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  Would they?    From what I read, the guy walked up, and shot the reporter & camerman.  Your logic presupposes there are people carrying, and actively searching out threats to others and not themselves like some kind of security element.  I know when I'm out and about, my priorities for safety are me and anyone with me, and anyone else who happens to be there secondary.  I'm also focused on what I went out to do and have my attention divided by that at some level.  I can't say I would have seen this coming and acted before the shooter carried out his plan.  Maybe as a reaction, but it wouldn't have saved those gunned down today.   Just my thoughts on the subject...condolences to the family and friends of the victims. 

  I only got to Murfreesboro in late 2013.  Before that I was in Kuwait, Fort Campbell, or Afghanistan since 2009.   The GI Bill is great, but I'm trying to keep money fluid so that when I graduate I have enough for a down payment for a house and a new car if needed wherever I wind up.  Form 1'd guns and suppressors aren't exactly the easiest things to sell off if funds need to be regained.

The only thing that keeps me from dropping more Form 1's is the fact full time school with part time work means that I don't have the time to hit the range to justify spending the money.   I'll just live vicariously through all of you until that situation changes.  :P

I see it's time for our semi-annual cutting cable thread...   I did it when I got back from Afghanistan almost two years ago.  Don't miss the bill for cable, but like others I'm thinking of SlingTV for sports once football and basketball come back in season.  I only wish NBCSports would jump in on that so I could watch hockey games as well, but since NBC is owned by Comcast, that isn't likely to be an option anytime soon.    For those of you on the fence, I'd say give it a try.  My TV channels come in crystal clear in HD, and the antenna only cost me $50 from Amazon.  All I had to do was install it outside, run a cable from it to the hookups outside my house, and move my internet modem to another port since OTA and cable internet can't run over the same feed.

  Bingo.  All I ask is that businesses be up front with the costs and not give me a reason to do a double take when the bill is presented.  If they have reason to hide the true cost, it makes me wonder what else they're hiding.

Zero chance of making it out of committee, and I doubt it would even get scheduled for a vote.  Just more "see what I fight for legislation" since Congresswoman Maloney represents a district in NYC that hasn't had a Republican win in over 50 years.

Best time to find a job is when you have one if you aren't satisfied with your current conditions.

  I'd rather just get it on a good sale or used in good condition, let Amendment 2 Custom Coatings color it up nicely and have a win for my pocket while supporting local business who does great work and supports TGO.

There is constant debate on what a "Ranger" actually entails.  Even the U.S. Army Ranger Associations definition which includes those who only earn a tab is disputed by those who think the association is just a good ole' boys club for retired officers and should be limited to those who served in Ranger units.   As has been said here, Ranger school is just a school. Way back when, the Army realized that garrison training just wasn't good enough at producing small unit leaders for combat, so the school was created as a way of doing that in between wars.  It's meant to push people way past their comfort zone, and show them what they can do under multiple forms of stress and external factors.  It also shows you how leadership works when everybody is miserable, tired, hungry, sore, and isn't inclined to do something just because the platoon leader says to do it.    Ranger school isn't officially required for infantry officers, but if you're an infantry officer and you show up to a light infantry unit (10th Mountain, 82nd & 101st Airborne) without a tab, good luck getting a platoon leader slot.  As a contractor, I worked with a former infantry officer who was dropped on request from Ranger School because the cadre basically told him he would never graduate with them there since he didn't want to play the mind games.  He was on battalion staff until a tasking came up to augment the Artillery battalion with an ad hoc infantry platoon for a deployment to Iraq.  That was when he finally got a PL slot.    I've always thought that Ranger School meant more to the officers than the enlisted.  Interestingly enough, with Iraq and Afghanistan in full swing, officers still had Ranger School in their training pipeline before getting to a unit, but for NCO's in line units who only go later in their careers, it wasn't really feasible with deployments so close together.  The time to train up, go to the school, and then recover after would have deprived units of combat experienced team and squad leaders, so the emphasis to send NCO's was all but gone when time home from a deployment was only 12-15 months.  There will be a lot of NCO's at the Platoon Sergeant and First Sergeant level without Ranger Tabs, but 4-5 combat deployments for a bit.  Back when I first reported to Fort Campbell in March 2001, it was rare to see an Infantry Company First Sergeant without a tab.  Different, but not necessarily bad.   The 75th Ranger Regiment is a entirely different story.  These are the guys who have been deployed on and off for near 14 years, and were hitting multiple targets every night in Iraq and Afghanistan (still are there probably).   The Regiment was taking women on missions to deal with Afghan females due to cultural issues, but that's about as far as it ever should go.  Their place in the military is to be a wrecking ball when called upon, and the mission set, training and operations tempo, as well as the lifestyle reflect that.  A Ranger Battalion is no place for a woman unless we're talking Ronda Rousey levels of fitness, and even in the hypothetical fantasy world where a woman could meet the physical standards without any gender curving, then we'll have the same problems with fraternization that come with male/female units.  For guys from Regiment, Ranger School is a block to check so they can take a leadership position.  Ranger units can send troops as low as Private First Class, and Ranger students coming from Ranger units have a much higher graduation rate than others.   As to these women, they got in from a special selection process to find the best candidates for a trial program, and only two of them made it this far out of I think 25 or 26.  I'm not sure if they made it through a pre-Ranger course like they used to run at Fort Campbell or any other base before they went, but regardless, this was a very specific sample set.  Good on them for sticking it out, it speaks well to their character, but the breaking of the gender wall this isn't.

  I meant the actual micro dot styles like the Aimpoint H or T series, and the Primary Arms version.  Far as I'm concerned the standard size red dots work just fine and never felt the need to spend more just to have a smaller sight.  The weight difference is negligible, and I don't use a magnifier so the rail space isn't an issue.   I'm all about a red dot, though.  I had an M68 (Aimpoint M2) on my M4 in the Army, and I have an EoTech 516 on my SBR.  Both of those are good enough for me.  If I buy another one, it will probably be an Aimpoint PRO- best overall value to quality I've seen yet.

Not sure what a TGO Twitter account can bring to the table that would be unique, or isn't already on the site and out there already.  The accounts I follow are mostly news, politics, comedy, and hot chicks, so I like to think I'm well covered.

  If you aren't on there already, get a LinkedIn account.  Lots of job listings are posted there, plus you can search the industry you're in and maybe something will come up.

  Glad you aren't cut off cold turkey from an income.  With luck and your resume, here's hoping you get back to full time employment before long. 

  The clasp on both my Omega's are all scratched up, and the bracelets to a much lesser degree.  If they can be buffed out when I get them serviced, cool.  If not, oh well.  It's the crystal, bezel and case I care about the most, and I've been lucky enough to have those do alright. 

Never got into the micro dot craze, but I can see how this will eat into Aimpoint if the price is $150-200 lower.  Good move by Trijicon.

  I'm trying to get my friend into owning a gun, and she only gets interested when I tell her how I know a business (Amendment 2 Custom Coatings) that can make it purple for her.  If that's what it takes, who am I to argue as long as she does it to a Glock and not something pretty like an H&K or Walther.

If I ever felt compelled to leave the US to live somewhere else, I'd pick a nice small town in Canada, get a modest job, spend my off time reading, and never have to worry about being too hot in the summer again.   Or, if I had as much money as I wanted, I'd find a nice apartment in Tallinn, Estonia, and spend my days with the girls there and the girls a ferry's ride away in Helsinki, Finland.

Unless it's a high end name like Rolex or Omega, watches don't really hold much resale value, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.    I'd just check eBay and price them accordingly based on what you see.

  Any immigration plan that doesn't start with this is doomed to fail.  Until we start putting people who knowingly hire illegals in jail and close their businesses, we're just asking for the problem to continue.

Fat finger on a mobile, please delete.

Photoshop. http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/12/riverfront_times_photo_goes_viral_after_being_edited_to_seem_super_racist.php

I don't know if I could restrict myself to shooting .22LR via bolt action.  Having a GSG-522, it's just too much fun to load a mag and have at it. 

The weather is going to be quite a bit different, and you actually need a permit to carry a pistol out and about.  I think you'll like the cost of living difference, however.   Welcome to TGO.

  I've always thought AK's look best when left to the basics.  It was never meant to be a fancy rifle, just something you can drag through the mud and still put rounds downrange with.  If I ever get one just to have it, it won't have an inch of tacticool on it.  If by some chance I don't use the wood stock, at most, I'll only have the under folding stock.

I'm not sure if the writer of the article was serious, or just writing something that would become click bait.  It just goes into a spin that is only possible when you are writing for a website barely anybody reads.  The charges of racism are him latching onto a buzzword that's flying around too loosely.       Has to do with military pride in the post 9/11 era I think.  Part of the war spin was to have people have become conditioned to just thank troops by default.  The Bush administration tried to tie support for troops to support for the Iraq and Afghan wars, when the two are separable in every way.    I get the same way as you, but my father who was in Vietnam tells me how much he is glad at the way my generation has been treated, so I try to see it in the spirit it's offered.  I just wish more people would be engaged in things like wondering how many guys are going die or come back without limbs, to say nothing of the overall fiscal costs.  The best way to support troops in my view is to make sure they aren't squandered on whims of fantasy in ungrateful regions.