Online Petition For Pennsylvania Gun Owners: Spurred by a particularly burdensome firearm registration scheme currently before the Pennsylvania legislature, a state representative has posted an online petition opposing any new "gun controls." http://gw_pahouseit_district128.psinternal.net/?sectionid=73§iontree=73 --- Mitt Romney Appears in Doonesbury: As the mainstream media jumps on the changing politics of "lifelong hunter" Mitt Romney, he has appeared as a character in the left-wing comic strip Doonesbury all this past week. "Say it ain't so, governor," the radio host says in one of this weeks comic strips. "Changed positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights. What's next? Immigration?" http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_097224258.html --- Oops, Wrong Illegal Aliens: Four Mexican men were arrested and charged with homicide (in Mexico) Thursday in the beating death of a man who allegedly tried to rob them at gunpoint as they attempted to cross into the United States. When the man demanded the group of men and women strip - and allegedly touched one of the women improperly - the men in the group fought back and allegedly beat the robber to death. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0406BorderKilling06-ON.html --- From A List Member (Radiologist): Have an interesting case this week.. Asked by an orthopedic surgeon to do a CT scan to check for any abscess formation in the leg of a gunshot victim. The CT showed a fragment of bullet in the medial thigh and the main fragment in the lateral right thigh. OK, no abscess.. but since the CT also included the left thigh, I was drawn to the periosteal reaction around the distal left femur. There was an egg-shell complete circumferential fracture of the femur. I called the orthopod and he said the guy had been shot in the anterior left thigh with probably a 9mm. Went back and saw a small soft tissue change in the anterior thigh. The orthpod had not seen the left femur fracture, and the guy had been walking around with the fracture for 6 weeks, hence the periosteal reaction for healing bone. The bullet had hit the anterior left femur, cracked it and then deflected into the right thigh. Surprise... Angle of bullet fragments and left femur show possible a seated individual rising off of chair when shot.... as the bullet frags are higher up in the right thigh when tracing the trajectory. This is a good reason to CT everything after a GSW. The guy was walking wounded... but a hairline fracture reduces bone strength by 40%. He could have suffered a major complete fracture. I have seen an ulna at the wrist deflect (and save the victim) a 30/06 at 15 feet.... dem bones are strong... There may be a point in that the bullet struck a convex surface rather than a concave one as with most of the pelvis except around the hips and sacrum. There are some very thin areas of bone in the pelvis that a bullet punching through would have little structural value. Hips and sacral iliac areas are definitely structural... shooting at those areas raises the odds of hitting a big vessel also. --- From CMP: M1 Carbine Sales. The CMP recently began the inspection of the M1 Carbines that were recently transferred to the CMP. Because the carbines were received with the bolts removed and many are in heavy preservative, the process is taking longer than expected. We will begin accepting car­bine orders for Inland carbines on 30 April, 2007. The Inland carbines are priced at $495 each. Carbine orders received prior to 30 April will be re­turned to the sender. Carbines made by other manufacturers will not be available until later in the year. We are not accepting orders or establishing waiting lists at this time. Please see http://www.odcmp.com/rifles/carbine.htm. We will post new information as it becomes available. --- From Liberty Watch Radio: This Sunday on Liberty Watch, and America Armed & Free, at 12 Noon MST will be Dr. David L. Wood, on his book Why Worry About The Gradual Loss Of Our Liberties?" In it he describes the methods creeping socialism wants to restrict all property rights, especially the RKBA. At One PM MST Jim Supica, antique firearms expert and co-author of the Standard Catalog of Smigh & Wesson, and co-owner of one of the country's larger firearm auction houses, "Ole Town Station, Ltd., will be on for the whole hour about gun values, collecting, and authenticating historic firearms. Liberty Watch, and America Armed & Free are on AM 690 Tucson, AM 930 Douglas, and AM 1240 Globe, Sundays Noon - 2 PM MST, 1 - 3 PM MDT, 2 - 3 PM EDT, with live stream at http://kvoi.com/listenlive.php , and archived at www.libertywatchradio.com/listen. (Note MST is Mountain Standard Time; Arizona does not do Daylight Savings Time.) --- From John Farnam: 2 Apr 07 My friends with big gun retailer in Oklahoma City, OK tell me that the one gun they sell more of than any other, week in and week out, is the S&W642, Snubby 38Spl revolver! Many want to "go armed ," and they think a five-shot snubby in a pocket provides what they need. The Taurus equivalent, which is perfectly serviceable, is ten percent less expensive but has thus far failed to catch on. Most customers specifically ask for the S&W. Most purchase the 135gr Speer Gold dot round to carry in their new snubby. G19/23 is in second place, but the S&W M&P is coming on strong. Many consider it on par with the Glock. XDs sell well also, but are hard to get. Supply is sporadic. Scant demand so far for G37/38s. 45GAP is still an unknown caliber to many. Slight demand for pistols chambered for 357SIG, but well behind 40S&W, 9mm, and 45ACP. This, in spite of the fact that the Oklahoma State Patrol carries the SIG 226 in 357SIG caliber. The new Taurus 1911 sells extremely well. It has nice features, and the price is hard to beat! It currently outsells all other 1911s! 223 ammunition, in just about any format, is increasingly hard to get. Most pistol calibers, 9mm, 40S&W, 45ACP are still in good supply. The election season has, as always, spurred sales of guns, ammunition, and accouterments. It's a good time to be a gun retailer! /John (I'm not sure that what others choose is necessarily the best guide to selecting equipment and I believe that there are regional preferences. However, firearms that develop bad reputations are not likely to sell well. Personally, for pants-pocket carry, while I own a couple of Airweight Centennials, I prefer my out-of-production stainless-steel .38 Special M-640 - when it comes to shooting it under adverse conditions, the few extra ounces are worth carrying, in my estimation.) 5 Apr 07 Comments on SA's new EMP from a noted gunsmith: "As is the case with so many factory guns, the frame and slide were full of metal filings and grinding grit. The rear sight fell off the slide when I loosened the set screw. I replaced it with Heinie's rear sight. The trigger over-travel adjustment screw was set too deep, and the sear was dragging on the hammer. Easily fixed. On the plus side, magazines are beautiful, designed and finished well. Barrel lock-up is snug. Parts are sound. Accuracy is reasonable. I test-fired the gun in the condition it arrived, and experienced several failures to feed. Rounds were stopping on the feed ramp. After cleaning out grit and metal shavings and generally slicking it up, reliability problems disappeared. A number of sharp edges and corners needed to be smoothed; some fitting of parts was necessary, and the 'ambidextrous' safety lever on the right side of the pistol is now gone. The recoil spring assembly should be replaced after two thousand rounds. Inherent to any pistol this small." Comment: All too typical of factory pistols these days! The EMP represents a good idea, and it is basically a sound gun, but, since labor is so expensive, finish is only half completed. Most competent gunsmiths can clean/slick it up, but it shouldn't be necessary. Now that my copy is "finished," (and has comfortably passed thorough testing) I have no compunction about carrying it. I suspect SA will sell a lot of these! /John (Perhaps it would be more honest for these guns to be sold as "gunsmith kits.") 6 Apr 07 Golfers call it "The Yipes" The three-foot putt should be golf's easiest shot. Experience has shown, however, that "easy" putts are where the entire game is often won or lost. In fact, some of golf's best players have developed a recurrent, apprehensive fear of the short putt, so much so that this fear has effectively ended the professional careers of many of the game's legendary players, including Tom Watson and Johnnie Miller. The "Yipes," as it is called, can be described as a psychologically-induced, neuro-muscular affliction, always associated with anxiety. Symptoms include jerks, tremors, and freezing. Heart rates typically increase, and nerves become jangled. One can clearly see the Yipes developing as the fidgety golfer leans over his ball and attempts to make multiple, often self-contradictory, adjustments to his stance and grip. His brain is obviously sending too many conflicting signals to arms and hands. When the club finally makes contact, the ball invariably shoots six feet past the hole, and the player unfailingly cruses himself and the whole disgusting game! It's an affliction that sends aspiring golfers to clinics and personal trainers by the bus-load! Professional golfers agree that the Yipes is always associated with three conditions: (1) The player cares about his personal score more than he does The Game, and the more self-conscious he is, the worse the Yipes becomes. (2) The player make a habit of practicing unsound technique, and (3) The player is hyper-analytical, so that he tends to over-analyze every situation and over-correct every perceived imperfection. Since there is a lot of money in professional golf, teams of physicians and psychologists have studied the Yipes in great detail. They have concluded that it is a combination of an anxiety-induced, uncontrollable twitchyness of muscles and focal dystrophy, and it is not limited to players of the game of golf. Similar symptoms are reported by dentists and surgeons as well as performing musicians, all of whom must have a delicate touch while under pressure. The other class of professionals who are affected are, of course, professional gunmen. In our Art, it is called "flinching," "jerking the trigger," "choking," etc, but the cause is usually the same, and the result is always the same: missed shots. Golfers have discovered treatments which, while not eliminating the Yipes completely, significantly cut down on its pernicious symptoms. Anxiety-diminishing drugs are now in common use among sufferers of the Yipes. Unfortunately, no drug therapy is going to be helpful to us. To be of use to a professional gunmen, he would have to take the drug continuously, since he never knows when the next emergency will present itself. This solution is obviously no solution at all. We gunmen have to find a solution within ourselves, so that it will always be available to us on a moment's notice. One important step is to train correctly, eliminating wrong technique and wrong thinking. We need to realize that, as with so many of the ills to which flesh is heir, the Yipes will never be completely eliminated. The best we can reasonably expect is to bring it under control, so that, while it will always affect our accuracy, it will cease to affect it significantly. Thus, when we train, we must, in our minds, always separate result from action. Right action is likely to produce good results, but there is no guarantee. Wrong action is unlikely to produce good results, but they sometimes happen anyway. That is why good results often reinforce wrong technique. We must stop demanding guarantees and understand that the best we can do is stack the odds in our favor. Even the best poker players in the world still don't win every hand. The odds may favor them, but winning and losing is still part of every game. In every fight, we must flow in a continuous whirlwind of action, never stopping until the fight is clearly over. We must never allow ourselves to suffer from the "paralysis-of-analysis." Over-analyzing and over-correcting will lead to confusion and hesitation. Smoothing flowing from one action to the next, even when it is not all perfect, will generate victory far more often than stagnation, indecision, and dithering. In training, we must not dwell on our failures. If we do, we will be simply reinforcing what caused the failure in the first place, as well as breaking our flow of action with an annoying mental interruption. Cursing oneself after a poor shot makes it all that much more likely that the next shot will be a poor one also. Poor shots must be forgotten immediately. We must dwell on our victories and thus reinforce the actions that brought them about. We must lose our fear of failure, of disgrace, even of death itself. We cannot care so much about the result that we become paralyzed. In every fight, we must go forward boldly, separating (in our minds) our action from the ultimate outcome, valuing the Game more than the Prize, having strong faith that we will put forth our best effort, but making no demands upon chance. We must accept what fate issues to us, controlling what we can, and not worrying about the rest. In the end, we're all dead anyway! In short, we must become smooth, cool-headed warriors who are afraid of nothing. As such, we will be unbeatable! /John 7 Apr 07 Ancient voices with their advice to gunmen and poker players: "You may not always be right, but you can always be convincing." Announce your orders with a self-assured voice. This applies even when you are announcing checks and folds. "Right-action/right-mind." A timid voice and bearing always projects weakness and confusion of purpose. "Be righteous in thought and deed." Angle shooters are universally despised, as are petty thieves. Worrying about getting caught and subsequently disgraced will always drain your energy and make you weary. "You are at the center of only your own universe." You and your troubles are of no interest to anyone else. Other people really don't care about your failures and your excuses for them, and if you talk about them constantly, you'll be generally held as a loser and regarded with contempt. They will all quickly get the impression they are superior to you. Why would you want to reinforce that perception? Keep your troubles to yourself. "Only victims are victimized." People with patterns of loser behavior, such as whining, sniveling, self-pity, blame-shifting, rationalizing, excuse making, and never taking personal responsibility for their own actions encourage victimizers to select them for victimization. Conversely, winners always look and act as if they are walking on sunshine, even when they are inwardly troubled. Victimizers customarily pass them by. "You brought nothing into this world when you came, and you'll surely carry nothing out when you leave." Everything in between is just fluctuation. Difficult to retain when on a losing streak, but remember this day is just one of many thousands in your life. Always take the long view, the longest view possible, and allow today's annoyances to recede into proper prospective. "Don't speak ill of those who make you look good." There will always be those greater and lesser than you. When someone is in the process of losing to you, don't distract him from his task with unkind comments! "Gain is only important to those who have nothing important in their lives." Attempting to fill an erstwhile empty life with "stuff" is an exercise in futility. If gain is the only thing that matters to you, you'll become so hooked on the feeling you get from a positive outcome, that the pressure to perform will cripple you. You won't bear the strain. What matters, and the only thing that does matter, is the way in which you influence history. By comparison, accumulated wealth is pitifully inconsequential. Live a full life. You'll die soon enough! "Don't just look. See!" Study everything carefully. Most of all, look at yourself as others see you. The easiest thing in the world to do is stay where you are, particularly when you're comfortable. The drudgery of perpetual self-improvement is something that is easy to procrastinate. But, the better you know yourself, the better your game. "Think, don't 'feel."' Ask yourself, "How can I use this information to improve my situation?" Never ask yourself, "How does this information make me feel?" Those who are enslaved by their emotions and "feelings" are perpetual losers. They are universally regarded as weaklings, and are thus consistently selected for victimization. They only care about "feeling good," and they are deathly afraid of "feeling bad." They therefore predictably act exclusively according to that interest. At every turn of a card, you have a choice. You can deal with the new information rationally and use it logically to plan your next move, or you can "feel" your way to calamity. You have a choice: You can use the information to improve your play, or you can use it to alter your mood. You can think your way to victory, or you can wallow in fantasy-land, where everything that makes you feel bad is displayed on an imaginary scoreboard, labeled "How I feel right now!" "Feeling good about yourself" is something which must be earned; earned over the long haul. Instant "good feelings" are fleeting. If you chase them, the way an addict chases his next fix, you'll blunder into one disaster after another. Runaway emotions are like fire. When you don't put it out, it will burn itself out! "The unarmed are not just defenseless. They are contemptible." Machiavelli /John -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .