Not just the guns, but all the stuff that goes with them
Ooooh, something from my local range, Texas Legends of Allen:
If anyone’s interested in joining me, send an email with your preferred date(s). It’s been a long time since I did anything like this, and it’s about time I did. Now, if I can just drag the Son&Heir away from his treadmill at GlobalMegaBank Inc…
Well, here we go again:
Rhode Island Democrat House members are pushing legislation to require Rhode Islanders to obtain a “Firearm Safety Training Certificate” prior to purchasing a gun.
The text of H 7755 requires the would-be buyer of a handgun to “Present to the person selling the firearm a valid firearm safety training certificate issued by the office of the attorney general.”
The text further states: “The firearm safety training certificate shall certify that the purchaser has completed and passed an approved basic firearm safety training course within the previous five (5) years.”
Of course, your initial reaction to this is going to be a snort of fury and the ensuing Red Curtain Of Blood coming impeding your vision — as was my initial reaction.
But then I started thinking.
Somebody remind me: what does that Constitution thing say about guns? Oh yeah (sing along with me):
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
…and a damn fine piece of writing it is, too.
Now, for the benefit of the hoplophobes, let’s just get a few definitions out of the way.
“Regulated”, when it was written, did not mean “subject to laws and regulations” (as it might mean today). Back then, “regulated” meant “trained”, as exemplified by how several states used to mandate some kind of monthly military training (marching in step, learning to obey military commands, and so on). That regulation also required learning proficiency in the use of firearms (and other military equipment, such as cannon). We’ll get back to this in a moment.
“Militia”, also when it was written, did not mean the National Guard or anything like that, simply because the Guard hadn’t been invented yet. A militia meant armed citizenry — and the United States Code goes on to define who constituted the armed citizenry as “every able-bodied man of at least 17 and under 45 years of age” (Teh Wimmens were added later, by the way). And just so we’re all clear on the concept: membership of the militia was compulsory.
So let’s take this proposal of the legislators of Rhode Island (lest we forget, one of the first states in the union) and make it comply with the spirit of the Constitution (because otherwise? it’s un-Constitutional).
So, Rhode Island legislators (and others of the same ilk): how about it?
And by the way: this is an either/or choice: either institute mandatory firearms training in high schools, or drop your current idea in the trash because it’s un-Constitutional.
Oh, and fuck you, all of you.
At first, I didn’t think too much about this development:
America’s largest gunmaker, Sturm Ruger & Co., accused the parent company of Italian arms firm Beretta of trying to stealthily seize control of the Connecticut-based business through “self-serving demands” such as cut-price stock buys and veto-like board power.
The Todd W. Seyfert-led giant hit back on Monday at the historic firm’s proxy fight, which was first reported by The Post on Feb. 25, that branded the move as a thinly-veiled threat to launch “a war” and complete a full takeover.
Ruger claimed Beretta quietly built a large stake, refused to halt purchases during negotiations and sought perks that could break US antitrust laws that prevent companies from unfairly dominating markets.
“At that meeting, Beretta’s chair indicated a long-term plan to combine Ruger with Beretta but made no formal proposal,” Ruger said in a statement issued via a spokesperson.
“Beretta’s chair also indicated that he had no interest in the status quo and that he would find a way to increase his position if Ruger remained resistant,” the company added.
Looks like the usual corporate dogfight, dunnit?
Then I looked at some of the small print:
Beretta announced plans two weeks ago to nominate four new members to sit on Ruger’s nine-member board after the publication of The Post’s exclusive story.
The names are William Franklin Detwiler of Fernbrook Capital, Mark DeYoung, the ex-Vista Outdoor CEO, Frederick Disanto of Ancora Holdings and Michael Christodolou of Inwood Capital.
Oh, how nice.
And what do capital funds typically do? Under the guise of “giving more value to shareholders”, these fucking vultures systematically strip and sell assets from companies they come to control. And having four out of nine directors means they can pretty much do whatever they want — unless of course, the other five directors can hold the line and kick back against them, with shareholder support.
Sounds good, but that’s not the way to bet.
So what can we do, as ordinary folks? Not a whole bunch, except make Ruger a priority or a first choice on our next gun purchase. I wish there was more we could do, but there it is.
I have a bad taste in my mouth and a bad feeling in my gut…
“Oh bloody hell, here goes old Kim again, bitching about how ugly new stuff is compared to old stuff.”
Well, yes. I am very aware that the new stuff is streets ahead of the old stuff, technologically speaking. I am also aware that despite this, in many cases this techno-superiority makes very little difference in terms of everyday use. Here’s an example, using this modern iteration of the venerable 1911 handgun:
…versus the traditional:
Now I know that there are all sorts of reasons why the SIG P211 is a great pistol, probably far better than the Gold Cup in terms of, well, everything, from features to function and so on. But at the end of the day, will both guns deliver a half-dozen or so rounds of manly .45 ACP goodness into the desired target area? Yes, the P211 has more rounds to deliver, and yes, it has a tacti-cool red-dot sight which I guess will make this new model x times more accurate than the old-fashioned Gold Cup. If all that floats your boat, have at it. I’ll stick with the old 1911, because it’s enough for me, and it will shoot better than I can shoot it anyway.
Consider another example of this phenomenon, using high-end sports cars this time. Here’s Ferrari’s La Ferrari:
Looks good, is super-fast, has all those holes in the body to make the airflow more efficient, etc. And hoo boy, it sure is super-fast. No argument about that, least of all from me.
So let’s look at an older version of a supercar, the Jaguar E-type Series 2:
It’s for sure not as fast as the Ferrari — hell, a tuned E-type can only manage at best ~150mph compared to the 220mph of the Scuderia creation, and its piddly little 4.2-liter straight 6 engine pushes out at best 265hp (compared to the newer supercar’s 6.3-liter V12 plus the F1-derived KERS system yielding 850hp).
So… no contest, right?
Quite right. I’d take the Jag any day of the week, six ways to Sunday. The looks of the Jag are smoother, less angular and frankly, streamlined enough for me, and the performance is frankly much more than I need. (The Ferrari’s performance is not only excessive, it frightens me because I wouldn’t be able to control the beast.)
Frankly, both the SIG and LaFerrari embody to me a “modern” style that I have come to detest — much as this example of a “modern” building compares very badly to an older one:
Your opinions on all the above examples may vary.
Interesting stuff, this (via Insty):
I Have Seen the Future of Anti-Drone Warfare, and It’s Dirt-Cheap
I vaguely remembered reading something about the Sting a year or more ago, but I just learned today that they’re both dirt-cheap and extremely effective — mostly at shooting down Russia’s Geran-2 one-way attack drones, which are licensed copies of Iran’s Shahed that have caused us considerable trouble in Operation Epic Fury.
Ukraine needs tons of these things, because Geran is essentially a terror weapon aimed in large numbers — currently 100 to 200 per attack — at Ukraine’s cities and infrastructure. Larger attack waves include anything from 300 up to just over 800 Geran-2s in one night.
So the concept behind Sting is simply enough: Make something cheap and fast to build, easy to use, yet still capable of knocking a Geran-2 out of the sky far enough out from its target for some degree of safety.
And the Ukrainians did just that.
Of course, that’s all well and good in a military context, and our own .dotmil needs to hop onto this with all due dispatch, if they haven’t done so already. (I assume they have, but whatever.)
What interests me as a civilian, however, is a solution closer to home [sic], in that these little airborne nuisances can also be used by anti-social elements to both spy on people and, in the worst case, to kamikaze themselves into a target — such as, for instance, your home or similar. Why go to all the trouble of kitting yourself up with a suicide explosive vest or a rifle in order to inflict death and damage on (say) a church or synagogue, when you can essentially outsource the suicide bit to something you hand-built in your garage?
And in the above scenario, how would ordinary people — say, adherents of the Second Amendment — defend themselves or their communities against such nefarious electro-mechanical mosquitoes?
I’m thinking of something like this, of course:
That’s the semi-auto 12ga Browning Silver Hunter (and of course there are less-expensive options because America). This differs from your standard home defense shotgun, say a 12ga Mossberg Maverick 88:
…in that the Hunter is not a pump action device but semi-auto (ergo a higher rate of fire) and it has a much longer barrel (ergo much greater accuracy at distance, ask any bird shooter).
I’m interested in this concept because it raises a couple of practical issues such as the type of ammo that would work best to bring down a drone (00 buck, or perhaps something lighter?). Obviously, a 12ga slug would end the flight path of a drone with spectacular effect, but it has to be accurate: far easier to spread the terminal effect with shot… but which shot? 00 buckshot is excellent, but it also kicks like hell — and getting followup blasts off quickly with said semi-auto action means a quicker target re-acquisition time is necessary. Would 7/8 birdshot do the trick as well? For that matter, would a 20ga shotgun be as effective as a 12ga under such circumstances? (Almost all semi-auto shotguns are offered in both chamberings.)
I’ve owned a 20ga semi-auto shotgun in the past, and I have to say that the effect downrange is almost as effective as a 12ga (if those watermelons and milk jugs are at all indicative), but the recoil was far less problematic.
Of course I think that the Silver Hunter is just dreamy, in so many ways:
…and yes, the addition of a red-dot sighting device may certainly be of assistance (even though I think it spoils the look of the gun).
Feel free to discuss this topic in Comments, of course.
Gotta say that I never thought I’d see the day when Virginia turned into Illinois:
A bill banning AR-15s and other popular semiautomatic rifles, as well as magazines holding more than 15 rounds of ammunition, cleared the Virginia legislature Monday and is headed to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) desk.
The legislation, SB 749, states that “importing, selling, purchasing, or transferring a prohibited firearm would be a Class 1 misdemeanor,” Ammoland News noted.
It also “restricts the sale or transfer of certain large-capacity magazines defined in the statute.”
WRIC reported that SB 749 also bans a number of semiautomatic shotguns and certain semiautomatic, centerfire pistols.
SB 749 takes effect July 1, 2026.
So to sum up: the party of Thomas Jefferson has passed an un-Constitutional gun control law in Jefferson’s home state.
Note that this does not effect existing owners of said Eeeevil Implements Of Death:
If you have an assault rifle, you can keep it. If you have an assault pistol, if you have one of these pistols with a silencer on it and a pistol grip in the front. A really big, big pistol…you want to have one with a telescope on it or lasers or whatever else you want, that’s okay. You just can’t buy a new one and you can’t sell it to anybody. If you want to have a magazine with more than 15 bullets, you can keep that, too. You just can’t buy a new one. — Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell
…but I bet that whatever the numbers of those AR owners are at present, there are going to be quite a few more before July 1, 2026.
And in the future, there’s going to be some serious traffic congestion every time there’s a gun show in West Virginia or North Carolina.
Hey, it’s the Will Of The People, right? After all, Virginians voted this bunch of scumbags into office.
Other gun-friendly states need to take note, especially the ones recently infested with refugees from California, Illinois and New York.
Normally, I say something very rude at this point, but I’m off to the range. I think I’ll shoot off some “high-capacity” mags with my AR-15, just for the hell of it.
As y’all know, it was with considerable misgivings that I got the poodleshooter; but as more and more people seem to want to ban them, I’m kinda glad that I did. if for no other reason than:
Ammo’s cheap, too.