National Open Carry Day - Friday, July 4, 2008

Back in January in a post about a WalMart manager suddenly afflicted with PSH when he saw a gentleman shopper carrying a Glock, I concluded, "Are we too frightened of "scaring Whitey" to open carry? We have National Ammo Day, and National Buy-a-Gun Day. Do we need a National Open Carry Day or two to help some of these jerks to get over their hoplophobia?"

I can't recall ever making another reference to it, but GBW is the third listing in the Google search for the phrase after PatriotPages.net and Snowflakes in Hell. Go figure.

According to PatriotPages, Friday, July 4th is National Open Carry Day, and the weekend of July 4-6 is National Open Carry Weekend.

There's been a lot of discussion on blogs and boards lately about the efficacy of concealed carry v. open carry. I usually come down on the side of those who say that open carry is a tactical mistake, however, if someone chooses to do so, they should be able to open carry any place they have a right to be. And we certainly should refrain from it just to keep someone's panties from scrunching into a wad.

We are told we frighten people, and so shouldn't let our guns be seen. We are told we are a menacing presence that makes others uncomfortable, including police who should know better. Most folks who regularly read gun blogs will remember ColtCCO's experience with a Knoxville, Tennessee police officer outside a WalMart in the fall of 2007 which resulted in an official apology, reprimands and additional training about carry laws for the entire department.

Perhaps several million responsible, law abiding adults exercising their right to keep and bear arms openly on the day our nation celebrates shaking the tyrant's boot off our neck would have a salutary effect upon the ignorance and immaturity of the general public. Millions might be wishful thinking, but hundreds of thousands is certainly not out of the question.

Even if the public isn't educated, I'm sure a number of police officers would be forced to confront their ignorance. Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against cops per se, only ignorant ones. If you sign up to enforce the law, you should know it.

In Kentucky, the Commonwealth's Constitution disallows most restrictions on bearing arms, indeed includes positive affirmation of "the right to bear arms in defense of themselves..", speaking of the People. In fact, open carry was intended to be the norm in Kentucky, as the the Constitution specifically allows the the General Assembly to prohibit concealed carry of deadly weapons. Apparently in 1891, they didn't give much thought to the tactical advantages of concealed carry.

I wouldn't expect to have much trouble with open carry in most of Kentucky, except perhaps the People's Democratic Republics of Louisville Metro (PDRLM) and Lexington/Fayette County and perhaps in parts of Northern Kentucky. But one can find benighted souls anywhere, and everyone has heard tales of small town cops run amok.

I expect to be in small town America on the Fourth of July and intend to open carry. If I get stuck in PDRLM, I will attend at least two very public outdoor gatherings, and I intend to open carry. Wherever I am, I hope I'm not alone in observing National Open Carry Day.

I think I'll use this occasion as an excuse to buy a new holster for my Glock Model 20. I'm leaning toward the Blackhawk CQC Holster with SARS. It comes with both belt loop and paddle setups. That ought to take care of any retention concerns. I'll let you know what I think of it.

Patriot Post on the Second Amendment and Obama

Not that Hillary's any better.

Mark Alexander of PatriotPost gives us an essay on the Second Amendment with some quotes and other info from Senator Obama.

And make no mistake, the newly-emboldened Left, with Barack Hussein Obama leading the charge, is gunning for those rights. Obama supports the D.C. regulations because he, “...wanted to make sure that local communities were recognized as having a right to regulate firearms... The notion that somehow local jurisdictions can’t initiate gun laws isn’t born out by our Constitution.”

Does he suggest, by extension then, that our national Constitution can be amended by judicial dictates and local ordinances?

Of course, in addition to serving on the Woods Fund board with Weather Underground terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Obama also served on the board of the Joyce Foundation, which since 2000, has given more than $15 Million to radical gun control organizations and is closely linked to the Soros Open Society Institute, which advocates a worldwide ban on civilian firearm ownership...

Of course, suggesting that violence is a “gun problem” ignores the real problem—that of socio-pathology and the Leftists who nurture it. (See the Congressional Testimony of Darrell Scott, father of Rachel Scott, one of the children murdered at Columbine High School in 1999.)

Jump over and read it.

Framing the argument. "Language Counts in the Debate on Guns"

Def Mech on making the right words count.

“Saturday Night Specials,” “Cop Killer Bullets,” “Assault Weapons,”"Junk Guns,” Bullet Hoses,”"Sniper Rifles:” we hear these pejorative terms applied all the time to guns and ammunition. Those of us in The Community of People Who Legally Possess Firearms must be more careful in not allowing anti-gun fanatics, latte liberals, and hard-core socialists to dictate the terms of the debate regarding our natural rights to self-defense against crime and tyranny that are recognised by the Second Amendment.

and

“Gun Rights” is often used as a catch phrase, but we are not really talking about the rights of a tool. Nobody would advocate for ”Shovel Rights,” or “Saw Rights.

Doing the math on buying gasoline...

A friend sent me an email with a link to a site that tells you the price of gas in your area when you enter your zip code. I'm sure it can be quite useful, but I was figuring this out the other day and came up with this.

Say you have a 12 gallon gas tank on your car.

12 x $4.00 = $48.00/tank

12 x $3.95 = $47.40/tank

You save $ 0.60/tank

Say you get 20mpg. It costs you $ 0.20 for every mile you drive.

If you drive 5 miles out of your way to save five cents a gallon, it costs you $ 1.00 to drive that 5 miles. You would lose $ 0.40 on that tank of gas, not to mention the extra time it takes to drive there and back. If you drive 10 miles to save that nickel/gallon, it would cost you $2.00 just to make the trip, and you would lose $1.40 on that tank of gas.

I know a man that routinely drives 10 miles out of his way to save 2-5 cents per gallon, and he loses money every time he fills up his tank. He just doesn’t believe the math.

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Sigh. Too true.

“Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. Duncan complains that conservative, pro-life, pro-gun Democrats won three special elections by stealing GOP issues... Democrats didn’t steal your issues, sir. You abandoned them. Your party discarded them. Democrats simply engaged in dumpster harvesting.” —Cal Thomas

Our tax dollars at work

From FoxNews. In my nearly 40 years of political awareness, I have never seen a good reason for the United States to send our tax dollars to this organization. This is certainly another good reason to pull out of the U.N.

The multibillion-dollar procurement business of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the U.N.’s flagship anti-poverty agency, is a gigantic shambles, according to UNDP’s own investigators.

Moreover, UNDP’s management has privately acknowledged that fact and is scrambling to fix the mess — even as it loudly denied concerns of a procurement scandal that have been raised by FOX News, among others.

In a confidential report obtained by FOX News, UNDP’s auditors have described the UNDP procurement organization that is spending well over $2 billion annually as:

— overwhelmed by its caseload at headquarters and in the field, while procurement ballooned from $800 million in 2003 to $2.5 billion in 2006 and $2.2 billion last year;

— often failing to provide plans to support its buying activities, which the report says causes many purchases of goods and services to be carried out on an "ad hoc basis" (in fact, more than $595 million worth of non-existent purchases were recorded, although the audit notes that they were not paid for);

— wallowing in shoddy paperwork and faulty bidding processes, which contributed to a "high number of waivers of the competitive process and to quality problems in the procurement process in general";

Click here to see the draft audit.

I hope they sell a million of them.

Get it here.

Panem et circenses, redux

Last month I had a brief post about bread and circuses. I wish the cartoon had been available then.

more from RedPlanetCartoons.com here.

When you hear "college student", what do you think?

When most people hear “college students”, I doubt that moderation, civility, restrained behavior, and maturity are the first things that come to mind. However, that does describe the vast majority of college students. But stories about those serious students who spend their time studying and working seldom make the news, and on film, serious students are usually seen only as pathetic foils to the “cool” students in most movies about college life.

I see this as a big problem for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. When most folks hear “college student”, they don’t think of adults living lives like they do; they think Animal House or its ilk. It’s difficult to get people to take you seriously when they are seeing a toga party with firearms in their mind’s eye.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 66% of all college students in the United States are 21 years of age or older. They are past old enough in most states to serve in our country’s armed forces, get married without the permission of their parents, start a family, enter into contracts, incur debt, legally purchase and consume adult beverages, and do all the other things that free American adults can do, including keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and their families. And that’s what many of them have done. Until, of course, they become the drunk or hopped-up, hormone-driven, uncontrollable hedonists, otherwise known as college students, when they set foot on most college campuses. (If college campuses exert that kind of influence on the people who enter their grounds, colleges and universities should be closed, and we should find another method of imparting “higher” education.)

I wish I could offer a better name to SCCC, but after much thought, I’m not sure there is one. That’s a battle that will have to be fought in the public arena. And even after that battle is won, and I think it will be, the same tired arguments (blood in the streets, the cops won’t know who is the bad guy, bystanders shot, etc., will be recycled, as they already are. But, as the Utah university system shows, along with every other implementation of concealed carry in the U.S., these things just don’t happen.

There is a lot of cultural baggage that goes with being identified as a college student. Empty Holster protests targeted primarily at the university community generate some publicity, but most stories regurgitate anti-gun propaganda to be “balanced” and do little to change the mind of a generally apathetic public. In the meantime, it’s up to those of us in the concealed carry community to step up and support Students for Concealed Carry on Campus by writing, phoning, or collaring our legislators on a regular basis regarding the discriminatory restrictions on campus carry. I hope to have some posts regarding this in the near future.

Responsible, law-abiding adults, no matter their age, should be able to carry any place they have a right to be. And that includes college campuses.

I know, but it's still funny.

My question, is this from the womb, learned in the crib, or imparted to succeeding generations in dark ceremonies under a new moon?

1. Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
2. Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house
3. Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
   
4. Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
5. Loud Sigh: This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)
6. That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
7. Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says "Thanks a lot" - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say "you're welcome" ... that will bring on a"whatever").
8. Whatever: Is a women's way of saying "Kiss my butt"!
9. Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking "What's wrong?" For the woman's response refer to #3.

Christians riot after Jewish seminary students burn New Testaments...

Outrageous! Sacrilegious! Death to the…

What? No riots? No deaths? No Marches? Of course, if it had been Korans, the Israeli Army would be fully deployed and there would be mass hysteria in most Muslim countries.

I’ve had a couple of people tell me recently there was no difference between Christianity and Islam. I beg to differ. Not that Christianity doesn’t have a share of crazies on both ends of the spectrum, but come on…

(read about the book burning here)

Shout if from the rooftops!!

“To sensible conservatives, it is virtually incomprehen-
sible that the Republican Party can’t quite figure out why their prospects for the 2008 election seem so dim. Here’s your first clue boys and girls: America already has one socialist, tax-and-spend, appeasement-oriented, global warming Kool-aid drinking political party. Who needs two of them?” —Arnold Ahlert

Not that I'd question their motives...

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it.” —H. L. Mencken

Concealed Carry Creed

from Xavier:

The Concealed Carry Creed

My weapon is for the protection of my life and the lives of others. That is its sole purpose. It does not confer rights, responsibilities or authority greater than that of other citizens. It merely allows me to protect life.

I will seek never to have to use my weapon. If I can avoid conflict, I will. If I can resolve conflict, I will. If I can escape danger, I will. If I am forced to bring my weapon to bear and use it, I will.

I will acquire superior training with my weapon. It is not the weapon that saves lives, but my effective use of the weapon. I will ensure my training is sound, my knowledge is current, and my mind is prepared.

I will know, understand, and obey all laws and ordinances concerning my weapon no matter where I happen to be. Failure to do so harms all who seek to legally carry an effective means of self protection.

I will know and follow the Four Rules of safe gun handling. I am a member of a growing community that must foster and teach safe and responsible gun handling if the community is to survive.

© Xavier 2008 Used by permission.

...but I play one on TV.

Mr. Farina takes a fall.

He must have been in condition White. Forgetting you have a weapon is condition White, right?

Wisdom doesn't mean ignoring the obvious, Senator Obama

If the long Palestinian war against Israel and the current situation in Iraq with al Sadr and in Iran regarding their nuclear program have taught us nothing else, it is those we fight in the Middle East believe negotiation is a sign of weakness to be exploited and lies are, for them, an ethical and expected tactic in negotiation.

Though the lesson has been taught, it is also evident that many on the Left, including Senator Obama, have chosen to ignore that lesson. Senator Obama’s stated last week in North Carolina, “I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.”

History, something Senator Obama apparently ignores, tells us that FDR and Truman did not talk to our enemies, at least not while in a shooting war. Unconditional surrender was the order of the day in WWII. President Kennedy did talk to Khrushchev, but we were not in a shooting war with the USSR.

Talk didn’t stop Germany. Talk didn’t stop Japan. Talk didn’t stop North Korea. Talk doesn’t stop those who are determined to act. This willfully ignorant naiveté is what scares me most about the Left. While there is a time and place for talk, there is also a time and place where talk must turn to action, and the Left seems institutionally incapable of getting to that time and place.

This kind of talk from the Left’s standard bearers makes it easy for me to pull the lever for Senator McCain in November.