jgradyc

  Wow! Thanks for posting this. I laughed when he ranked Kel Tec last. He may be right, but most Kel Tec buyers who've researched their purchase already know that. Kel Tecs are guns for tinkerers. Parts are cheap and they have a great forum...KTOG.  With a little diligence, they can be dependable. I've owned... let's see... five.

Thanks for all the comments. This is an interesting thread. Let me clarify one point, I live in the country and 911 response is usually 10+ minutes. By "home defense," I don't mean just within the house. I mean nearby, should the need arise to check something out outside the house. We've had numerous burglaries nearby and one home invasion. My primary house guns right now are a Kel Tec Sub 2000 near the bedroom door, an XD40 by the bed, and a 20 gauge pump near the downstairs entry. The AR/AK would probably augment/replace the 20 gauge.

Once the current market corrects, I'll probably buy an AR, AK, or Mini-14.   I can't find it now, but on another board, I saw a list that said basically, "These brands are generally better than these other brands."  For example, the Bushmaster was ranked low and so was... I think... Olympus, S&W? Can anyone help me out here?   I've heard that the Yugoslavia AKs have problems with some vacuum thingy (?) and to check it out first.  I'd rather avoid the hassle and just get one without whatever that part was. I want something that is reliable since the primary role would be home defense. I don't plan to shoot thousands of rounds.

There are some beautiful bikes in this thread. Here is my 2009 Kawasaki Versys. The bike in the background is my 1999 BMW F650.

This has happened a couple of times in the past. The car sits in the driveway for less than a minute, but a lot longer than it would take to make a U-turn.   Approaching the car is not an option. It takes over a minute just to walk from the house to the gate 120 yards away.   I bought a 60 LED solar powered motion sensor light today at Harbor Freight. I'm going to buy a Skylink HA-434RTL Long Range Motion Sensor on Amazon to alert me when someone pulls up to the gate. I'm looking into CCTV security cameras and DVRs, but the camera will have to be battery powered and have a wireless range of 400 feet. I "might" be able to set it up in an out building that's only 250 feet from the gate.   I'm not sure a camera is necessary, though.

I’m thinking of mounting an LED motion sensor light on the post by the padlock at eye level and point it directly at where the driver would be sitting. I’d think that would be intimidating to a potential thief.   There's no easy way to get a photo of the tag. The gate is about 30 feet from the edge of the road. There's no place to mount a camera to get a shot of the back of the car.   I could mount a game camera on a tree on the other side of the road and a remote motion sensor trigger by the gate, but I don't know how to do that.

By the time I could grab a rifle, flashlight, and jacket, they'd be gone. Besides, I'm not going to walk blinded by headlights 120 yards to the gate. I do have a laser site on one of my rifles and a flashlight that would light up a car at 120 yards. I'm not sure what that would accomplish, other than letting them know that I own firearms.

We live in a rural area and there were at least two attempted break-ins in our neighborhood last summer.   Tonight at 7:55PM (dark), I saw a car pull up to our gate. (Our house sits 120 yards up from the gate and the highway.) The gate was locked. The car sat there for about a minute. Then, it drove up to my neighbor's driveway and pulled in there. It stopped for only a few seconds and then drove back to my driveway and pulled in again. It sat for about 30 seconds and then pulled out and went back down the road the way it originally came up. It was driving slow the whole way.   As best that I could tell, it was a full size car with the old 1980's style square tail lights, but all I know for sure is that it was a big car and not a pickup.   I am usually gone on Thursday nights, but my wife is home.   What can I do? I suppose I could mount a game camera by the gate, but I doubt if I could get a tag number. Besides, they aren't really doing anything illegal.   Any suggestions would be appreciated.   EDITED: We don't have a garage, so anyone who's familiar with our cars can tell if we are home or not. The parking is direct line of sight from the gate.

In April, the law prohibiting knives on airplanes will be relaxed. http://www.foxnews.com/travel/slideshow/2013/03/05/changes-to-tsa-prohibited-items-list/#slide=1   Basically, the knife must be a folder with a non-locking blade that is no more than 1/2 inch wide and 2.36 inches long. It cannot have a molded grip.   Any suggestions for a good decent knife that fits this criteria?  I'm guessing a compact multi-tool would fall under the molded grip restriction, but it's not clear since the pictures don't show a multitool. I don't want a swiss army knife. They're too big and bulky. I just want a keychain knife.  

To guys purple is purple, but to women, there are about a hundred shades of purple. Make sure you get one she likes.

^This. The last frost usually doesn't occur until late April where I live and the ground temperature is still to low until May. I get a pretty good selection of tomato plants at Flowers Nursery in Nashville, including a couple of heirloom varieties. Last year, we planted them in recycled pails and set them beside the south side of the house. It worked much better than our attempts at a garden.

At least it's nice that the article includes a link to the HCP application page of the TN Department of Safety.

I carry the SOG AC77 money clip knife and a Gerber 2 inch on my keychain. I have a couple of bigger knives, but I don't like the longer blade. It just gets in the way.

You should let her rent a few different handguns and see what she likes. I have a Taurus 709. The safety is big and the trigger pull is maybe 6-7 pounds. It might work for her. The M&P Shield has a pretty tiny safety.  Regardless of what she chooses, she needs a holster that will protect the trigger and present the handgun at the proper angle in her purse. She can't just jam it in there under the breath mints, lipstick, and other stuff. I think she would also be happy with the Sig P238 in 380. It's smaller, lighter, and has a decent-sized definitive safety so you can easily tell by feel if the safety is on.

  Several good keychain lights have already been mentioned... Quark, Fenix, iTP, etc... so I won't go into them. I have a ThruNite Ti AAA keychain light. It has two modes. It's good for looking under desks or indoors. It won't reach out far enough to be a decent outdoor light if that's your criteria. If you go to Budget Light Forums, you'll find discussions of micro lights and all types of LED flashlights.  In my opinion, you really can't go any larger than AAA batteries in a keychain light unless you're willing to carry a BIG keychain. Once you move up to pocket clip, you have a lot more options.   The Chinese LED flashlights reviewed on Budget Light Forums can be surprisingly high quality. I've bought eight based on the reviews there from some of their sponsors. Of the 8, all worked fine. The quality was surprisingly high. The most I paid was $14. The Lithium ion rechargeable batteries and charger cost more than the lights. The reason I mention this is that once you move away from the big brand names, you can buy a keychain light, truck light, and bedside light for less than the cost of one... cough... Surefire... a great light, just pricey

Go over to Budget Light Forums and do a search for mounts. There are several threads there, including some on how to replace the tail cap clicky with a pressure switch.  I'd think a clicky would be a liability under some situations.    Oh, one other thing. Most Chinese clicky tail caps are negative clicky, meaning you have to depress the clicky all the way to get the light on and off. They make positive clickies, which would be better for gun mount. A forward clicky will activate the light with halfway pressure on the switch and then immediately go off when you release the pressure. If you want the light to stay on, just depress the clicky until it clicks.   Some of the slightly more expensive LED lights will have a memory so you can set it to strobe, for example, and it will turn on in the strobe mode. If the light has to cycle through the 5 modes (hi med low strobe SOS) to turn off, it would definitely be a liability on a tactical defense weapon.   Just some stuff to think about...

  Great line!

This isn't the only Pelosi insider deal. There have been numerous other times she has financially benefited from her position. I don't have a link, but I remember that some of them involved her husband's business deals. I'm sure you could find them with an online search.   EDITED: I found it. Do a search for Pelosi husband insider trading. The big one was in 2008 when she sat on a committee dealing with credit cards. Pelosi bought 5,000 shares of Visa at $44 and the stock went to $65 very quickly. There are allegations that her husband bought between $1 million and $5 million shares of Visa. She has been associated with 8 IPOs where she or her husband could have benefited from insider knowledge. Note: It is NOT illegal for Congresspersons to do insider trading.   Edited again: Wow!  Pelosi rails against credit cards while buying 1-5 million dollars worth of Visa. Then, in spite of popular bipartisan support, she blocks a law that would impose restrictions on credit card companies!  That's beyond insider trading. http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/nancy-pelosi-blocked-credit-card-reform-while-investing-millions-in-exclusive-visa-stock-offering/question-2424639/?link=ibaf&q=&esrc=s

Do we have any TGO members in/near Byrdstown? I still wonder if Reggie Robertson was a plant.  I've googled the name and all I've been able to find out is that he has a private pilot's license.

According to Tennessee codes 39-17-1307 and 39-17-1308, there must also be no ammunition in the immediate vicinity of the person or weapon. I'm not a lawyer, but it seems obvious that rounds in a clip or magazine in the rifle or nearby would be a violation.  There must also be an "intent to go armed," but if there's any doubt, you'd probably get cited and have to plead your case in court.   You can look up the codes and read them for yourself.

I watched this from the Capitol steps. I noticed the guy seemed very calm about the whole process of being called over. In fact, he wasn't in the crowd at all. He came over to the far side completely out of the group towards the Capitol before the troopers noticed him and called him over.   Does anyone know this guy?  Reggie Robertson from Byrdstown, TN? His name and home town are public information, by the way. They were included in the news article.   Byrdstown is 120 miles away. I wonder if he was a Democrat plant? Does anyone know anyone in Byrdstown who could find out for us?

Can anyone cite some sources for free downloads of survival manuals and related books?  Oh, by the way, I've used dropbox for over a year. It's a good way to sync files. I also use Sugar Sync as an online backup, but it's a bit redundant now that I put everything on dropbox. I just don't like having my essential files on a free service.   I have a solar panel bought from either Harbor Freight or Northern Tool... I can't remember which one... that I paid about $30 for on sale. HF has a 1.5watt version right now on sale for $12. I don't know how many watts you'd need to charge a phone.  I also have 18650 Lithium Ion rechargeable batteries and a charger/adapter so I can charge the batteries from car or house and use the same device to charge my phone. Cost was $7 on fasttech.com. Good 18650 rechargeable batteries cost about $8-$12 apiece. I haven't figured out how to charge the battery from the solar panel yet.  I use these batteries because they can also be used in LED flashlights.

In another thread, several of us reported that the turn-around for renewal of the HCP has been as short as two weeks.  If that's still the case, my renewal should arrive this week.

  Yes! Please... dress nicely. Remember the last rally? The only one-person picture that showed up in the Tennessean was of a guy open-carrying wearing a black t-shirt with full "sleeve" tatoos. Worse, he obviously posed for the picture. Don't let the media take advantage of you. I would urge everyone not to open carry, wear camo, or dress like the aforementioned person. The media are not your friends. 

This is a follow-up by the OP. I mailed my form in on January 28 and received a letter from the state on Feb 6 that they were processing my application. Since it takes 10 minutes at a dealer, you'd think the state could save the money on sending the letter and just do the check and send me my HCP.   The letter is a temporary license until the HCP arrives and my HCP doesn't expire until April, but with all the fuss over gun control, I wasn't going to wait until the last minute.