Good advice

What is the value of training?

Firearms instructors are periodically asked the question “Why should I take training?” The answer often comes in the form of a list of skills that are taught or the reasoning behind using a certain technique. However, these do not address the underlying fundamental reasons for taking firearms training at all.

1. You don’t know what you don’t know.
2. Much of what you know is wrong.
3. It’s good to have some of the answers to the test before taking it.

These issues relate to both technical competency with using a firearm (gun safety and marksmanship) and the ability to use the firearm correctly in a personal protection situation (legal and tactical).

 Go read. You might save yourself a slew of trouble and pain.

Know your target!

Probably not a good idea to shoot at steel plates...





I've got a couple of steel silhouette targets of bighorn sheep left by the previous landowner. They are warped into curves by all the bullets they have taken over the years. Most of the high power rounds just make craters in the 1/2" plate. A few penetrate.

And, once in a while, they ricochet. Last summer, one of my friends shot his .308 at the backstop and caught one of those silhouettes just right. The round came back over our heads, and ended up in the hillside behind us. Good thing my range is down in a hollow!

The whine of that round passing was enough for me - the sheep got retired behind the backstop!

Videos found in the comments at Failure to Fire.

Gun safety

Children's book from 1908.

http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/08/31/the-hole-book-1908/

Now, HERE'S some common sense!

Missouri gov. signs gun-safety course for first-graders

Missouri schools will be encouraged to teach first-graders a gun safety course sponsored by the National Rifle Association as a result of legislation signed Friday by Gov. Jay Nixon.

The new law stops short of requiring schools to teach the Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program. But by putting it in state law, Missouri is providing one of the stronger state-sanctioned endorsements of the NRA-sponsored firearms safety course, which the group says is taught to about 1 million children annually.

 Baby steps. Perhaps next we can start bringing back marksmanship training starting in second grade with air rifles, and possibly I will live to see school kids carrying .22s and shotguns on the school bus for some after-school plinking and hunting...

Airline luggage security

It begins with guns:
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- Abstract -

Many of us attend cons and other events which involve the transportation of computers, photography equipment, or other expensive tech in our bags. If our destination if far-flung, often air travel is involved... this almost always means being separated from our luggage for extended periods of time and entrusting its care to a litany of individuals with questionable ethics and training.

After a particularly horrible episode of baggage pilferage and tool theft, I made the decision to never again fly with an unlocked bag. However, all "TSA compliant" locks tend to be rather awful and provide little to no real security. It was for this reason that I now choose to fly with firearms at all times. Federal law allows me (in fact, it REQUIRES me) to lock my luggage with proper padlocks and does not permit any airport staffer to open my bags once they have left my possession.

In this talk, I will summarize the relevant laws and policies concerning travel with firearms. It's easier than you think, often adds little to no extra time to your schedule (indeed, it can EXPEDITE the check-in process sometimes), and is in my opinion the best way to prevent tampering and theft of bags during air travel.

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I love it - use the TSA's own rules to prevent them from screwing with your stuff.

H/t Sipsey Street Irregulars

Rule 2 violation

Rule one, also.



Repeat after me:

1. All guns are always loaded!
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy! 
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target!
4. Always be sure of your target!

H/t Gun Free Zone, The Gun Zone

Do the Four Rules need an addition?

5. Don't give non-humans access to weapons...



I could be nasty and say Demonrats don't qualify as human - but I won't...
I fully expect to hear from PETA any day, rallying for "guns for apes"...