Gun shop scouting report for June

Sometimes you find resources in the damnedest places. Here in my l'il ol' home town of Frankfort, Kentucky we have a gun store called Gilbert's Guns which several years ago made the move to the internet and started taking advantage of the marketing opportunities that it provides.
They now sell guns and accessories and all kinds of gear via the net and phone, in quantities that keep them hopping every day. Jason Gilbert has inherited the store from his father and is running hard into the 21st century with it. Jason has a great deal of knowledge of the market and the products out there, and was working the NRA show in Louisville for Surefire.
I went in there recently to check to see what was new and came away with impressions of long guns and hand guns as well as some information about newly introduced AKs that's pretty exciting.
I handled the S&W M&P45 Compact a good bit more than I had the chance to at the NRA show and got some additional impressions of it. It's about the same size as the XD45 4-inch gun, but the butt is about 3/16-5/16ths shorter than the XD, and the shape of the grip frame is slightly more friendly to the hand, more ergonomic. It holds only ten rounds versus the XD's thirteen, but it ought to be a really good choice for a compact carry .45 once you get the trigger broken in due to it's overall size and fit in the hand. Like a lot of polymer guns, the trigger is okay if you just shoot it like a revolver, pull it straight through but if you try to press it and stage it like a 1911 it won't do, at least not out of the box.
I once again picked up the new Kimber SIS .45s that they designed in concert with the LAPD S.I.S. people and just I'd said previously, the cocking "grooves" in the slide, made in the shape of the initials SIS, in combination with the coating that Kimber uses are still too slick for efficient use, in my opinion. If your hands are slick with sweat, blood, oil or whatever you're going to have a hard time yanking back that slide. Ordinary serrations wouldn't be as sexy but they'd work better.
Mossberg once had a semi-auto shotgun called the Jungle Gun that had promise, but it didn't last long in production and we never learned much about it. The DEA used them in South America, supposedly, but no one else we know of had them in harness. Now they have a new shotgun in "tactical" format, the Model 930 SPX in their tactical line that shoulders well, has good balance, excellent LPA sights and if it's dependable should be a fine shotgun. It's less expensive than the Remington types and is gas operated, so recoil should be tolerable. Don't know how it would measure up to the FN SLP that I bought, based on the Winchester SX2, which is just about the best semi-auto that I've shot to date, but would love to find out. Maybe Mossberg will loan me one. I'll have to ask.
One of the sleeper guns on the market might be the Taurus 24/7 OSS .45 that they designed for the military pistol trials that went nowhere last year. I finally got to handle one and was very impressed with how it felt. The grip shape is excellent, the trigger is VERY light, better than the M&P's in my estimation, with a short reset and light let-off. The controls are pretty well-placed, though not quite large enough for me, being flat and not quite protuberant enough to be easily moved by my fingers. The sights are tall and readily visible, with a skinny front blade that allows plenty of light around it in the rear sight, and it holds 12 rounds in the magazine. The gun feels and looks long, since it has a 5-inch barrel, but it's not unbalanced. Now we have to ask, will it hold up to hard use? Will Taurus make it long enough for us to find out? If fit and feel in the hand were enough to sell guns it would make some money for them, but who knows what buyers will want, or trust?
I examined the FNP-45 pistol again and had the same impression of it. The gun is basically sound in execution, but the grip frame is large and it requires that you think about it when you hold it. You don't just pick it up and run with it, at least not with my hands, which aren't too dainty. I could make the gun work for me, but it doesn't just fall in and run for me like my daily carry gun, the XD45, does. I want to like this gun, but the grip is just large, like the Glock G21 is large. It's a funny thing. I had a G21 and liked the way that it shot, but I REALLY liked the feel of the G30 compact versus the G21. The FNP-45 is like that - nice gun, just doesn't quite click with the hand/gun interface.
There were some nice knives in the cases. I bought a Benchmade Snody neck knife with the Wharncliffe-style blade that they have made in China so the price is reasonable, and looked at the Blackhawk Tatang sheath knife that Mike Janich designed for them. That's a knife that would be something for serious users to consider, with good balance and an excellent edge both top and bottom which allows for the dread back cut. Ouch!
But the biggest news has to be the upgraded Saiga AKs that Gilbert's is coming out with. Based on the original Saiga AKs that are built in Russia at the plant where the legend of Kalashnikov was born, they're dolled up and modernized with all kinds of good things done to them. They've had upgraded triggers installed, new furniture installed including a modern pistol grip and modern CAR-style telescoping buttstock. They're covered with Duracoat in black and they look fine - up to date, modern and wicked. They make my ratty Romanian look like a mangy dog.

For a grand finale, Jason has added to his inventory US-made Saiga 30-round polymer 7.62x39mm magazines for the AK which have a follower that locks back the bolt after the last round. Since I grew up with American military firearms I really like that feature, and will be buying some of these for my AK.
I just LOVE going to gun stores, even more when they're good ones. Gilbert's is a GOOD gun store.

Celebrating Heller

All my life I've had to put up with the denial by the antigunners, the hoplophobes, of the individual right to bear arms. They trumpeted a distorted view of the Miller decision and crowed about their legislative successes.

I watched the culture change from being able to buy surplus rifles and handguns out of the back pages of the American Rifleman, to the Gun Control Act of 1968 to 1986 and then 1994, almost despairing that we would ever begin to turn the tide.
Then talk radio came along, and the internet and the blogs and we found a new voice for the millions of people who had been out there all along but whose voices had been not just muted but drowned out and strangled by a hostile mainstream media - and the tide began to turn. People found common ground and renewed hope in common cause to resist the gun-haters. The culture began to speak out for itself, and the left began to take a licking.
And now - Heller. I will always love that name, from this day forward. After all these years knowing what Jefferson and the other Founders had written, knowing what English common law and Blackstone had written and knowing that all the rights we recognize are individual rights, that our nation was founded in the belief that men must always be able to resist tyranny and that would require that they be armed, and proficient with arms, that the anti-gunners were perpetrating the worst sort of deliberate hateful deceit on us, after all that - Heller.
I dragged my butt home Friday morning after working three nights in a row and was worn out, so wasn't able to celebrate in any more than just quiet exultation, thrilled as I was. Saturday I taught a concealed carry class and that occupied me all day. There was some discussion of Heller, but not a lot, had to concentrate on the mandated material.
But last night, after the dogs were fed and all the necessaries were out of the way, I opened a bottle of champagne and toasted the Heller decision, and a great new era in our lives. After all these years, all the anger and frustration and despair melted away. We had won.
I recognize that the fight continues, that this decision left things unsaid, things that were less than we had hoped for. But to see those names enshrined in a Supreme Court decision - Blackstone, et al - after all these years of worshipping those ideals is, for the moment, enough. I am content for the first time in my life, if only for a few days until the fight begins again.
I leave it to others to carp about Scalia's inadequacies and the decision's lack of perfection. I will think back to those days of reading the American Rifleman and Jefferson, knowing in my heart that our enemies were lying about us, about our rights and be glad that this day has come and their lies are held up to the light and turned to dust.
And I will have another glass of champagne, and laugh!
Watch six - Charles.

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" - Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

Only in Israel will you see this

There's nothing that I can say that can adequately comment on this photo.

Okay, maybe there is, and that's that I just LOVE the contrast of the black rifle with the white tutu! Two classics working in perfect harmony!!!

The joy of big dogs

There are things that you learn when you have big dogs. Sometimes you forget them, and you regret it.

A small dog generally does little damage when it bounces around your car in excitement.
A big dog is another matter entirely.
Styrofoam cups for your coffee are okay with small dogs in the car.
They are NOT okay when a big dog sits down on the center console on your styrofoam cup.
With a big dog, you MUST use more durable containers for your coffee. Or get used to cleaning sticky cofffee residue out of the center console, and doing without your caffeine fix.
I already knew this, but some lessons you have to learn more than once. Sigh.

Combative, not complacent, at the NRA convention

Glen Reynolds at Instapundit.com blogged a piece from the Louisville gathering wherein he stated that he found the mood at the NRA annual meeting and exposition to be one of complacency. (link to Pajamas Media piece here)

He thought that gun owners had had perhaps too many victories in recent years and no longer felt threatened, and he worried that this wasn't a good thing.
I have to disagree with him. What I saw in observing and talking to people at the meeting and out on the show floor was a variety of states of mind. The most prevalent attituded was guarded optimism. No one was cocky, no one was that foolish or oblivious. While the frivolous lawsuits launched by the various cities had been beaten down in the appeals courts, and people like Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Rendell and their ilk have been roundly thumped at various points, no one pretended that the fight was in any way over or even turning enough our way for anything like complacency.
Rather, I found people encouraged by the marked trend toward a more literal constitutional interpretation that supports our position in favor of gun ownership. Most of the more recent court decisions, as well as the current makeup of the Supreme Court seemed to give most of them some degree of confidence that the pending decision on the DC gun ban will go our way, in part if not in whole. During the Clinton era, hardly anyone would have dared believe that we would break even, let alone win.
But no one was strutting about thumping their chests. They know that McCain is at best a lukewarm ally, hardly to be trusted, let alone to be relied upon. They know that Hillary is not to be trusted at all, and that Obama! Hoo, boy. Obama is a nightmare. Allied with a Democrat-led Congress, he could wreak havoc on us, and that was what I saw lurking in the back of everyone's minds. No one much wants to have to come out for McCain, but Obama scares the beJesus out of them.
No one was ready quite yet to contemplate a wholesale return to the fire sales that preceded the passage of the semi-auto gun ban in 1994, but it simmered in the background, this idea that it could happen again. I sometimes thought that people were trying hard not to talk too much about just when they'd decide it was time to cut their losses and start dumping guns that are likely to be banned if Obama, et al, get their way. People are nervous about that, yes, indeed. But no one wants to be the one that starts the stampede.
However, unlike in times past they're also more feisty in their attitude, more beligerent, less resigned. They seem to believe that this time not only will they have some legal precedents to aid them but that we, gun owners as a whole, will be ready to fight at the sound of the bell: swinging hard, moving fast and pretty much united. After having their heads handed to them in some elections where they misjudged the attitude of the populace toward gun ownership, the Dems are taking care not to bring up gun control except to constituencies they consider friendly. What's more, recent elections have brought conservative Dems into Congress who may well not accept the old leadership's demonization of guns and may prove better allies to us than many Republicans.
The recent kerfuffle over Jim Zumbo's faux pas has lent some confidence to our side. Zumbo uttered the old saw about nobody needing a black gun, and gun owners came swarming up over the gunwales to bite him on the ass for it. This time around, no one seems ready to believe that people are willing to start throwing the black guns over the side so that they can save their precious Perazzis. Perhaps, finally, gun owners have come to realize, really to believe, that if we don't hang together then we shall most assuredly hang separately, each gun type in its turn being outlawed until nothing of what we treasure remains.
So I wouldn't characterize the prevailing attitude at the NRA show as complacency. I would call it the kind of quiet calm that you might see in men getting ready to go into battle, going over the top into something that they know is going to be nasty. They have no illusions. The fight IS coming to them, sooner or later. But this time they're not going to be fighting uphill all the way, knowing the terrain is arrayed against them. This time they have some victories under their belts and even though they know that it's going to get ugly, they know that the other side has been reeling from their own losses, is in a fair degree of disarray and that they ain't as cocky as they used to be, either.
It's not complacency that Glen Reynolds saw. It's the slightly distant, misty look of people readying themselves for a fight they know is coming, soon or late, trying to be ready for it when it's here, reaching into themselves for courage and grit, thinking hard about anything else but defeat. This time they think we can win, if we all just hang tough, and hang together. Somebody's going to get a bloody nose, and they mean for it to be the other guy.

The meeting is over, the reporting is pending

Have been back from Louisville for a couple of days, but life has intervened, as always and reportage of the events and people and gear will have to wait a couple of days more.

Should be able to post a lengthy report on things done and seen by this weekend.  In the meantime, let me say what a pleasure it was to meet all the bloggers who atttended, even if we didn't spend a great deal of time together due to all that we were trying to get done.  A big THANKS! to Christy, Bitter Bitch from the Bitch Girls blog, for all that she did to get things organized and to work with the NRA to keep things updated and flowing.  Also wanted to say thanks to Michael Bane for the Friday night happy hour that he hosted for us, where we got to spend a lot of time talking about everything you can imagine.  With Tod Windsor, Tim Craft and Alex Cocco from our Gunsite alumni group and Bob Jaynes, my friend from KC3 there as well, we covered a lot of different subjects, some in quite ribald fashion.  

More to follow, stand by.

Kickoff at the NRA convention!

Got to Louisville yesterday with Churchill in tow and checked in with the press room, got my credentials and a goodie bag of stuff, then took a quick spin around the floor to see what little I could while the vendors were setting up.

Touched base with my friend and fellow Gunsite alumnus Tod Windsor at the Camoseal booth, then headed downtown to the the NRA meet and greet for the press at the Makers Mark lounge.

Got to meet Bitter Bitch and several other of the bloggers, and am looking forward to meeting a bunch more of them at the happy hour tonight at Bass Pro Shops.

Not going to try to do the complete blogging experience while I'm there today, but will definitely have more impressions after getting to spend more time seeing the goods on display.  This is going to be great!  All that gun stuff and all those gun people all together in one place!

Longer, lower, wider!!!

Remember those words?  If you were around in the 1960s and 1970s you do, because that's how the US automobile industry used to describe their cars.

But the reason I bring those words up now is that I think of them every time I hear people gnashing their teeth and wailing about our current gas price crisis, or see another headline about people trying to dump their SUVs because they suck gas like a starlet with a dollar bill up her nose.

When the gas embargo hit us in 1975 people went nuts.  They began to look seriously at the nature of their cars for the first time in many years - those longer, lower, wider beasts that most people were still buying and driving.  Those of us who had gotten interested in European and Japanese cars, with their lighter weight and greater emphasis on efficiency and handling and gas mileage, gazed with some amusement as the US auto industry scrambled to bring out cars that got better MPG.  Some horrible mistakes were made, such as when they also had to deal with some pretty ridiculous safety regulations from the feds, but gradually the American car leaned down and became significantly more competitive in performance.  Since then I'd been watching the changes in car designs and buying habits, and had been generally happy with what I saw as an evolution in tastes and the character of our cars.

Then in the late 1980s and early 1990s that began to change.  Cars started getting big and dumpy again.  Oh, they were better cars than the mishmashes that we were served up in the late 1970s, with better engines and lots more features and technical sophistication, but they were also growing inexorably larger and larger, wider and wider.  The Ford Explorer, for instance, went from boxy and useful to chunky and wide, with less interior space every time I climbed into one.  A lot of that was the greater interest shown by women in the SUV, which meant that more creature comforts were being built in.

My interest in the subject was piqued when I first considered getting an SUV for the purpose that they were originally made, which was to have something that would haul around me and the critters and our gear if and when we had to drive in less than optimal conditions, like in snow, rain or off-road.

But there weren't none a' those out there like I wanted!  I wanted a simple boxy 4x4 with a lightweight body and a big tailgate with lotsa interior space.  The Isuzu Trooper was pretty much the last one that was made that way.  Cars like what I desired were out there, but they were WAY out there, as in other countries, over the water, out there.  You couldn't buy them in the US and still can't.  When I was overseas working or visiting I saw lotsa nifty little 4x4s that were handy and quick and of a size to be useful.  What was available here was, and is, bloated and heavy, of doubtful utility: jammed with 'visual elements' and padding but very little that beckoned to a guy with dogs and gear.  The Honda Element had promise with its "get it filthy, hose it out" basic interior design, but it didn't have roll-down windows - a MUST-have if your dogs ride with you! - and it wasn't as spacious as it should be.  Getting up to the back seat wasn't easy, either.

I thought that the new Toyota FJ re-introduction would be slick and then I saw one.  Ye gods.  It was HUGE, and expensive and essentially useless to someone such as I,  looking for something like a slab-sided Montero from ages past, or an modernized Trooper or even a Suzuki Samurai update.

Longer, lower, wider.  It keeps running through my head like some kind of Detroit mantra, but instead of leading me to automotive nirvana, it's making me nuts as I observe the growing angst over gas prices.  I've been quietly saying to myself "I knew this was coming" for the last 10 years, and at the same time wondering how it was that no-one else did, or seemingly didn't care.  Everyone seemed lost in the pursuit of making yet bigger trucks for more badly behaved women drivers who made up for their missing testosterone with the way that they bullied other drivers, or simply paid them no mind as they rolled down the road, cell phone clamped firmly in ear, wandering lane to lane in no particular pattern.

And then there are the big-ass pick-em-up trucks that the jackass boys drive, that have never seen a speck of mud in their entire existence and never had a critter in the load bed, the ones that they park diagonally across three parking spaces just because they can.  All horsepower and ignorance.  There's a working truck under there somewhere but it'll never get out because of the fat moron driving it. 

Now Ford's in a jam because things have gotten so bad that their enduring sales leader, the F-150 pickup, is even dropping in sales and their SUV line is just sitting there on sales lots, doing nothing.  No one could see this coming?  No one thought about that old 'history repeats itself' phrase?  No one could see a need for smaller and more economical cars that would be suited to people with less money, needing reliable transport that was cheaper to run?

This whole line of thinking was brought to a head by a recent trip to France to visit my daughter, who lives just outside of Paris.  I was in heaven seeing all those slick, quick leetle zootmobiles!  I was CONSTANTLY swiveling around to see yet another really interesting looking car while I was there and even more than that, to see the very practical utility vehicles and delivery trucks and the like that would fill be just the thing for what I wanted and needed.  But they don't sell them here in the states, and I despair that they ever will.  Some are too quirky, too completely adapted to the European market to win over American tastes.  And some would have a hard time meeting US federal specs, yet another hassle that seems designed to screw with sensible choices.  (What did I just say?  OF COURSE, if it's a federal reg, it's designed to screw with sensible, RATIONAL choices.  Yeesh.)

Yet there may be hope.  The Chrysler corporation is doing really well selling a delivery van/truck line that comes almost unaltered from Europe, and if gas goes up even more and the economy continues to tank then we might even see some of those really interesting and quirky and fast and appealing little cars and vans make it over here.  It's something to hope for.

Anything but longer, lower, wider.  Ech.

Ain't nothin' succeeds like success

We've had legal concealed carry in Kentucky for 12 years, and it's been a marked success. For those who weren't caught up in the issue and didn't live through all those years when we didn't have it, it's hard to understand how long we went without it, and how hard we had to fight to get it. When I got deeply involved with the effort in 1994-1995 we launched a new way of dealing with our opponents and used some new weapons that made all the difference in our struggle.

Prior to the founding of the Kentucky Coalition to Carry Concealed (KC3) by Tony Haubner, the anti-gunners held sway in the public communications venues. The newspapers in the large cities, Louisville and Lexington, pretty much controlled the debate by limiting access to the public via their pages, and deciding what they would report or suppress. They were successful in labeling gun owners and proponents of concealed carry as "gunslingers" and "gun nuts" in their reportage and editorials, and we essentially had no effective way to reply or to force them to give us an equal opportunity. They could thumb their noses at us with impunity.

That changed with KC3. We knew that there were several things that we had to do to get CCDW passed. One was to have a good bill to put before the legislature. Tony had drafted one, based on Florida's landmark 1989 law, and with a few refinements we were ready to pitch it.

Next we had to make ourselves heard, and we knew that we were going to have to make news, not just whine about being ignored. So we worked with other groups to collect over 21,000 signatures on petitions calling for the passage of our concealed carry bill, and we started getting people fired up.
Perhaps most importantly, we used talk radio, which was just then beginning to make a national impact and to make a difference in the local media mix. We were able to link up with talk show host Stew Williams on WAKY 790 AM and others in the Louisville market to put out our talking points and to attract public attention, and public comments. That led to debates on TV and to our editorials appearing in the papers which had previously blackballed us. Once we had people talking they couldn't very well ignore us. We were making news, making a noise, making people think and talk and call the radio shows and write letters to the editors.

That was the tipping point, to my mind. Always before the papers had been able to characterize us as a bunch of redneck nutjobs, or worse. This time, when they called us "gunslingers", we fired back "Uh, no. That's not acceptable. My mother's going to get one of these permits when this is passed, and I don't want you calling my mother, or my grandmother who's also thinking about it, a gunslinger. Gunslingers were pretty unsavory and you should be ashamed of talking about these ladies that way." Ooops. How can a politically correct editor go around slinging slurs at women? Pretty soon, we controlled the terms of the debate and forced a consideration of the issue on its merits and the facts, not on the traditional liberal appeal to fear and emotions.

And THAT paved the way for us to bring up all the things that most of the public had never heard, facts about defensive uses of guns and people who owed their lives to having a gun at the right time. We opened a lot of people's eyes to information that they'd never even dreamed existed, because as far as the liberal press was concerned it DIDN'T. They'd never reported it. Worse, they couldn't open their minds even to consider it! I had conversations with reporters where I would tell them things about firearms and self-defense, about government studies that they'd never heard of and about surveys relating to armed citizens and they'd just stare at me. I even had them say to me "I just don't believe that", or "I can't believe that" - and that was IT, end of conversation. Finito. They didn't say that they'd check my facts or that they'd investigate our claims. They just shut down. Their minds were closed to any viewpoint but their own, and we scared them, badly!

So we were on the air, and in the news and we were making people think, and then we were in the legislature in the committee rooms. We were testifying, and finding that we had some of the same problems with the representatives and senators that we had with reporters. They knew what they FELT about it and weren't going to let little things like facts and reality get in their way, by God!

Fortunately, we had more friends than foes in the Kentucky General Assembly and we had Representative Robert Damron, our big gun. While we were beating the drums for our bill, Bob was working the legislature and demonstrating a talent for working the process that no other proponent of concealed carry had brought to the fight before. All the legislators who'd introduced bills in the past were pretty much good 'ole boys whose hearts were in the right place, but they didn't have the backroom skills or savvy that Bob Damron did, and weren't able to make things happen like he did. They didn't speak well on radio or TV and they let the media make rubes of them. Damron was made for the modern media era. He spoke well and could steer an interview where he wanted it. He courted the press, always gave them a story and never forgot about working the press whenever we had a vote or committee meeting coming up. Bob was a bulldog, never let go once he had his teeth in an issue, and if you pissed him off by not coming through for him or trying to screw him or waffling on a vote he didn't forget and he didn't let up.

There's a lot more that went on and a lot more folks who were involved in the effort to get House Bill 40, our CCDW law, passed into law and signed by the governor. There's probably a whole book's worth of stuff in it. I won't even start to scratch the surface with this ditty.

I just wanted to comment on our history with concealed carry at this time because of the NRA convention coming up. There will be thousands of people attending the events in Louisville next week. No doubt hundreds of them will be carrying firearms for their defense. And they'll be carrying them LEGALLY according to the provisions of one of the best CCDW laws in the nation because of what we put into motion back in 1996 with HB40. They'll be carrying in a state that's shown that the hoplophobes were full of horsehockey when in 1996 they wailed about how blood would run in our streets if we let our citizens carry guns in their pockets.

Kentucky's experience with defensive carry has been nothing but good. After our bill passed we spent the next several years making improvements in our carry law, and fighting back attempts by the anti-gunners to sabotage it. We addressed other issues relating to firearms and gun ownership that made things better not only for permit holders but for all gun owners in the state.

So when NRA members come to Kentucky next week and wonder what we can do to preserve our rights or even to expand them, we can point to the fact that they can carry concealed here and show them how it's done, with enough effort, grit and sheer audacity. When we work hard at it, we can't lose. At this juncture, with the potential for a president being elected who loathes us and what we stand for, we DARE NOT lose! Watch six!

If you're coming to the NRA convention in Louisville, here's something you should know...

I'm going to be attending the NRA convention next week in Louisville, Kentucky since I live just up the road in Frankfort, and have been doing some digging around about the situation vis a vis concealed carry in the area.

As you may or may not know, Kentucky has an excellent concealed carry law. We recognize permits from other states and we have liberal restrictions on where you can carry. Since it passed in 1996 it's been a great success. There have been over 60,000 permits issued, and permit holders have an excellent safety record. The Violence Policy Center, the Brady bunch and their mindless minions predicted that blood would flow in our streets if the law was passed but once again, as ever again, they were wrong. Now more Kentuckians, and our guests, are guarded by the armed citizen, the best protection you can get.

Unfortunately, some few places still haven't gotten the word and they prohibit legal CCDW on their premises and in their buildings. Sadly, one of those is the Louisville Slugger museum, where they show you how they make the famous hardwood baseball bats.

Their website is at http://www.sluggermuseum.org. They have signs posted on their doors prohibiting lawful citizens from exercising their right to carry in their building. Sounds to me like a reason not to go there, if that's what they want.

The organization that I helped found and used to help run, the Kentucky Coalition to Carry Concealed (KC3 - http://www.kc3.com), has gone missing in action so they're not putting out the word on this like they should be. The most recent president and vice president abandoned ship in a most unseemly manner, like rats going overboard, leaving the outfit rudderless just as the NRA convention approached and this issue loomed large. Pity, since if it wasn't for KC3 there wouldn't be CCDW in Kentucky in the first place. It's a shame that our organization fell into the hands of some people who were too lazy to carry on the fight, and who tried to cripple it as they headed for the lifeboats.
So I'm passing this on to you in cyberspace so that you'll know that if you come here for the gathering, please do NOT spend your money visiting the Louisville Slugger museum if you believe in self-defense and the preservation of your rights. And please be sure to contact them via their web site to let them know why they're going to be missing out on their share of the estimated $15,000,000 (15 MILLION!) that NRA members and attendees are going be spending in Jefferson county that week. It does no good to avoid them if they don't know why you're doing it.

The GOOD NEWS is the the Frazier Historical Museum, just down the street from the Louisville Slugger, has now taken down their "no weapons" signs and informs us that they welcome CCDW permit holders as long as they observe the laws pertaining thereto.

Their web site is http://www.fraziermuseum.org and if you love edged weapons, firearms of all types and all ages and the history that surrounds them they you're going to LOVE this place! They even have a large section of arms on loan from the Tower of London armory!

By all means, if you love history and guns and knives and swords, take the time to visit the Frazier museum, you'll have a ball. They have fencing demonstrations in addition to the static displays, and the layout is as modern as it gets, very nicely done.

This is a perfect opportunity for gun owners to use the power of the purse both to reward our friends and punish our foes. Don't let it pass by. Every time we flex our economic muscles we send the message that we won't be ignored or trifled with by the politicians and organizations who threaten our rights or impugn us.

WORLD COMES TO AN END!!! GUN OWNER GETS TO STATE POSITION IN LOCAL PRESS!!!

Update to this post: the paper has deleted this file due to malignant activity by people on the comments forum on their web site. I don't know when or if we'll ever be able to see these items again, but who knows? It took forever to get this far! - 8/01/08

For years, we've had a running feud with the local newspaper, which has been pretty much anti-gun, anti-self-defense and anti-rights.

But just recently we staged a political action, a demonstration at a city commission meeting, and subsequent to that they asked me to do a Q&A with them. You could have knocked me over with a feather!

It went well, and if you follow the link you can read it online. I have some quibbles with some of the editing and much was left out since they have constraints on how much they space they can use for it, but overall I was quite pleased with it.

It's a start, maybe the beginning of a new sort of relations with them. I hope so.

Now if I can get them out to the range and start them shooting!

The Parable of the Sheep

In 1997, just after we'd gotten our concealed carry law passed here in Kentucky, the Frankfort city commission decided to ban CCDW in city buildings.

It made no sense then, it makes no sense now. We told them so and they ignored us. I wrote the Parable of the Sheep in response to that proposed ban. It's the piece for which I'm best known, and has appeared on web sites around the world.
Go here to read it as it was first posted on the web by my friend and fellow former KC3 board member, Tyler Allison.

*********************************

The Parable of the Sheep

Not so long ago and in a pasture too uncomfortably close to here, a flock of sheep lived and grazed. They were protected by a dog, who answered to the master, but despite his best efforts from time to time a nearby pack of wolves would prey upon the flock.

One day a group of sheep, bolder than the rest, met to discuss their dilemma. "Our dog is good, and vigilant, but he is one and the wolves are many. The wolves he catches are not always killed, and the master judges and releases many to prey again upon us, for no reason we can understand. What can we do? We are sheep, but we do not wish to be food, too!"

One sheep spoke up, saying "It is his teeth and claws that make the wolf so terrible to us. It is his nature to prey, and he would find any way to do it, but it is the tools he wields that make it possible. If we had such teeth, we could fight back, and stop this savagery." The other sheep clamored in agreement, and they went together to the old bones of the dead wolves heaped in the corner of the pasture, and gathered fang and claw and made them into weapons.

That night, when the wolves came, the newly armed sheep sprang up with their weapons and struck at them, crying, "Begone! We are not food!" and drove off the wolves, who were astonished. When did sheep become so bold and so dangerous to wolves? When did sheep grow teeth? It was unthinkable!

The next day, flush with victory and waving their weapons, they approached the flock to pronounce their discovery. But as they drew nigh, the flock huddled together and cried out, "Baaaaaaaadddd! Baaaaaddd things! You have bad things! We are afraid! You are not sheep!"

The brave sheep stopped, amazed. "But we are your brethren!" they cried. "We are still sheep, but we do not wish to be food. See, our new teeth and claws protect us and have saved us from slaughter. They do not make us into wolves, they make us equal to the wolves, and safe from their viciousness!"

"Baaaaaaad!" cried the flock, "the things are bad and will pervert you, and we fear them. You cannot bring them into the flock!" So the armed sheep resolved to conceal their weapons, for although they had no desire to panic the flock, they wished to remain in the fold. But they would not return to those nights of terror, waiting for the wolves to come.

In time, the wolves attacked less often and sought easier prey, for they had no stomach for fighting sheep who possessed tooth and claw even as they did. Not knowing which sheep had fangs and which did not, they came to leave sheep out of their diet almost completely except for the occasional raid, from which more than one wolf did not return.

Then came the day when, as the flock grazed beside the stream, one sheep’s weapon slipped from the folds of her fleece, and the flock cried out in terror again, "Baaaaaad! You still possess these evil things! We must ban you from our presence!"

And so they did. The great chief sheep and his council, encouraged by the words of their advisors, placed signs and totems at the edges of the pasture forbidding the presence of hidden weapons there. The armed sheep protested before the council, saying, "It is our pasture, too, and we have never harmed you! When can you say we have caused you hurt? It is the wolves, not we, who prey upon you. We are still sheep, but we are not food!" But the flock drowned them out with cries of "Baaaaaaddd! We will not hear your clever words! You and your things are evil and will harm us!"

Saddened by this rejection, the armed sheep moved off and spent their days on the edges of the flock, trying from time to time to speak with their brethren to convince them of the wisdom of having such teeth, but meeting with little success. They found it hard to talk to those who, upon hearing their words, would roll back their eyes and flee, crying "Baaaaddd! Bad things!"

That night, the wolves happened upon the sheep’s totems and signs, and said, "Truly, these sheep are fools! They have told us they have no teeth! Brothers, let us feed!" And they set upon the flock, and horrible was the carnage in the midst of the fold. The dog fought like a demon, and often seemed to be in two places at once, but even he could not halt the slaughter.

It was only when the other sheep arrived with their weapons that the wolves fled, only to remain on the edge of the pasture and wait for the next time they could prey, for if the sheep were so foolish once, they would be so again. This they did, and do still.

In the morning, the armed sheep spoke to the flock, and said, "See? If the wolves know you have no teeth, they will fall upon you. Why be prey? To be a sheep does not mean to be food for wolves!" But the flock cried out, more feebly for their voices were fewer, though with no less terror, "Baaaaaaaad! These things are bad! If they were banished, the wolves would not harm us! Baaaaaaad!"

So they resolved to retain their weapons, but to conceal them from the flock; to endure their fear and loathing, and even to protect their brethren if the need arose, until the day the flock learned to understand that as long as there were wolves in the night, sheep would need teeth to repel them.

They would still be sheep, but they would not be food!

copyright 1997 - Charles Riggs, Frankfort, Ky.

A grand new adventure!

As much as I've always jumped in to offer my opinions on just about subject in which I have an interest, I've resisted getting into the blogosphere.

Don't get me wrong. I love to read other's blogs. I like the opportunity to express myself in a situation where I can just let 'er rip, damn the torpedos! But I've read some absolutely wretched stuff on the web - things that made me cringe, made me wonder about the judgement of the poster, things that were so badly written and misinformed that I was embarrassed for the writer, even if they were just as happy as a pig in a mud wallow with it.
I had no desire to go charging into this without taking a long time to think about it, taking a long deep breath and a long hard look at where I'd like it to go.
Having done that, today we embark on this cybervoyage. Won't be no great profundity, won't be no fabulousness but I can hope that every once in awhile I can come up with something that clicks, resonates or touches a reader, and provokes a thoughtful, even passionate response.
And passion's where it's at in all that we do or want to do, doncha think, friends? If you don't feel strongly about something after taking the time to think about it, hell, if you don't have a strong reaction to it just as soon as you see it then it's probably not worth thinking or writing about at all.
Big thanks to Michael Bane, Peter Grant and Marc Danziger (links to follow) for giving me a virtual kick in the seat to get this going.

"Lay on, Macduff, and damn'd be him that first cries 'Hold, enough!'"