TGO David

Here's what you guys all need to consider: The fact that they keep saying a thing doesn't mean they don't mean the thing and won't execute their plan to destroy the 2A and disarm America. It doesn't mean they aren't committed to that goal. It just means they haven't been able to successfully pull it off yet. Do NOT become complacent or dismissive of it. They have told you what they want to do. They are in it for the long haul. We have to be equally committed and not let boredom or arrogance cause us to let our guard drop. As soon as we do, they will pounce and it will unravel quickly. Mark my words. I am a nutjob, I guess, because I think powers-that-be orchestrated the theft of the 2020 election. I don't love Trump and I think he is a toxic personality. Four more years of him might have been the death of America also. He might have become the next Vladamir Putin, never leaving office, just changing the rules of the game to keep him in power regardless of title. But Biden and Harris absolutely represent a voter base that wants to see America become a socialist country. When I look at how the 2020 election unfolded, I don't see one tactic being used against Trump or the GOP. I see a staggering array of tactics used. If I am correct, "they" threw everything they had against the wall to see what would work. They even threw things at the wall that would have previously never dared be used in the light of day, because they figured that there was enough hatred for Trump that even if the public noticed, the public wouldn't care. The public would say that the end justified the means. And here we are. A ridiculous number of things seemed to be effective and perhaps it was success through asymmetry: No one thing alone would have worked, but a combination of crazily disparate things did because people couldn't comprehend what was going on and therefore dismissed it as an impossibility. If I am right about that, you'll see that tactic used to destroy the 2A and disarm America.

The only legitimate answer on how you determine need is to specify your use-case and other parameters. Let's go straight for the jugular: People who stockpile ammo for the end of the world or for the idea that they may have to fight off a tyrannical government. Post Apocalypse / Mass Civil Unrest Will you be holing up? How long do you think you can defend your castle? How many people are you equipping? For how long does this scenario play out? Will you be bugging out? How are you traveling? How far? How much ammo can you transport? How many people are you equipping? For howlong? Fighting Civil War 2.0 Same questions as above, plus... How long do you think the firefight will last before they overwhelm you? Or maybe your use case is you want enough ammo to be able to plink, practice, train, hunt, defend for your lifetime without ever buying another box from a store. Realistically how much do you need to cover that? There literally are people who have what I'd classify as a compulsive urge to buy and stockpile ammo despite not having any real appreciation for how much they need.

It will only feel that way to gun owners. To those who think guns are the problem, it will feel like healing and unity. It's all about perspective.

I've got a friend who had to recently attend to this exact problem. His brother unfortunately passed away right before Christmas, and the piles of really old ammo that he and the other brothers have had to go through are impressive. And all in bad shape because of not being stored properly.

This assumes that all Republicans vote against. We know that isn't likely to be true. Politicians do whatever they can to preserve their jobs. The easiest way to do that is to make their constituents feel like they are being well-represented. If a Republican feels like it is in the best interest of his or her continued paycheck to support anti-2A legislation, guess what they're going to do. Thinking that it matters who has the majority when the margin is as slim as it is, is dangerous.

Bear in mind that the current ammo shortage has more to do with panic buying than it does government conspiracy. Obama-era EPA restrictions and import restrictions hurt us. So too did the import restrictions on things from Russia under Trump. But most of this is about people buying way more ammo than they will ever need or be able to use and stockpiling it. I am convinced that there are CONNEX containers buried in the back yards of some of y'all with a ####load of 22LR ammo bought from Wal-Mart every time they restocked back during the Obama Presidency. You know who you are, too. You need to give away or sell that stuff. You're not going to shoot it all before you die and we all know it.

Before any of this happened on TGO this week I was already on a quest to find sources of news. Just news. Not opinion pieces disguised as news, but just the basic facts of what happened or was happening. It's almost impossible to find. I'm watching these sites now and just trying to read across all of them in the hope that they challenge each other whenever biases are present and it'll be easy to spot that and filter down to the common points, which should be factual. https://www.bbc.com/news https://apnews.com/ https://www.reuters.com/ Here's the secret to happiness: Assume that all news might have some bias just because reporters are humans and as humans we all bias our comments somehow even when we try to report the facts. Also assume that just because you read something about a person, organization, cause or event that you care about, if it makes you mad it doesn't necessarily mean they are just wrong and biased. It might be factual, and that's hard to swallow sometimes. As for forums to discuss politics... I think you just spin the wheel and take your chances. If you want to talk to people who think exactly like you, on most things, it's going to be an echo chamber and there is no real value in that other than reassuring each other that you're right. And if you want a crowd that will challenge you to think objectively and openly, you run the risk of being pissed off a lot. I think it's kind of like bleach. We know that if you add bleach to dirty water it can make it safe to drink. Add too much or too little, though, and it can be fatal for different reasons.

United We Stand. Divided We Fall. From this point forward, non Second Amendment political and legislative discussions are no longer welcome on TGO. Longtime members of TGO may now roll their eyes and mutter, "Not this crap again. We've been here before." Rightly so. We have attempted several times to allow our members to discuss general politics in a mature manner. We have begged, pleaded, threatened and banned in the effort of making it work. It never does. It always falls apart. There is barely such a thing as polite and respectful political discourse in mixed company even when you limit it to talking about firearms and the right to bear them. Thankfully that is what TGO is about. The right to bear arms. We are staunch supporters of the Second Amendment. We are also not ignorant to the fact that we must educate and inform each other when it comes to politics and those political creatures we mentioned previously. We cannot put our heads in the sand. We discuss these things as a matter of necessity - not because we find it enjoyable. But that is where we now draw the line. From now on, if it isn't about politics or legislation that directly affects the Second Amendment, take it somewhere else. We don't need the division here. It is almost cyclical, but the next four years look bleak for gun owners. We are going to have to be more united than ever. We have to find our common ground and stand together atop it. We cannot waver and we must remind ourselves that no matter our differences we are still Americans and, hopefully, we are proponents and defenders of the Second Amendment. We hope you understand. If you don't and you disagree, we hope you'll at least respect the decision. And if you can't do that, we hope you'll find a new place to talk about politics and guns and whatever else. Because it won't be here. I'm done with it and I care about you all and about our freedoms too much to suffer another moment of division and bickering about anything more consequential than your favorite sportsball team. United We Stand. Divided We Fall. God Save The Republic.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and a solid "Good Riddance" to 2020. Here's to hoping that 2021 is infinitely better!

I never had any issues with 115gr and the factory spring, but that is good to know. I bet it would tame the snappiness that the 509 has until it breaks in, for sure.

Oh... if you want to upgrade the striker on that 509T, let me know. I have an Apex Tactical Heavy Duty striker here and a few extra OEM strikers. Like I said, they are the only real weak point on that gun. The Apex striker makes it a lot more durable.

I would dry fire that thing a LOT, with a snap-cap or other inert round in the chamber to protect the striker (a known weak point), before rushing toward the Apex trigger. I took the Apex trigger out of both of mine eventually just because the factory trigger had gotten a lot better with use and I felt that it had a more pronounced reset and predictable feel. I do have the Apex trigger installation jig if you get to the point of wanting to swap yours.

I have owned two FN 509's and would own a Tactical right now too had I not talked myself into sticking with the Glock platform. I am so deep into Gaston's anus pocket that it just didn't make sense for me to keep splintering my firearms ecosystem like that. The 509 platform is just a fantastic one.

Mark, First and foremost, thank you for the courage to share your story and for doing so with incredible transparency. Self-awareness is something a lot of people lack. Kudos to you for thinking back through the event with a critical mind and considering what you might have done differently or not at all were you forced to repeat it. Hindsight is, as they say, a bitch. I won't kick you for flipping the guy the bird because despite my greatest intentions I still reflexively issue it from time to time. I always seem to regret it the instant I find myself doing it, but so far have only regretted it due to self-awareness and not because someone escalated the situation in response. I need to do better. That said, I applaud you for keeping your wits and not putting holes in that guy. As others have said, when he entered the car you had what most experts would agree was reason to fear for your life. Shooting him then would have likely been justified, albeit it often leads to a trial in court where we hope that the jury agrees. I second the motion of obtaining carry insurance. Chances are great that you will never, ever, need it again. But it's worth having in case you do. And, really, damn those moronic automobile manufacturers that make the default setting for modern cars to unlock the doors once in park, or unlock all of them at once, or unlock them once the ignition is turned off. I guess they all live with their heads in the sand or in utopic societies. One of the first things I do with any vehicle I rent or buy is disable that garbage. I'm glad you're still among us and not having to hire a good attorney.

And you only have to convince a carefully selected jury, comprised of people who certainly won't be your actual peers and whom were chosen with great care by the prosecuting attorney in order to maximize the odds of them working against your favor, of this little matter in order for flipping to bird to go from "He started it" to "He was exercising Free Speech". Should be easy!

This was my intent. Class III doesn't get sold much around here.

The AT&T folks are shouldering a hell of a task right now. I've worked with BellSouth and AT&T telco engineers for years, including the linemen out in the field, and if there is anything that impressed me about them more than their technical prowess it was their professional dedication to keeping "Ma Bell" online for the customer. I imagine that you had engineers in the Nashville area who already had their work clothes and steel toed boots on before they even got the first phone call yesterday. Those folks take pride in keeping people connected. Just keep them in your thoughts because this wrecked Christmas for them and their families, and I bet a bunch of them spent Christmas day in a dangerous environment enduring absolutely miserable wet and cold conditions.

News reports said that there was apparently ammunition inside the RV and that it was cooking off due to the fire. There will be some tie to gun owners as a result of this. The Twitter accounts that @Daniel mentioned previously were from someone calling themselves "S McG" or variations of it. The first damn things that my mind extrapolated that abbreviation to was "Shooter McGee" or "Shooter McGavin". The latter was the antagonist on the movie Happy Gilmore starring Adam Sandler.

I am not at liberty to share everything I know, but I've been privy to quite a bit of detail because of work. The switching center was damaged pretty extensively. The front third or so of the building sustained structural and mechanical damage. There was/is water standing on the floors of most levels. The basement was/is flooded. All of this ostensibly due to fire suppression systems that were either triggered by fire or ruptured because of the concussive force of the blast. Last night we were told that AT&T was bringing in national-level help from their own disaster recovery teams. Generators to bring power online was one a priority. I'm sure the flooding was even more of a priority. I am more convinced now than I was 24 hours ago that the switching center was likely the specific target. I may be proven wrong, but it just feels that way to me for a lot of reasons that I really can't go into beyond what I've already said in other posts. Ironically, I made those posts before I know what I know now... so I'm not going to delete them.

Let's remember... Let's remember that we're all fundamentally good people here as far as history suggests. I don't understand why a topic like this would inspire arguments between members, but I suspect that tensions are just running high and everyone is on edge. Treat each other kindly. Disagree with tact. Step away from the keyboard for a little bit when you feel the urge to snap at someone. These are skills that we are probably going to need frequently in the year ahead. We might as well start practicing them.

I thought about this too. It's a great diversion.

This has caused significant telcom (voice, data, 9-11) issues for not just the immediate area but the Southeast from what I am hearing. We've been on a call at work because of this for a few hours now, but my business unit relented and told my team to disengage since it doesn't affect us directly. Consider the facts as we know them: 1. The area where this bomb was detonated only has a few things of significance when outside of business/tourist hours. The biggest asset is the major AT&T routing and switching point of presence which was real near this. 2. The timing (very early Christmas morning) and the fact that the RV was broadcasting a recording over loudspeaker to warn people to evacuate both seem to support the notion that whoever did it was trying to minimize human casualties and instead do major damage to property or infrastructure. 3. Reportedly the "gunshots" heard before the explosion might have been flash-bangs or fireworks or some other noise making device meant to bring the police nearby to evac people. It was successful in doin gthat. This doesn't look like a terrorist act, to me. It sounds more like a really pissed-off employee or former employee of AT&T or some other neighboring business. The automated recording and the efforts to clear the area of innocent people support the idea that property damage was the intent. Terrorists don't normally do that.

On the subject of wearing cloth masks... They aren't the cure. They are a mitigating mechanism. They aren't perfect. Owners of private property are within their rights to require them. You are within your right to go somewhere else if you don't like it. You aren't within your right to violate their rights as property owners. Oh, one last bullet point that should appeal to gun owners... Wearing a mask makes you the Gray Man. You blend. Not wearing a mask makes you stand out. It draws attention to you. People assume you're a dick. They might confront you over it. It's not worth the headache. "When In Rome, Do As The Romans"

Now I found it. Been searching for it in this thread, but now I found it. I question whether you know what that word means or if you're using a straw-man argument to drag the Biden election sham into the discussion of COVID. To be clear: I don't think Trump seriously mishandled COVID. I do think that he should have hyped less, but that's like asking rain to not be wet. I do think that the establishment is scared as hell of Trump and weren't going to let him have Term #2 at any cost. I do think we saw that play out in broad daylight. I do think so many people hate Trump that they don't care what crimes were committed to keep him from being re-elected. I do think dark times are ahead of us. I don't think this has any bearing on the medical treatment of COVID.

We're screwed, man. Really we are. People are too selfish and self-centered these days. There is no sense of community anymore. We live in neighborhoods surrounded by people we don't know and in many cases have never really spoken with. We might wave at the neighbor who walks the dog, but we know nothing else about them other than "they have a dog". Without a sense of community, there is no sense of a greater good. Lacking that, it's every man for himself. Lord Of The Flies becomes a way to live, not a cautionary tale.