This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Guns

  • Open carry waitresses

    Colorado restauranteur Lauren Boebert decided that open carrying firearms would be the theme for her business and it seems to be working for her;

    Owner Lauren Boebert, 27, says she didn’t start out to make a statement when she began carrying a pistol on her hip a month after opening Shooters a year ago. But through the months, her other waitresses thought it was kind of fun and they, too, started carrying in this town of 9,200 about 180 miles west of Denver.

    “We don’t worship guns. We worship Jesus,” said Boebert, a 27-year-old mother of four whose husband works in the oil industry. “We’re here to serve people.”

    Word is getting around about the unusual service at the restaurant, which earlier this year won a series of readers-favorite awards from a local newspaper for its home-cooked food that includes all-day breakfast and prime rib.

    It looks like folks are voting with their wallets and no one is getting open carry shoved down their throats – if they don’t want to see guns in a restaurant, they can just stay out. And I like the Ruger single action revolver – it looks good.

  • “Sniper nest” found in Chicago

    “Sniper nest” found in Chicago

    MAC10

    Chicago’s Fox 32 reports that Chicago Police Department found a “sniper nest” about a block from Kennedy King College overlooking a soccer field. The police claim to have found a “high-powered semi-automatic rifle”. The rifle was actually a pistol – a Mac-10. The Mac 10 comes in 9 millimeter and .45 caliber pistol cartridges (there’s also one in the 9mm Kurtz or .380 caliber).

    I’ve fired the .45 caliber version and, trust me, in no way can it be used as a “sniper” weapon, per se.

    The so-called “sniper nest” was a block from the college and I’m pretty sure that you can’t accurately hit a target a block away with the Mac-10 irrespective of the cartridge.

    It’s a “spray and pray” weapon, not very accurate out past about 30 yards. Don’t get me wrong, someone may have been injured if this “sniper” had opened up on a crowd. It’s not a “point” type weapon at any distance, though.

    Since the police don’t seem familiar with this type of weapon, I’ll help them in their search for the gun man – he’s really, really stupid and doesn’t know a thing about guns – he may even be a member of the Chicago PD, if the article is accurate. By the way, I used a picture of a non-working model of a Mac-10 in this post so as not to scare any visitors.

  • Hot time. Summer in the city

    Hot time. Summer in the city

    Ex-PH2 sends us a link from NBC which reports that New York City had a particularly bad weekend in regards to gun violence with a final count of four dead and 19 wounded;

    Despite the weekend spike in violence, the volume of shootings so far in 2014 is lower than it was last year, police say.

    “We’re always concerned about any shootings, but we have 1,200 additional cops this week,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said, referencing recruits that will graduate from the NYPD’s police academy Monday.

    Well, I’m sure the families of the victims will take comfort in the fact that the volume of shootings is down this year. Meanwhile, the nation’s capitol experienced a spike in violent deaths and injuries despite the fact that they had a “All Hands On Deck” police presence in the city, according to the Washington Times;

    Two people were killed and a nightclub was shuttered amid a slew of shootings and stabbings during a violent weekend in the District, which saw officers flood the streets to beef up patrols.

    Five shootings and two stabbings were reported between Friday night and Sunday morning with all the city’s police officers on duty as part of the All Hands on Deck crime-reduction initiative.

    Given that it’s difficult to be a gun owner in both of those cities, we can probably safely conclude that the guns used in those crimes were unregistered or otherwise used outside the law. And, I guess the stabbings can be evidence in the argument that it’s not guns that cause violent behavior, but rather the people themselves. Banning guns won’t stop violent behavior.

    Lawmakers, protected by good guys with guns, view all of us as potential criminals, though. One particularly violent weekend is only evidence to them that guns need to be banned universally, so they’re the only ones with guns.

  • Open Carry buffoonery

    Open Carry buffoonery

    I guess this video is going around social media sites. These ass monkeys are not on my “side” of the gun rights discussion. They’re inbred clowns who use the discussion to make them feel good about themselves and they’re hiding behind guns to be uncivilized apes. But this is the kind of behavior we can expect when some among us want to be the Lady Gagas and the Justin Biebers of the political scene.

    Concealed carry was a huge win for our side, but when I carry concealed (which is always – where it’s legal), I don’t try to piss off everyone with whom I come in contact solely because I have gun to extricate my ass from a situation caused by my own bad behavior. Luckily, these clowns have been arrested after their little adventure into stupidity and, if convicted, they probably won’t ever own a gun again.

    Since that video was recorded, Cincinnati police have arrested two of the four people in connection with the recent CIRV initiative (Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence). Charged were Jesse Deboard, the man heard on the video. The other was identified as Stephanie Coverman. Warrants are out for Chris Masters and Christina Tharp.

    It’s crap like that which sets us all back decades in the discussion about guns.

  • Open Carry Texas again

    ABC News did a story on Open Carry Texas recently. Of course, it stars our old friend CJ Grisham, but I mention the article because of something he said;

    As for his controversial marches, Grisham says they help show people that guns are not always something to be feared. When pressed, he acknowledged that he knows he may be scaring some people, but that these people have what he calls “an irrational fear of guns.”

    Being a common sense kind of guy, I don’t fear guns – I fear people who feel a need to make a spectacle of themselves by displaying their long guns in public. I noticed that many of the rifles in the video were scoped. Why would I need a scoped long gun in a personal protection situation? I’m a pretty good shot with iron sights at a hundred or so yards. If something dangerous was coming at me from more than a hundred yards away, I could use other methods to extract myself from the situation – like call a cab.

    Another fallacy his statement supports is that leftist thing about guns being the subject, not the people who commit crimes. I rightly fear crazy people with guns, I don’t fear the gun itself. When I see people like folks in the video who are carrying weapons just for the act of carrying weapons, well, they worry me. They’re purposely looking for confrontation, either with their political opponents, the police or with business owners – just for the publicity they think they can generate.

    If they were openly carrying a sidearm, I’d really have little problem with that – but I’d wonder why they can’t carry their handgun concealed like those of us who passed background checks and took the training. And, you know, it’s Texas. A state that is better than most when it comes to Second Amendment issues. It just seems so counter productive.

    And when the issue becomes about the actual gun rather than the people who carry guns, you’ve kind of conceded the argument to the gun grabbers, because they only want to regulate the guns that you want to shove in everyone’s faces instead of regulating the people who have access to the guns. See how that works?


    ABC US News | ABC Sports News

  • NRA statement on Open Carry Texas

    The Washington Times reports that the NRA has issued a statement regrading some of the same issues that we have addressed in recent weeks in regards to the “Open Carry” movement;

    “We applaud Texans for [their robust gun culture], but a small number have recently crossed the line from enthusiasm to downright foolishness,” the statement continued. “[I]t is a rare sight to see someone sidle up next to you in line for lunch with a 7.62 rifle slung across his chest, much less a whole gaggle of folks descending on the same public venue with similar arms. Let’s not mince words, not only is it rare, it’s downright weird and certainly not a practical way to go normally about your business while being prepared to defend yourself.”

    “[W]hen people act without thinking, or without consideration for others – especially when it comes to firearms – they set the stage for further restrictions on our rights. Firearm owners face enough challenges these days; we don’t need to be victims of friendly fire,” the statement concluded.

    Geez, I thought I was blunt, but the NRA out-blunted me. I’m glad to see the NRA take a common sense approach to this, but they could have been more vocal about it sooner and they fêted one of the leaders of the movement just a few months ago at their convention, that probably only encouraged him.

    But, better late than never, I guess.

  • Thanks, Open Carry folks

    The Washington Times reports that two more restaurant chains have joined the growing list of eateries that have asked legal gun owners to keep their guns out of the businesses. Chili’s and Sonic have made public statements. Says Sonic’s Vice President of Public Relations Patrick Lenow;

    “While we historically have relied upon local laws to guide how we address the display of guns at drive-ins, recent actions required we carefully reconsider this approach. We’ve considered the views and desires of our customers and employees that staff the drive-ins across the country. Accordingly, we’re asking that customers refrain from bringing guns onto our patios or into our indoor dining areas. With respect to the storage of guns in vehicles, we ask that our customers continue to honor local laws,” he said.

    Chili’s made a similar statement and they’ve joined Starbucks, Chipotle’s and Jack-in-the-Box in banning guns where guns were once welcomed. Of course this all because the folks at the various Open Carry rights organizations sought to “condition” the American public to accept the sight of long guns in private businesses – and businesses don’t want to be in the politics business as well as serve food to the public. And I don’t blame them one bit.

    I don’t see the point of the open carry groups, actually. It used to be that I could carry my concealed weapon into those establishments, but now, because I respect property rights, I can’t. So, thanks, open carry nuts. Get a real issue, why don’t you? Like transsexual rights – you could screw them over like you’ve screwed gun owners.

  • Open Carry Texas works against our gun rights

    Open Carry Texas works against our gun rights

    budaoc

    Last week, we talked a little about Open Carry Texas when their heavy-handed tactics resulted in the restaurant chain Chipolte to craft a ban of guns in their facilities. The Dallas News reports that Open Carry Texas and their armed presence is forcing other businesses to do the same, since OCT continues to show up at family-style restaurants with the long guns slung over their narrow shoulders;

    According to Mother Jones earlier today, the incident you see above was posted to YouTube on May 19 by the San Antonio chapter of Open Carry Texas, then removed along with another similar incident at a Sonic. The gun-toters weren’t allowed to dine at Chili’s while fully armed. There’s a very good reason for that, says a Brinker International spokesperson: “Long guns are not permitted in our Texas restaurants based on [Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission] regulation, which prohibits a business that is licensed to sell or serve alcoholic beverages from allowing shotguns or rifles into the building.”

    As a result, four of the organizations involved in these pointless tactics have issued a joint statement;

    Whereas, our mission is to get open carry of handguns passed in Texas, we must once again adjust in a way that shines a positive light on our efforts, our members, and our respective organizations. We have decided the prudent path, to further our goals, is to immediately cease taking long guns into corporate businesses unless invited.

    * * *

    CJ Grisham -Open Carry Texas

    Terry Holcomb, Sr -Texas Carry

    Murdoch Pizgotti – Come And Take It – Texas

    Eric Reed – Gun Rights Across America

    Of course, this doesn’t mean that they plan on ending the practice of walking around Texas communities with thier long guns openly displayed. They’re still going to try and force their openly armed visages down Americans’ throats. According to the Open Carry Texas website, they want to “condition Texans to feel safe around law-abiding citizens that choose to carry them”, for whatever reason. I don’t get it, actually. As I’ve said in the past, if we carry weapons in public for personal safety, why would we need long guns to do that? Most personal safety issues happen within about 7 yards, and you don’t need a gun with 450 meters maximum effective range to deal with that.

    As a result of these open carry people, Starbucks has asked all of it’s customers to refrain bringing in all guns, concealed or otherwise. I always respect property owners’ wishes in regards to my concealed gun, so I won’t be going into Starbucks, nor do I go to any of the Denny’s in the area. Now more and more corporate businesses are being forced to craft policy that isn’t going to go our way.

    In my opinion, these people who open carry long guns are the bullies of the gun rights folks. Anyone whose mission statement is to “condition” me into accepting something that I wouldn’t otherwise is a bully. The NRA should abandon any connections to them and focus on concealed carry issues instead.