RobertNashville

Background checks are one of those things that "sound good" but do nothing of substance when it comes to keeping firearms out of the hands of someone who's intent is to use the firearm to commit a crime. Anyone who truly wants a gun WILL find a way to obtain one - no background check will ever stop them....what background checks tend to do is simply make the law-abiding and dealers jump through hoops and add expense. I don't have the figures in front of me but I'd be willing to be that the overwhelming majority of "denials" are for some sort of faulty record/bad record keeping more than an actual criminal attempting to buy a gun from a dealer. As to Obama's Op-Ed...I can't help but wonder...if the Tuscon nutcase had used a car instead of a Glock, would Obama be proposing restrictions on who can by an automobile?...I seriously doubt it...and if he wouldn't propose such restrictions on buying a car, what is the real justification for doing so with regards to firearms? I suggest his only reason is the deep-rooted anti-gun belief he has demonstrated, on various occasions, the he holds.

Actually, I've got several things scheduled this year, mostly on fighting pistol with on course on carbines - one of my goals for myself this year was to get in some good training. I do understand and do agree that there are significant differences between shooting for precision/target purposes and shooting in a defensive situation...the main point of this thread was dealing with, what seemed to me, to be a somewhat unusual observation of "point and shoot" shooting vs really using the sights proficiently.

Another "weekend bump" I'm heading up there on Saturday to drive and finalize our cruise route and, since I'll be there anyway, I'm doing to do a bit of shooting as well! In case anyone wants to head up the way shoot me a PM and let me know and maybe we can meet up (I'll probably be arriving around 2PM or so)

I might go for that law. I'd also like to see the dear with the bulls-eye on it's chest that raises it's paws in surrender when the break lights come on outlawed as well...they were funny the first 1,000 times I saw them but not anymore. Deer Hitch Critter : Deer Shack

I'm in for all three days (although I'll have to call and make the deposit). One of my personal goals this year was to get in some good training...I'm taking a 2-day fighting pistol course from Tactical Response March 31/April 1 and a Defensive Carbine course from Sealed Mindset (in Atlanta) on April 3. I'm looking forward to all of them!

Damn....I must be too much of a social butterfly...I SO MUCH want to get into some IDPA matches (did two or three last year and thoroughly enjoyed it) but it seems as if every weekend there is a match I already have something scheduled. Oh well...maybe next month!

Where is this story located? Can you provide a like to the video and/or print version of what you are talking about? I was looking on their website and the story there about the incident is pretty matter-of-fact; no editorial comment at all. Maybe they've already received enough complaints that they already eliminated the extraneous comments???

I appreciate everyone who has read this thread and taken a moment to offer up a prayer or good thought for my friend. It's been a rough couple of days (and especially nights) but some good news finally...after two surgeries the doctors believe that the only nerve damage is in his ring finger...they've put in two pins and now it's a bit of a waiting game to see of the bones will start to fuse together as they should. He may get to go home withing the next day or two depending a lot on how well he can get buy with prescription pain killers (rather than what he gets in the IV drip). Again; thanks for your prayers and keep them coming...this is going to be a long road for him. Thanks!!!

I see about as much chance for a Ron Paul Presidency as I do for me to suddenly be 25 again. He's had his chance but didn't get any real traction and I've seen nothing to indicate that it would be any different in 2012. What political ideology Obama embraces or what label one puts on him is ultimately far less important than the policies he and his ilk work to put into place - those policies certainly seem to be in the socialist/communist/re-distribution of wealth categories. Everything he has done, has tried to do and continues to try to do is to increase the size of government and its control of the population. Sure, people who feed at the breast of Uncle Sam are due blame but probably less and certainly no more so than the political leaders of all parties who ignored their oath and voted to establish and to continue and to grow all the government programs we now find are out of control and completely unsustainable (and likely unconstitutional as well). Almost everything needs to be cut...cut until government is reduced to only those functions it is constitutionally mandated to do. Then, and only then, if the revenues aren't sufficient to meet the need should tax increases be considered. That said, we could make some significant headway toward a balanced budget if we simply reverted to the spending levels of two or three years ago. However; I have no illusions that necessary cuts are likely to happen...as I said above, I'm finding it very easy to be pessimistic.

I've got an Omega that I bought in 1981...the thing simply won't die. I've also got a Wittnauer that has served me well for quite a few years. My newest watch however is a Seiko Kinetic Chronograph that I've really fallen in love with.

That might be Obama's plan...maybe he figures that the pro-car lobby (AAA) is too powerful to get car-show legislation through Congress so he's planning an end-run around Congress by making gasoline all but impossible to buy. The end result will be lot's of gas-guzzling SUVs, Trucks, Muscle/Sport cars sitting in peoples garages and driveways; unusable due to no fuel. Eventually, however, they'll allow limited amounts of gasoline to be distributed to gas stations but only after they've devised a way to micro-stamp the gasoline so that they can follow it to its end user and wherever the vehicle ti powers is driven. It's for the children, after all!

The dirt people Obama and most Democrats are in bed with hate oil and the dirt people won't be happy until they've made everybody else as miserable and unwashed as they are. Of course, the Obama crowd will still be enjoy the high-life because they are just too damn good to actually have to live like they want everyone else to live. I truly believe this country is heading for a cliff...some refuse to see it...some want it to happen for various and sundry reasons. I don't know any more if it's even possible to avert the disaster that should be visible to just about anyone who can add 2 + 2 and get 4 (and maybe that is the problem; too many people can't do that any more). I really don't know if Obama wants to ruin the U.S. economy or if he is just too ignorant of how the economy works to see the damage being done but the end result will be the same. Our non-representing representatives in Congress are arguing over $40-60 Billion in spending cuts while we are facing a $1.7 (or so)TRILLION deficit just this year...it's beyond ridiculous...that paltry $60Billion is about 3.5% of the predicted deficit and about 1.2% of the overall budget. If we can't cut 1% out of the budget how the hell are we going to ever cut the budget by the 30% (minimum) that we need to??? It's getting really easy to become a pessimist.

I'm a big guy...actually; I'm fat (or so my Doctor tells me)...I'm working on it slowly (lost about 20 pounds in the last nine months) so I should be pretty slim by the time I take the dirt nap! Anyway...I've spent quite a bit of money on holsters over the years. I've got a couple of Galco OWB holsters that I like and do use but I've not found anything as or more comfortable for the entire day as a Crossbreed SuperTuck. I'm sure there are others out there that might be as good or even better but I don't want to keep spending money on holsters when there are so many cool guns to buy!

I wasn't aware my position needs "defending". It's difficult to have even a discussion let alone, "defend" a position, when, as you did above and in a few other posts, you ascribe statements to me that I've not made or take what I have said and expand it to create a position I don't hold. I've never said "taxes are a driving source" in pricing a product. Nor have I insinuated that a company doesn't take into consideration what the market will bear. What I've said, or at least what I've tried to say is that all the costs of a product, including all tax obligations, must be, of necessity, considered in setting the price of a product....any product. Since you must have missed what I said earlier, I'll quote myself... "Of course there are many and various considerations when it comes to pricing a product other than just cost; I never said their wasn't...(but) at the end of the day, if a business doesn't collect ALL its costs, including taxes, plus some profit from its customers; it won't be in business very long..." You can either agree with the above or not; it's okay either way.

I don't believe I've ever claimed that I'm error free in the use of the English language or an error free typist. In any case, this is an internet forum, not a graduate level course room; or are you proposing that every post now be error free and contain footnotes and a reference list to be considered acceptable for public consumption? If anyone who has used poor grammar (in your opinion) or ever misspelled a word or made a typing error were removed from this forum there would likely be no members here (or maybe you believe your posts to be error free ).

You just won't leave it alone will you? You claim ignorance and want me to "teach" you then use big words that I bet you barely understand to reject everything I've said. Believe what you want...I just thank God I don't work for a company where you are setting product pricing.

One of the great things about firearms is their intimate connection to history - when you hold a weapon in your hand that, say, was made 400 yeas ago it's a tangible connection going all the way back through all those others who owned it...held it...used it...to the craftsman who made it.

At car shows and swaps throughout the United States, cars are sold in private sales with no dealer being involved. Car shows at which cars are exhibited or offered for sale or exchange provide a convenient and centralized commercial location where criminals and other wrongdoers obtain cars without credit background checks and without records that enable car tracing. We all know that cars kill and that they are one of the biggest killers in the US. Cars cause accidents and facilitate crimes. Cars even cause mass murder and mayhem (like intentionally driving into a crowd). Cars are a menace that must be tightly controlled. LINK: Close the Car Show Loophole! | Pro-Gun New Hampshire

And no, it isn't just semantics...it's a basic and fundamental principle that goes to the heart of how a free-market, capitalistic economy works. Failure to understand the concept is why idiots like the Dalai-Bamma and, for that matter, most Democrats and far too many Republicans either... 1. Believes that raising taxes on "business" isn't ultimately the exact same thing as raising personal income taxes (when it is he same thing) OR 2. They know the truth...they know it's the same thing but they also know that the American public is too stupid or too uninformed to know that they are one and the same thing. P.S. By the way, I was willing to let the topic die many posts ago if you recall - my post was a response to a direct request for a response. However, for the sake of your piece of mind, I'll never answer another question about this topic again.

A U.S. Army Fist Sergent, and one of my best friends and his wife need your prayers. My buddy is a 15 year veteran, four tours in Iraq, more medals that anyone alive should have including multiple Purple Hearts and father of two. He is in his last five year enlistment. I don't know of anyone more capable with weapons of all kinds than my friend yet last night, his personal handgun discharged and he shot himself in his hand causing some extensive damage. He is in his first surgery as I write this and will have another tomorrow and likely several more over the coming months. This is especially difficult for his wife because their current duty assignment is literally in the middle of nowhere...the hospital is two hours away and, since they just took that duty assignment at the first of they year, they hardly know anyone there and, as is often the case in the military, they have no family in the area. Of course, those who are or have been in the military know that we take care of our own but I'd like to ask all of you who are so inclined to pay for both of them for a speedy and complete recovery and the strength they need to get through what is likely to be some very difficult months ahead. What happened was that his wife accidentally spilled some water on his personal weapon (and HK USP 40 S&W) so of course, he wanted to clean it immediately - while clearing the round in the chamber his hand slipped while manipulating the slide and, I assume, his finger was on the trigger. When the time is right, I look forward to making fun of him but now isn't the time. I guess this incident can serve as a pretty close to home reminder that these weapons we love, admire, and carry are dangerous weapons and that safety should always be on our minds - we never know enough that we can allow ourselves to become complacent when it comes to safety.

I appreciate all the responses...none of them surprise me either (damn it). I guess having to keep such things locked away/hidden is just the nature of the world we live it today...it's sad, really.

I don't believe I ever said that all costs are "automatically" passed onto consumers. I also never said that a business only "charges just enough to stay afloat". I said, and I say that business don't pay taxes and the don't. The cost of a product must be tied to the cost of its manufacture (all its cost including property taxes, excise taxes, VAT, freight, duty, income taxes, and on and on) plus some amount for true profit. Such considerations MUST be the starting point for pricing a product because if they are not then the whole subject becomes moot because that business (or at least that product) won't be in the market long enough for anyone to notice it was ever there. A number of years ago I was working as a consultant for company that was truly known world-wide for its products (its name recognition was second only to Coca-Cola). I was there to work on one particular problem there were having but in doing so, I had uncovered a much bigger one which was that, taking everything into consideration, they were ultimately selling its machines to Wal-Mart for a net loss. I advised them to stop and, honest to God, their VP of sales told me straight-faced and as serious as he could be that he know they were taking a loss per item but they could make it up on volume. When I was in school and heard such nonsense I thought such stories were made-up to make a point...little did I know that at least some of them must have been true! Obviously, that VP was an idiot....the company filed bankruptcy about 18 months later...why am I not surprised??? Price is not simply a function of "supply and demand" any more than you can sell products at a loss and make it up with volume. Of course there are many and various considerations when it comes to pricing a product other than just cost; I never said their wasn't...my current employer has multiple herds of nerds who do nothing all day but figure out what we have to charge for our products, but at the end of the day, if a business doesn't collect ALL its costs, including taxes, plus some profit from its customers; it won't be in business very long. That's why businesses don't pay taxes...their customers pay their taxes and if you truly don't understand that then I don't know what else to say.

I'm taking their fighting pistol course late this month and they have many other courses to chose from (not taking anything away from any of the other schools in the area). Tactical Response

There was a time when I had only a couple of handguns and really nothing all that special about them - one always stayed in my nightstand and anything else would be "hidden" somewhere to make it more difficult for a thief to find. However, I've acquired more than a few at this point and all but a couple are somewhat expensive; even heirloom quality. About a year ago I invested in a good safe (thank you Safe House!) and that's where all my firearms reside except for anything I have out for carry/immediate use. Among my collection, I have a couple that are truly beautiful pieces of mechanical and woodworking craftsmanship and it kills me to keep them hidden in a safe...part of me really wants to have one or more of them "out" and prominently displayed just so I and the occasional visitor can appreciate their beauty but I'm torn between that desire and my desire to keep them as safe from theft/fire as possible. Anybody else out there feel that way? If so, what have you done about it if anything? Just wondering....thanks for any input!

I went ahead and bought an ACOG for my SCAR from Outpost Armory (actually, before taxes, they had a better price than any "internet' price I could find plus they had it in stock where many of the sites were out of the model I wanted). Will have to decide on what to get for the new Browning A-Bolt (which i picked up on Saturday...can't wait to shoot it!).