MacGyver

Dont kid yourself.  Our society, despite its modern veneer is but a few days from killing one another over cigarettes and toilet paper.

I personally don't feel like we need to give up anymore of our cake.  We've won a lot of legislative victories over the last decade and not a few court cases to boot.  We've got a strong position.   I think Mike is right.  The brilliant strategy by those who want more control and their lackeys in the media is to divide us.  The question asked is not, "are you willing to make concessions?"  Instead, it's, "how much are you willing to give up?"  At least two "A-rated" legislators have come out ready to throw us under the bus so far this week.   I think the two good options available to us right now are to call our representatives - repeatedly and to start having an intelligent discourse with those around us.  I'm not terribly active on Facebook, but I may start posting some stuff there to get some conversations started.   For instance:   Average police response time in minutes for: Nashville - 9:00 Detroit - 24:00 Denver 11:00 Tuscon 10:11 Atlanta 11:12   Everyone wants the police to have high capacity magazines, and yet the police are always and will always be second responders.  If someone is intent on doing my family harm, 9:00 in Brentwood is way too long.

That's super cool!  Thanks for sharing that with us.

That's pretty rich.

I'd guess that is probably a lot closer when you consider people under 21 and those ineligible to own firearms.

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="AdotOdot4" data-cid="864072" data-time="1355982057"><p> I'm curious where you get 30 million? I've only heard 8-10 million permit holders.</p></blockquote> You're correct. I was on my phone and mistyped. There are roughly 10.6 million permit holders. We're about 3% of the population - not 10%.

I got it too. My money's on Bob Pope is selling us out.

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="gregintenn" data-cid="863910" data-time="1355969104"><p> We got our butts kicked last month. :hiding: Just sayin...</p></blockquote>very true. But, it's interesting to go poll democrats who lost in 1994. In hindsight, a lot of them view voting for the AWB as the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

The Republican Revolution of 1994 likely wouldn't have happened without the AWB. There are 10 million permit holders in America. This doesn't even consider other gun owners. We represent a voting block to be respected. We don't need to give up any more of our cake. We need to have intelligent conversations about the nature of evil and brokenness. We need to remind our elected officials of this daily.

Cool!

If you're pending, you're already in their database anyway.    Worst of both worlds.    If it were me, I think I might let it proceed. 

You should have let us know you were coming through.  We could have met you up there and let you check out their range.   You never call.  You never write...;)   Seriously.  Let us know next time you're coming through.

All I can say is remember who your friends are and who is out there just to make a quick buck off of a panic.  Gun stores need us when times are normal.  They think they can get away with mistreating everyone during a panic without suffering consequences.   If we all stop supporting these places even after some manner of normalcy returns, they might suffer some of the market consequences they so deserve.   By all means, call them on it publically.  Let them know that they've lost a customer, and that negative word of mouth is far more destructive than all the good reviews out there can be.

Even their corrections need corrections.

Raven Concealment Phantom LC   It really starts and stops there for me.

From Slate.com this morning.  Click through if you absolutely must.  An article on using correct nomenclature to talk about guns stating, here are "All the words you need to know to talk about guns"  I love the corrections section, quoted below:     I kind of feel like I did when I was in college working as a ranger out west.  When one of our fellow rangers would get a "dear john" letter, we'd post it on the wall of the ranger office, and everyone who came through would edit it for grammer and spelling with a red pen.  After an appropriate amount of time for comment, we'd put it in an envelope and send it back.   Just to be clear, understand that this is what we're up against.

I'm happy to meet and let you shoot mine sometime this week. I'm in Nashville.

Also from the Journal yesterday, James Taranto is one of the best voices out there today.  This is from his usually satirical Best of the Web Today.

At least someone gets it.  Good article.   From the WSJ this morning:   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323723104578185271857424036.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Y'all should remember this when things are back to "normal".  They've got a history of this, and it is inexcusable.   We as gun owners should speak with our wallets - which is the only thing they'll hear and help to put them out of business.   They're nothing but opportunists selling to a panicked market.  They should be recognized as such.

We've been experiencing some intermittent DDOS attacks over the last few days.

If we wanted secure airlines, we would let the airlines run their own security and suffer market consequences for any failures. Of course, we're not really about free markets or consequences anymore. The airline industry as we know it would have ceased to exist after September 11 had the government not come to their rescue and propped them up. By accepting that bailout, the major carriers are really in no position to whine about the TSA, much less hold the accountable. And, that is a shame. The TSA is nothing more than a government jobs program with a whitewashing of "security" to pacify the masses. You could rip 100% of that junk out of the airports tomorrow and be just as safe on your next flight. September 11 changed the paradigm. You'll never see a hijacking like that again, because the next time someone tries it, they'll be beaten to death by the passengers. There's no down side to risking your life interdicting a hijacker if they're planning to kill everyone anyway. If the government feels like they need to give these people jobs, fine. But, recognize it for what it is. Don't try to make me feel more secure. I know better.

If you're going to do one, you need to collect them all. Don't forget the 338 Spectre.

From the best speech he ever gave.  Some words that comforted me in the days after September 11 and that I carry as a remembrance to this day.  From one of our underratted theologians, George W. Bush   our wounds as a people are recent and unhealed and lead us to pray. In many of our prayers this week, there is a searching and an honesty. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Tuesday, a woman said, "I prayed to God to give us a sign that He is still here." Others have prayed for the same, searching hospital to hospital, carrying pictures of those still missing.   God's signs are not always the ones we look for. We learn in tragedy that his purposes are not always our own. Yet, the prayers of private suffering, whether in our homes or in this great cathedral, are known and heard and understood.   There are prayers that help us last through the day or endure the night. There are prayers of friends and strangers that give us strength for the journey. And there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own.   This world He created is of moral design. Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end. And the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn.   ...   America is a nation full of good fortune, with so much to be grateful for. But we are not spared from suffering. In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America because we are freedom's home and defender. And the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time.   On this National Day of Prayer and Remembrance, we ask Almighty God to watch over our Nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn and the promise of a life to come.   As we have been assured, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, can separate us from God's love.    May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own, and may He always guide our country.

You know, I'm kind of have the opinion that with kids joking around, payback should be creative and in kind.  Paintball claymore, tripwire with fireworks, some combination of above...