Random Saturday Morning 1911 Musings

JR, in comments to this post:

For some reason I am really liking that new SIS. It feels good in the hand. But for the price, I think I'll save just a little longer and pick up a Nighthawk.

Oh, now those Nighthawks are FINE. For north of $2,500 they should be! Talk about a gun whose bullets would transmute to gold...for that price they'd very well better transmute to platinum! I'd love to have some sort of custom 1911 before it's all said and done, from Nighthawk or Wilson Combat, but something tells me I'd be rather averse to carrying it unless I had the money to replace it in the event the police took it.
I found myself back at the range Thursday afternoon with another old friend -- my very first 1911, the Springfield GI that I picked up in February of '06. This pistol, for those unfamiliar with the Springfields, is the entry-level 1911 in the Springfield line, with none of the accoutrements found on the higher-end pistols. If I remember right, once upon a time they marketed it as "a 1911 just like Grandpa used to carry." And I guess it is -- low-profile GI sights, spur hammer, short, solid trigger, plain-jane parkerized finish, and smaller ejection port. From what I've read about that smaller ejection port, it's better because it makes the pistol less susceptible to malfunctions, because of dirt, grime and such being less likely to clog it up, as the barrel hood is a prime place to collect that sort of thing -- which, of course, affects reliability in adverse conditions.
It had been a pretty good while since I had taken that pistol out. In fact, I can't even remember when the last time was. Shame, too, because that gun is a GREAT shooter, even without all the aforementioned accoutrements -- skeletonized hammer & longer trigger, ambidextrous safety, night sights, etc. Now, a 1911 with all the bling is beautiful, but there's much to be said for that plain old stripped-down GI model, too. It was very surprising -- I think I shot that gun better than I do my Loaded. I don't know if that was because of the shorter trigger or what, but I'm thinking it was -- because even with those tiny sights I was nailing the target. The only bad thing was the fact that the smaller ejection port was just mauling the case mouths on my brass. One of the dies in my .45ACP set is specifically for belling the case mouth to accept the bullet and it does work with at least minor dents in a case, but we'll see how it works. I am hoping that it won't be much of an issue with the .45 being a lower-pressure round and brass being the resilient thing it is, but we'll see. Comments from the peanut gallery? In any event, that GI is going to see more of me, you can count on that...

I'm gettin' right sick 'n' tired of this...

I was just perusing The High Road, and a friend of a Canadian member wrote the office of Toronto mayor David Miller, who lately has been advocating a ban on handguns. (h/t Yuri Orlov) Part of the response:

...the Mayor's gun violence strategy includes:
* A handgun ban
* Tougher crime legislation for illegal gun use
* Increased anti-gun smuggling security at the Canada-U.S. border
* Stronger U.S. gun controls

And regarding the problems with crime south of the border, one ivory-tower columnist had this to say in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Only lightly noted on this side of the border, our neighbor Mexico is engulfed in bloody, violent combat with and between death-dealing drug cartels....

And is the problem really Mexico — or our demand for drugs?
There are three much smarter steps that a rational United States would take.
First, face up to where the Mexican cartels get their weapons of death. Virtually all, including pistols, grenades, high-powered ammunition and assault weapons such as the AK-47, are smuggled from U.S. territory, across the border into Mexico, where the gangster elements pay premium prices for them.
The weapons are often purchased legally at gun shows in Arizona and other states where loopholes permit criminals to buy guns without background checks.
Our obvious answer: Seal all gun show sales loopholes, requiring checks on every purchaser. And reinstate the U.S. ban on assault-gun purchases that Congress, under gun-lobby pressure, let expire in 2004.

Riiight. Because other countries can't get a handle on their criminals, OUR rights should be infringed upon. One more time, if you wonder why we get to saying things like "they can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers," this is why. No one, NO ONE will leave well enough alone. What kinds of controls are going to be pushed through after the elections it's hard to tell, but if the American Socialist Party (aka the Democratic Party) candidate ends up in the White House I'd almost guarantee he'll be pushing stronger gun controls as part of "being a good neighbor" or "good citizen of the global community" precisely due to pressure from asshats like Toronto mayor David Miller. And lest you think I'm just being catty, click here. (As for Mexican meddling, click here.) When I read that bit about Miller advocating stronger gun controls in the U.S., that produced a bona-fide RCOB moment. Now, I realize very well that Barack Obama's crack about Red America's "antipathy to people who aren't like them" was by and large a load of Chicago elitist bullshit, but I won't be so foolish as to deny that antipathy toward those in foreign lands exists. But to the extent it exists, that existence owes itself to crap just like this. And don't think that son of a bitch Miller is going to stop at banning personal defensive arms in Canada. Because I guarantee you, the next thing you know, after it's been shown the chosen weapon of the Canadian criminals remains STOLEN American weapons, the only next step Miller is logically going to be able to take is to call and lobby for yet another ban. In the United States. For teh childrenses, you know. (If, of course, that's not already on his agenda.) I would say just what I'd like to do to Miller and his sorry ilk for not minding their own business, but then again I think it's probably best that I don't...

thoughts for this Memorial Day

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G.I.

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
...

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

-- Rudyard Kipling

um...what was that again?

And the misconceptions keep getting peddled...
Tonight on Rowdy Yates' Country Gold, the music of Randy Travis is being put front and center. I was listening as I was driving back to where I stay from work, and Mr. Travis was billed as "the man who brought the twang back to town," or something like that. And I thought, "uhhhhh, what?"
I've heard this more than a few times over the years and I never quite understood how RT got that reputation. From what I remember about the resurgence of traditional country music in the early-to-mid 1980s, it was George Strait, Ricky Skaggs, and Reba McEntire who were the early players of the role of bringing the music back to the basics. Ricky Skaggs had his first No. 1 in 1981 ("Cryin' My Heart Out Over You") Strait ("Fool Hearted Memory") and Reba ("Can't Even Get The Blues") had their first No. 1 hits in 1982, and finally, Randy Travis hit the scene in 1985. I was thinking the resurgence of the traditional country was more or less in full swing by then, as evidenced by the popularity of those other folks. I'll give him his due, but it's always bugged the hell out of me that he seems to be the one who gets the lion's share of the credit for bringing country music back from the dead...

Not my theme song, but I still love it...

Now playing here: "Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in eeevery way....I can't wait to look in the mirror...'cause I get better-lookin' each day...to know me is to love me...I must be a hell of a man...oh, Lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can..."

Quote of the YEAR!

From Hazel Stone, at Robb Allen's place...

The Kimbers we saw at the last Suncoast Gun Show were priced as if the bullets actually transmuted to gold when fired.

That's the God's honest truth, too. I love my Kimbers, don't get me wrong, especially the 10mm Stainless Target II with its ramped and fully supported barrel, but the Kimbers for sure are not cheap. No good 1911 is cheap, but the folks in Yonkers evidently think the world of their guns. If the market can command the prices, then more power to them, but that line was just GREAT...

An interesting development...

I was at work yesterday, messing around on the Web during some downtime (Really! I was waiting on more stuff to come in! LOLOL...) and ran across this, via the Associated Press...

LOS ANGELES — A Missouri woman was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.

Lori Drew, 49, of suburban St. Louis, who allegedly helped create a MySpace account in the name of someone who didn't exist to convince Megan Meier she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans, was charged with conspiracy and fraudulently gaining access to someone else's computer.

Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006, allegedly after receiving a dozen or more cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.

"The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl's weaknesses," Hernandez said. "Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she's responsible for her actions."

Drew was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

I'd read and blogged about this before back when it all came to light, and thought it was amazing (and not in a good way, mind you) that (at the time) it seemed there was nothing that could be done to hold Megan Meier's tormentors accountable for their actions. I know that ultimately it was her own decision to hang herself, but for cryin' out loud, a grown woman drove her to it! And I almost mentioned the fact that she didn't even express that much remorse for her actions, but there are some things even half-assed apologies won't fix. Should be interesting to see what comes of this...

Say, wouldn't that be grounds for revolution?

A-yep, it's time for another installment of Let's Scare the White People!
Sebastian of Snowflakes in Hell, on the potential of more Democrats in power at the national level:

I can promise you that an increased Democratic majority will put our gun rights in serious jeopardy, no matter how Heller turns out. A Democratic sweep in the fall may very well make Heller completely irrelevant.

I could be off here, but it sounds to me like what he was saying was that the Democrats would just flat-out ignore what the Supreme Court says when the Heller decision is handed down -- if, that is, the court rules that the 2A protects an individual right, along with the ownership of everything the Democrats want to take away from us. And once again, the words of Judge Alex Kozinski come to mind...

The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed--where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees.

I can't help but think that Kozinski would include elected officials' willful ignorance of court decisions in his descriptions of rights being infringed, but I could be wrong. In any case, though, what would it say about the increased Democratic majority -- and not just on the federal level -- if it enforced certain laws in what would basically be open defiance of the Constitution? It leads one to wonder -- what other court decrees would they be willing to thumb their noses at? And I know very well that we could at least vote against these cretins at the next opportunity, but what the hell do you do when the the majority of the electorate at large has been bribed -- with its own money, no less -- into supporting them? An old quote from Alexander Tyler comes to mind...

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy....

And, of course, we see the people voting themselves money from the public treasury every time an election rolls around, pretty much, and however much the respective candidates will dole out does seem to be the issue of the day always, as opposed to which of our choices will keep their nose the furthest out of our business. It's a shame, indeed. And the question needs to be asked -- what will you do when liberty succeeds in the jury box but fails at the ballot box? Something to ponder...

Not much of a grass-roots, when you see the numbers...

The Houston Chronicle in today's edition identified Marsha McCartney as "state president of the Texas Chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a grass-roots organization devoted to gun violence prevention."
Considering they haven't raised one red cent in donations in the 2008 election cycle, I must say, that isn't much of a grass roots...

Snakes on the Range!

For real, yo...
I was out at my friendly local gun club this morning with my Springfield 1911, and as I was driving out there I saw a small snake slithering across the road. As it did, I just thought, whoa...because the range itself is more or less the same kind of terrain I was driving through, albeit without the tall grass and such. So I got out there and set up my target and as I was walking back, one of those snakes slithered right across my path, probably not 5 inches from where I had just stepped. I jumped and was like, "oh, shit!" As far as I could tell it was one of those little garden-type snakes, but it still freaked me out a bit. I did have fun shooting, though...but even a bad day at the range beats a good day at work. ;-)
I was shooting regular old Winchester White Box 230-grain full-metal-jacket, and I stopped to get it at Walmart. The guy in line in front of me handed the checker a piece of paper with the type of cartridge his friend had sent him after, and he said, "I don't know nothin' 'bout no guns." I thought it was pretty funny considering he said it in a real thick East Texas accent, like he came from so far back in the sticks they had to bring sunshine in by truck. It just goes to show you that the stereotypes the antis perpetuate about us aren't necessarily true, even in a place like Texas.
What his friend was looking for got me to thinking, though. 165-grain .40S&W full metal jacket. But the only .40 FMJ they had was the 180-grainers, and that's the only weight I could find for my 10mm when I go to loading for it as well. I'd love to find some of those 155- or 165-grain jacketed ball projectiles for rolling my own 10mm...the only ones I've been able to find are the copper-plated Rainier bullets, and if you drive those too fast out of the gun you run into leading issues, and I'd rather not deal with that. The only lighter jacketed bullets I've been able to find are the premium hollowpoints from Speer and Hornady, and while a 155-grain bullet at 1400 feet per second is just tons of fun, I'd really rather not be spending that kind of money when ball is cheaper. Of course, I'll still do it every once in a while...

Quote of the Day

...from a B Smith, over at Sebastian's place, on certain politicians...

These people know what will happen if they succeed in banning guns; they aren’t stupid. And since they know crime will increase, as in Britain, New Zealand, Canada, et.al., there is only one word for them: EVIL. I am finished trying to compromise with these people, it is nothing less than dealing with the minions of the devil.

Couldn't have said it any better myself...

Still, no answer to the question...

Via Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell, we have this, from Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell:

"Get these weapons off the street. Get those large-capacity magazines off the street. As the mayor said, the only people who should have weapons like this is the police and the military. We should outgun the criminals, not vice versa."

I believe the society the esteemed (sic) Governor is describing is known as a police state. And I am thinking that he wouldn't mind that, and everything it entails, which of course includes door-to-door confiscations of the weapons he thinks his subjects shouldn't be allowed to own. After all, once again, The Question -- how else will they get rid of all the so-called "assault weapons" in the hands of civilians now? And lest you think such bans and confiscations would stop at semiautomatic rifles such as the SKS, read on...

Police commissioner Charles Ramsey became incensed at the news conference when a reporter asked if, in fact, the weapon that killed Sgt. Liczbinski might not be covered by an assault weapon ban:

"Let me just say this -- if it's not an assault weapon by definition, then add it to the frickin' list. Add it to the frickin' list! We don't need it."

It deserves to be asked what kinds of weapons police officers are most often killed with. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing it'd be your ordinary garden-variety handgun. Hell, just yesterday in Houston an illegal immigrant was convicted of capital murder for killing a cop with one. So the logic would say that what the Commish is advocating would be a ban on handguns. And we see how well THAT worked in the city Ramsey worked in before he came to Philadelphia. As for the demonization of the high-capacity magazine, I think it's probably safe to say that's more or less political posturing because many if not most armed confrontations involve less than ten rounds per party being squeezed off anyway. (Personally, if I couldn't get what I needed done with 15 rounds of .45ACP -- 7 rounds, 1 in the chamber and a spare mag -- then I'd think I had bigger problems, but that's just my personal choice.) Or maybe they're just too chickenshit to come out and say what they really want, which is a ban on anything that can fire more than one round before reloading. As for the police commissioner and those who share his oh-so-professional outlook, the only thing I can say is...
"From my cold, dead hands, you totalitarian fiends. From my cold, dead hands."

A-yep, I'd say that's about right...

From BobG, over at The Armed Canadian...
"Have you noticed that most people who sign their name as Anonymous seem to be idiots? Does it mean that subconsciously they know they have their heads up their asses?"
I don't know if it'd be MOST people, but still that observation has a lot of merit -- even when it's quite obvious who the Anonymous commenter is...