Gun violence dropping, but citizens don't feel it is

So, since 1993 gun violence has dropped but only a very low minority believe the stat. Could it possibly be due to over exposure of gun crime by the mainstream media?


"Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49 percent lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation's population grew," according to the Pew study. "The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75 percent lower in 2011 than in 1993."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/07/181998015/rate-of-u-s-gun-violence-has-fallen-since-1993-study-says

Obiglatory EDC post; Whats in your pockets?

So, its cold, I'm tired of shoveling/driving in snow, and as I'm a little cabin feverish I thought I would keep my mind busy by showing random people whats in my pockets every day.
So, I'm pretty basic; as you can see I carry a slim bi-fold wallet by Wenger, my Zebra F-301 Bold which is an awesome roller ball pen, a cheap AA LED 3-mode high-lumen flashlight, my iPhone 4s in an OtterBox and my CRKT M16-10KZ folding knife. These are with me anytime I step out the house and I'm wearing pants. This has been my EDC for going on 5 years now, except that I switched from a Surefire to the cheap CREE b/c the el-cheap-o light has way higher lumen count and a strobe mode.
I own another cell phone, which is my 'personal' number (the iPhone was issued by work), but the fact that I didnt have it with me for this picture just goes to show its not an EDC. I have the voicemail for that phone tied into my Google account and I have a tendency to leave that cell at home more than I carry it.
I have a laptop bag that is usually within easy reach that has a duplicate flashlight and a little bitty Buck knife, an extra pen and micro first-aid kit with some bandaids and alcohol wipes, but since I dont walk around with that bag on my shoulder all the time, I don't consider it part of my EDC. Don't get me started on the "get home bag" in the trunk of my car b/c again, I dont consider that to be EDC and the contents of that bag changes based on the seasons of the year.

Notice no keys? Thats right, as soon as I get where I'm going the car fob comes out of my pocket and gets thrown on my desk at work, or dresser at home (I also hate walking around with coins in my pocket). During the winter the key fob stays in my outer coat pocket. We have an electronic lock at home, so I type a code to get in the house or garage.

What do carry every day?

OHIO House Bill 203 Status Unclear

So, here I was assuming that since we have a GOP house, a GOP Senate and a GOP Governor that HB203 and its needed CCW reforms would roll right on through to Ohio Law. However, it passed the House with flying colors back in November of 2013 and is now sitting unassigned to a committee in the Senate. In other words, its been pigeon holed. Some newspapers in Cleveland wrote op-eds claiming its a "stand your ground, kill the little kids law" (which isn't true) and now it looks like the Senate is going to stay away from it to avoid trouble in an election year that would see 1/3 of the Senate members up for re-election.
Great.

This law was supposed to:
1. Have all county sheriffs use the same application form
2. Make it easier for the Attorney General of Ohio to determine whether another state had reciprocity with Ohio's CCW laws.
3. Makes it simpler to prosecute anyone who lies on a CCW application.
4. Changes the training hours from 12 to 4. This is good since the 12 hour class I took was only 4 hours of information anyway. Making people sleepy doesn't abet learning.
5. Clearly states a number of things that CCW permit holders cannot do (citizens arrests, etc). The gun can only be used in lawful defense during legal activities. If you're a criminal breaking the law, you cant use self-defense as a defense in court for shooting someone whilst breaking the law.
6. Defines imminent danger.
##### THIS IS THE ONE THEY DONT LIKE #####
#7. You do not have a duty to retreat if you are anyplace you are legally allowed to be. Previously you had a duty to retreat if you werent in your home or car. Now the law corrects that problem, allowing you to defend yourself wherever you may be with your CCW, as long as you are legally allowed to be there.
This is not the same as the stand your ground law in Florida and certainly does not provide the legal defense shenanigans that the Florida law provides for. You can't chase someone down, you cant instigate the encounter, you cant insult, shout or be belligerent and THEN pull out your CCW.

This is a common sense piece of legislation and I hope the Senate takes it up soon.

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=130_HB_203

Man feared dead after being grabbed by crocodile, also people breathe air and water is wet.

Um, yep. Once you get grabbed by a Salty, your life expectancy drops to near zilch at a dramatic rate. I feel sorry for the guy and his family, but the NBCNEWS.com headline writers have once again come up with a sandwich of "DUH!" in how they write.  Also in the headlines today at good ol' NBC?  Snipers 'deliberately" shoot at UN Inspectors. Um, yeah. That's what snipers do. They don't shoot randomly. Come on NBC, are you even trying?

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/25/20179207-crocodile-attack-australian-camper-snatched-from-muddy-river?lite

I really wish newspapers and media sites would take a little more time and either do the pun thing or at least report the facts. Trying to be a tabloid when you aren't is just lame. Guess they have to avoid talking about the Fed unwinding and the impending economic damage.

This was not an accident, it was parental idiocy and child neglect

So a 5 year old boy in Kentucky shoots and kills his 2 year old sister with his 22LR rifle. It was a bolt action, single shot Crickett. Mom was home. They claim it was an accident; the boy was "just playing with it" and didn't realize there was a shell in the chamber. The gun normally sits in a corner in a room of the home.

1. Why wasn't this gun locked up?
2. Why wasn't the in gun lock on safe? (Cricket has a tubular key lock on their rifles)
3. What parent leaves a possibly loaded weapon around for their 5 year old to "play" with?
4. Why wasn't the child trained to only use the gun under parental supervision?
5. How do you call this train wreck an accident?

These parents need to go to jail. This is classic child neglect for the 5yr old and involuntary manslaughter for the 2yr old. I have nothing but pity for the poor boy who will now go through life as his sisters killer.

If you are in a friend or neighbors house and see firearms out and about, chastise them. We are a community and we should self-police. Although both of my kids are gun safety trained, I still check on the status of firearms before they go over to a new friends home. A little bit of "being the parent" goes a long way in keeping your children safe.

Less importantly, this kind of crap makes law abiding gun owners look bad in the press.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/01/18000685-five-year-old-boy-accidentally-shoots-kills-sister?lite

Right handed but left eye dominant

So I find out out yesterday, after taking my #1 kid to a 4H shooting safety training course that said child is right handed (I knew that) but left eye dominant. Since all I knew about eye dominance I can sum in up two words (not much) I'm looking for help from the intarwebz.
We ended up after multiple iterations and options having the kid shoot with from the left shoulder on a right handed rifle (we had left and right handed savage mark II's available). This resulted in pretty good groupings and the cheek weld was natural while aiming with the left eye, but it still made working the bolt awkward. Using a lefty rifle was tough b/c there was no fine motor control in the left arm, and using the right handed rifle was tough b/c the right arm had to come back from the forend. This worked b/c we were using a bench rest setup and the barrel and forend were supported without the kid's arm.
Of course in a standing or prone situation this would be difficult for a kid to hold up the rifle entirely from the trigger guard area since that would be so far behind the center of balance for the rifle.

So, should we stick with left shoulder, right hand rifle or maybe just move straight from bolt-action to semi-auto to avoid any issues with the bolt altogether?

The kid also wants to get into archery and there just happened to be an archery instructor on site yesterday who said we were going to be pretty much looking at a left handed bow as the only option for someone using their left eye to aim.

I spend all these years making sure both my kids are right handed and no one ever told me to also put a patch over their left eye and make damn sure they are right eye dominant. ;)

Anybody have any experience or thoughts? By the way, the #1 child has gone through a couple of doses of vision therapy over the years to cure the kid of being cross-eyed and we have absolutely no interest in trying to go back at 10 years of age and re-train the eyes on something else, so using the right eye isn't an option.
Anyone with any feedback is appreciated.

Gun ownership up, especially among women

A right not exercised soon becomes a privilege.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news-channel/45897106#45897106

But the anti-gunners tell me gun ownership is down
http://www.saysuncle.com/2012/01/05/but-the-anti-gunners-tell-me-gun-ownership-is-down/

My home town finally catches up, We are winning.

In 2006 the State of Ohio passed a law providing that no municipality in Ohio could make gun laws that were more restrictive than the State of Ohio Revised Code. Well, it took 5 years but Columbus finally voted last night to remove its draconian gun laws from the books to avoid being sued. No more limits on magazine size, owners of concealed carry permits can now carry legally in city parks, no obtuse restrictions on ammo and make and model of firearm and no more worries about Columbus re-instituting its Columbus Gun License that you formerly had to apply for and purchase before purchasing a gun (that was removed about 5 years ago).

I'm not saying they were happy to do it, but they finally did (only after the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the state law though).

Pew Pew Pew

Takes a brave man to take on armed thugs with only a smirk and an imaginary gun.

Buy Monster Hunter Alpha

Larry Correia writes some of the best fiction out there these days, and he needs support to keep his full time job as 'writer'. I already own the previous two Monster Hunter titles and have pre-ordered the 3rd at Amazon. The books are cheap and you can read them again and again and enjoy details you missed the first time.
As Linoge says "Buy the book today"

I will personally send you mental hugs and warm wishes if you buy a copy.

Commercial message ends here.

Funniest thing i've seen in weeks

For those who don't know, Plaxico Burress just got out of jail after serving a term in NY for illegally carrying a handgun after shooting himself in the leg in a nightclub. A: use of a holster and B: some common sense would have helped him avoid jail time.
Click on the link above the watch the funniest PSA I've ever seen.

Carry your gun, someones child may thank you some day

1. If you have a concealed carry permit, or live in a state where one is not required, keep your gun handy. Not all dog owners are good ones, and a 7 year old boy might want to keep his face.
I hear having a face is a good thing. Also, if you don't carry a gun, look into carrying a brick, apparently.

2. If you are the parent of small children, keep your eyes open. Bad things happen quickly.

I have two wonderful kids and I have had to ward off dogs plenty of times while walking in our neighborhood and in parks. Only once did I ever have to actually touch a dog in question; it tried to bite my daughter and my yelling at it and waving my arms wasn't scaring it away. Eventually I resorted to grabbing it by the scruff of its neck, and drop kicking it a few feet and it ran away. A nice .380 in my pocket would have left me with other options if the situation had gotten worse.

KEEP YOUR KIDS SAFE

Hat tip to A NC Gun Blog for the story.

Florida, They know how to handle things....

Reporter asks Sheriff why his deputies fired 68 rounds at a man who was suspected of having killed an officer during a traffic stop and fled from other officers in a police cruiser;
Sheriff replies "Because that's all the ammo they had..."

From wirecutter:

They only had 68 rounds? That's budget cuts for you...

I need to move back to the South,
in Ohio they would have a recall election for the Sheriff for his comments and the family of the deceased would have sued for a civil rights violation since he wasn't given a fair trial.

Oh my, that is pretty

Well, I found what I want for Christmas. Ruger just released a new 22 pistol in a "gun fighter" frame with polished wooden grips, fiber optic sights and a ten shot cylinder (compared to 6 for most Ruger 22 revolvers and 8 on a few other manufacturers). Titled the "Single-Ten", referring to its single action and ten round capacity, its just plain "purdy"; the satin finish just looks nice. And the fiber optic sights on a cowboy frame give it just a touch of steampunk...has a very Firefly vibe to it. I have no purpose for owning it, but I'll happily use it to dispatch groundhogs in the backyard if the need arises.

The .Gov has gone nuts - Now they don't want us to poison mice!

So, I knew they were banning 100w light bulbs soon, I didn't realize they are also going to ban rat poison. Well, at least the effective kinds. 
The press release from the EPA says they will be banning the strongest types (i.e. most effective) and consumers will only be able to buy poisons with less toxicity that are sold in child and pet proof containers. If a pet can't get in it, whats the likelihood a rat will be able to? And if its less toxic, how much will the mice have to eat?
Plus, though they quote thousands of children exposed to rat poison, I can find no numbers online of the number of deaths attributed to pest poisons. Every child's death is tragic, but if this is affecting a very small number of people, shouldn't we regulate this a different way, maybe a public media campaign? Some PSA's on TV and radio would probably help stop a lot of those cases of child exposure. Maybe put some big warnings on the packaging ala cigarettes?

Now we're stuck with rat poison that isn't really poisonous. 

Good luck to all you folks in AZ fighting mice with the Hanta virus. As SayUncle says, its for your own good
I have kept away from New Jersey b/c I didn't want to live in a Nanny State, now all 50 of them are. Great.
Guess I'll be adding rat poison in with all the preps in the basement....

US Government to have technical default on debt?

While I applaud the Redumblicans attempt to bring the national debt into the debate in DC, even a technical default (letting interest payments slide a couple of days) would have us lose our AAA debt rating, and would require the Fed Reserve to raise interest rates, something that would be horrible during a recession.

Hopefully we can discuss options in DC without a gun to the head of ol' Uncle Sam.

Just the facts ma'am. UN Global Small ArmsTreaty is an attempted gun ban.

From Forbes' Larry Bell
"In fact law-abiding citizens in America used guns in self-defense 2.5 million times during 1993 (about 6,850 times per day), and actually shot and killed 2 1/2 times as many criminals as police did (1,527 to 606). Those civilian self-defense shootings resulted in less than 1/5th as many incidents as police where an innocent person was mistakenly identified as a criminal (2% versus 11%).
Just how effectively have gun bans worked to make citizens safer in other countries? Take the number of home break-ins while residents are present as an indication. In Canada and Britain, both with tough gun-control laws, nearly half of all burglaries occur when residents are present. But in the U.S. where many households are armed, only about 13% happen when someone is home.
Recognizing clear statistical benefit evidence, 41 states now allow competent, law-abiding adults to carry permitted or permit-exempt concealed handguns. As a result, crime rates in those states have typically fallen at least 10% in the year following enactment."

No comments from me needed, this sort of stuff speaks for itself.

Mexican Drug War

So the mexican marines capture a large weapons cache supposedly belonging to the narco group, Los Zetas. The number of weapons captured is impressive, even if it is just a small amount in the big picture, but what the heck are the Narco's doing with 2000lbs of fireworks? I love fireworks more than the average joe, but even so it would take me at least a long weekend to run through a ton of them. Maybe with a couple of my brothers in town I could do it one day, maybe.
I wonder if the mexican gov will auction off the fireworks?  hhmmmmm

Penn and Teller on the 2nd Amendment and my ramblings

Anyone who knows me for more than a few days will invariably find out that I am a strict Constructionist. Meaning I like our system of government and the framing document that supports it. It also means I fully support any amendments to the original, especially the one that repealed prohibition.  :)
I don't like how far our government has strayed from the Constitution, especially since the framers put in a wonderful mechanism for modifying it. Want a Dept of Education, no problem, get an amendment passed. Want a balanced budget requirement for Congress with some teeth? No problem, amendment. Want to do anything not spelled out in the document? Amend that puppy. Its a simple system and since we need a majority of states to ratify an amendment, not one that lends itself to abuse. Nothing is stopping us from having the government we have today codified in our Constitution, so why don't we take the extra steps to make it official? legislative laziness? Fear the amendments would never pass muster? Lack of anyone in DC caring about the Constitution? I don't know. I do know I get tired of people who complain about parts of our Constitution.

That being said, I know a lot of people personally and many more online who simply despise firearms (and those who own them in many cases). Since this is a right given to the people expressly in the 2nd Amendment and one that really isn't that big a deal, I don't for the life of me understand how we let people get away with railing against it. We wouldn't condone people setting up a "Repeal the 16th Amendment and put Blacks in as 2nd class citizens" Foundation. I know it'd be tough to get 503c status from the IRS at least, much less donors. Yet, groups that want to take away this Constitutionally granted, explicit right can indeed set up PAC's, charities, accept tax deductible donations and publicly rail against something, that if it were "civil rights" related would tie the ACLU in knots as they ran for their lawyers to stop you, or label you a hate group. Yet, really, when you consider life and liberty, what section of the constitution better addresses those "civil rights" needs then the Bill of Rights; all of them (well, maybe not the 10th, that's more about State's rights). The 1st allows us to say what we want, where we want, be it political or religious gatherings. The 4th prevents the government from just snooping around our house when its not warranted, so on and so forth. I think the 2nd, while a big deal to some hoplophobes out there, is actually pretty tame and is a reflection of the fact that our country had just fought a war to overcome a tyrannical government. Anyone who tells me that need could never arise again, obviously has their eyes shut and their ears plugged. Tyranny exists all over the world, the idea that it couldn't visit the US of A again is naive. A gun alone will never do anything, its just a tool after all, much like a hammer, rake or saw. But take away those tools, and you are powerless to do anything, be it build a chair, or defend you country or home. Yet, people all over this country stand up every day and say we need to take away guns for this reason and that. I'll be the first to admit there are guns in the hands of some bad guys out there, but that is no reason to take away my 2nd amendment rights b/c of what SOMEONE ELSE did. Punish them, not me.The justice system is delineated pretty well in the Constitution as well.

I just don't get it. I like Penn & Teller's thoughts on the 2nd, so I thought I would share.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GNu7ldL1LM&feature=player_embedded