s got a poll going to gauge interest, so if getting involved in a rifle league interests you, head on over and add your voice.  I’d say, judging from the results so far, there are many more who seem interested in the rifle shoots than actually shoot in the handgun matches, so this could turn out to be another great community building/skill building idea.  You DID say you needed another reason to go shooting, didn’t you?

Sailor Curt over at Captain of a Crew of One has posted the July edition of Mr Completely’s ePostal Match.  After last month’s animal cracker shoot, which drove everyone one step closer to crazy, Sailor Curt promises to finish the job.  No, I’m only kidding.  But this looks pretty challenging.   I’ve only tossed darts once in my life, sometime in the early Eighties, so I need to read the rules a few more times before I get the iron out.  But before July 28th, I promise, I’m shooting this one too, because it looks like fun.  Thanks Curt!

It isn’t surprising to find out that some folks who don’t live in Idaho think that we’re all backwater hicks, or worse.  I’ve heard the “Aryan nations” comments from some in my own family if I mention firearms.  So I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear the communications director for the Brady bunch, Peter Hamm, use the word “backward” when talking about Idaho, and Idahoan Dirk Kempthorne’s proposal to allow carrying in the National Parks.

“Idaho is Idaho,” said Peter Hamm, the communications director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and an Interior Department official in the Clinton administration. But he called the Kempthorne-backed proposal to allow firearms in parks a “backward” and unsafe” idea, and said that it’s not up to just the Idaho senators or Idaho residents to determine gun regulations for federal lands that belong to all Americans.

This guy has been in Washington D.C. too long.  The BS rolls off his tongue like he’s reading from a teleprompter.  Last time I looked, there was a pretty good representation of ALL states and ALL Americans asking the government to relax the carry laws in the Parks, not just Idahoans.  I wonder what got his panties twisted about Idaho?

The state has had “some marvelous people serving in office,” Hamm said, but he added that “on a lot of issues where most of the country has moved to the center, Idaho is far right. Politicians tend to pander to the lowest common denominator.”

Lowest common denominator, eh?  You must mean all of us backward, bitter, Bible clingers?  But we are not “far right” Mr Hamm, we’re FOR RIGHTS.  The lowest common denominator still believes in small government, low taxes, individual rights, personal responsibility, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from a coercive federal government, a strong national defense, a free and capitalist economy, and yes, the RIGHT to keep and bear arms.  And in Idaho, a member of that lowest common denominator has as much chance of being a Democrat as a Republican or a Libertarian.  Read the Constitution Mr Hamm, and then stretch yourself and read the Bill of Rights.  It might scare you, but do it anyway.  Heck, even the Democrats out here still remember there is a Second Amendment.  I’ve even hunted and shot with a few of them.

And remember this, it’s not up to just the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence to determine gun regulations for rights that belong to all Americans.  You can paint Idahoans as “lowest common denominator” for your buds in Washington, and your pals in San Francisco and Chicago, but outside  the elite circle, you get a fail.