Author: hsoi

Now they’re coming for knives

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Now they’re wanting to work to ban knives.

More here.

Methinks some folks have never used a knife in their life, apart from maybe buttering their toast, if they think this is a sound thing to do. Like all tools, most are used in good hands by good people for good purposes, but hey… one person fucks it up and that’s enough to take it away from everyone, right? (let’s ban cars then for that matter). Knives are even more handy than guns, as I think most people tend to go through their day cutting at least one thing (food, especially). My Leatherman is quite a handy tool, and the ability to open the blades one-handed is an important feature. If you’re a person that does work with your hands, very often you need to hold, stabilize something with one hand then cut with the other… you must have a folding knife you can open with one hand.

Less police to protect you

/ hsoi

Austin’s facing some budget issues and consequently that is going to mean fewer cops on the street:

[President of Austin’s Police Association, Sgt. Wayne] Vincent said postponing the [cadet] class will keep about 90 new officers off the streets for at least two years.

Ninety new officers off the streets… for the next two years… at least… could be more than two years.

Even if the police were bound to protect you, with less and less police and more and more population, it makes their job a lot harder.

Since the police will now have less chance of being around to protect you, who do you think is around you enough to be able to protect you? Hint: you.

If you don’t want to risk being a victim, take steps to give yourself the mindset and skills to minimize your chances of it happening, and if it does, of ensuring you come out of the altercation intact.

Taking a stand

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Exodus takes a stand. Pass it on. Let’s make it a movement and make it very clear, especially to public companies like Ruger and Smith & Wesson. But not just them; remember what happened with H-S Precision and Cooper Firearms.

If we the people wish to keep our freedom, authority, and power, then we need to keep exercising it.

This seems familiar

/ hsoi

Living in the same city as Lance Armstrong, this attitude is rather pervasive:

Pearls Before Swine

(Dang it… image is too wide to fit within the current blog theme. Well, click on it and visit the main site if it’s difficult to read.)

Permission

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Just as Mr. Saxton and I do not need to be professional journalists to exercise our First Amendment rights, responsible civilians should not require official permission to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

– Alan Tong

(h/t to SayUncle)

 

Blueguns

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

Tam’s random gun post mentioned Ring’s Blueguns.

I’ve got one of these that replicates a Springfield XD-9 Service model. The detail is amazing. It’s a direct mold and that’s what makes it so nice. It has the same feel as your carry gun, fits in the same holsters, everything except weight, trigger pull (of course), and perhaps any custom mods you have have done (e.g. sights). In my case, I did have to take the Dremel to it because the grip safety button was molded too… but whereas on the real gun the safety depresses and you never feel it, it’s solid on the bluegun and thus doesn’t depress and is irritating in the hand; a little Dremel work and it was gone and feeling like the real XD would in the hand.

The great thing about such training aids is you can use them for all manner of training that doesn’t require live fire, nor would you want live fire. With this big block of blue plastic in your hand, there’s no mistaking it for a gun (no rules violations). It’s good for working with a partner… you have the bluegun in your concealed holster, you work with a partner in a live scenario, and you can roll right into defensive actions including drawing and pointing the bluegun at them. Safety.

I often use my bluegun at home when I’m practicing mixed combatives and don’t want to risk damage to any real guns while I’m practicing something. I also think it’s a little less bothersome for any neighbor that might see me practicing.

Rings offer a lot of things, not just guns (e.g. replica pepper spray cans, radios, etc.). It’s all meant to help you perform training exercises where you need the realism but not the dangers.

Lissa’s crude analogy

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The problem with Lissa’s crude analogy is that it makes sense. That’s precisely why it falls upon deaf ears and so many people think big(ger) government is the way to solve our problems. *sigh*

It’s what you give

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Over at 2AMusing, the subject of pink guns came up. I pointed out what Smith & Wesson had done with their pink gun. And I like how Caleb put it:

While Josh Sugarmann of VPC takes donations to pay his six figure salary, a gun company donates a portion of their profits to help save lives.  Do you really wonder who the good guys are here?

Indeed.

Oh NOW you realize this

/ hsoi

First news story I read this morning is about Waco Dodge protesting the closure of Chrysler dealerships.

“This is mostly to say that the bailout didn’t work and there’s still people losing their jobs,” Waco Dodge General Manager Holly Dunham said.

It didn’t work? People are still losing jobs? That’s unpossible! Those “good” folks in Washington told us this wouldn’t happen if we just allowed them to flush everything down the toilet.

Though some in attendance say they don’t doubt the government had good intentions, the bailout didn’t work.

Hell is paved with good intentions.

“The taxation of the youth that’s coming up, they’re going to be paying for this big bill,” [Protester Wes] Hardin said.

This wasn’t realized months ago when all this bailout fiasco first raised up?

But for dealership employees, their dissatisfaction stems from government intervention.

“The government is involved in as much as there is a task force, the automotive task force who’s dictating the terms of Chrysler’s bankruptcy and telling them what they need to do and how they need to do it,” Dunham said.

She said Chrysler was told by the task force to cut back on their dealerships.

The government sticking their noses into everything. Yes, it’s always the positive and fruitful solution. What happened to “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” being the scariest words in the English language?

Dunham said before the bailout money got involved, a better alternative would have been for Chrysler to leave it up to the dealerships to stay open because naturally the economy would have forced some doors to close, and profitable dealers could have stayed open.

You mean let the free markets work things out? Gosh, what a concept.

To be fair, I do get the feeling those directly involved in this (the particular dealership owners, employees, etc.) actually have a clue that this bailout stuff was a sham from the get go. But to those that thought bailouts would solve things, that the government is the answer (not the cause) of all our problems, I offer up Exhibit A.