Call me Ahab

Bad news for gun owners.

Waxman is considered more liberal on issues like climate change, energy and business regulation, and potentially more aggressive on healthcare. Dingell, the longest-serving House lawmaker, is close to the auto industry and autoworkers.

Waxman, as mentioned, is also extremely anti-gun - which means that we could see heavy handed attempts to regulate the gun industry come out of Congress.  This is a big victory for Pelosi’s hard-left contingent, as they were able to replace John Dingell as committee chair.  Dingell had repeatedly bucked Pelosi on bills and other issues, so I guess that hard left partisan politics eats their own party memebers as well.  Too bad.

From Strategy Page via Gunpundit, the Army has gone ahead and procured 20k more M9 pistols for TACOM (Tank and Automotive Command).  The article at Strategy Page then goes on to bash the M9 for the usual specious reasons; and then proceeds to make the following reference, and really just toss any credibility right out.

What resulted was the Mk 23 SOCOM. This .45 caliber pistol has a 12-round clip

I’m not normally a nazi about proper terminology, but come on.  It’s a magazine.  This is an article that other people will read.  The word here is magazine.  Of course, the article doesn’t stop there and goes on to sound very much like it was written by an HK fanboy who doesn’t know a whole lot about military unit procurement.  For example:

But when the other guy is likely to shoot back, you want as much knock down power as you can get. Thus cops who shoot a lot, prefer 10mm and larger calibers (like the 11.4mm .45). The Special Forces, and SOCOM in general, have the authority to get any weapons they think they need, with no interference from anyone. SOCOM has lots of small unit operations that use pistols. The SOCOM operators believe that the 9mm pistol is not adequate, thus the adoption of the Mk23. 

Activate: SNARK MODE.  Really?  Knock down power?  And man oh man my favorite line about how SOCOM operators can get whatever weapons they want without asking permission, I love it when that one is repeated, because all you have to do is look at the SEALs and see that their standard issued sidearm is a…wait for it…wait for it…9mm Sig Sauer P226.

Now, I’m not knocking the .45.  The Marines Expeditionary Units carry 1911s in .45, and they love it, and I think it’s a great gun as well.  However, the reason I think it’s a great gun is not because of the caliber, but rather the package that it’s in.  You put that .45 ACP in a 1911 and it becomes one of the most user friendly and shootable guns on god’s green earth.

But back to the issue at hand - it is nice to see that the Army is making sure that their tank and vehicle guys at the very least have new M9s, are aren’t being issued ones that have been all shot to pieces in the various combat theatres we’re in right now.

Congrats to Bob, who won the gold medal in the production category at the IPSC World shoot in Indonesia.

Today is not my day.

Joe Huffman’s media spot on Boomershot was apparently nominated for an Emmy back in ‘06.  Neato.

At the usual place, Marion County Fish & Game.  Unfortunately, as pointed out on the radio on Tuesday, I’ll be punking out on pins this Saturday, which marks the 2nd month that I’ll miss the pin match.  Now, before you can get too mad at me, I have a good reason for missing this month’s match.  I’ll be up at Purdue University attending the Old Oaken Bucket Game, the annual clash between the hated Indiana University and the Purdue Boilermakers.

Unfortunately, this year the game doesn’t have the same lustre for Purdue fans that it’s held in previous years, simply because IU and Purdue are tied for last place in the Big 10.  That means that we’re playing for the honor of not being the worst team in the Big 10 conference.  I will say that a win would be nice, since it will be Coach Tiller’s last game as head coach - so going out with a win and reclaiming the Oaken Bucket after last year’s bullcrap loss would be pretty neat.

Yes, we do certainly need to hang together.  Like the man says, just because they’re not calling your .243 Winchester hunting rifle a “long range sniper rifle” yet doesn’t mean that they won’t.

On the topic of the term “Fudd” itself, I’m generally opposed to its use.  I think and believe that hunters are a tremendously important demographic for us to have on our side, and further dividing our own ranks in front of a newly energized anti-gun lobby probably isn’t in our best interests.  And yes, I’ve used it, and used it disparagingly, which is something that I regret doing.

If you missed out on last night’s show, don’t worry - you can still listen to an archived copy by clicking this link.  It was a pretty great show, actually - we spent a lot of time talking about the run on firearms, a even more time talking about what black rifle you should buy if you’re in the market.  As usual, all the cool kids were in the chat room live at 9pm, so if you’re not listening live - you’re missing out.  Also, here is an .mp3 copy of the show, and of course the embedded player is beneath this text.

We don’t have a topic for next week’s show, so Breda and I are taking suggestions. An unscientific poll was taken to see how many people would like to hear Mrs. Ahab on the show, and the response was a unanimous “yes”; and who am I to resist the mandate of the people? I’ll do what I can in upcoming weeks to get her on the air with me. Also, I’m going to try to update the Call me Ahab iTunes podcast so that if you’ve subscribed to me/us in iTunes you’ll be able to get your content that way.

 

 The EBR show [60:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Guns and alcohol don’t mix, you stupid bastard.  Aside from the fact that shooting his own child is a pretty harsh punishment, I hope this guy rots in jail for the rest of life.  We don’t want or need gun owners who willing ignore common damn sense and the 4 rules of gun safety because “they’ve been drinking double shots of vodka”.

I don’t think anyone will disagree with me when I say that this guy deserves to have to the full weight of the law brought down on him.  To my mind, there is no difference between driving drunk and trying to clean/operate firearms while drunk.  You just don’t do it.

Paul Helmke thinks that they “won” after the election.  Oh Paul, you sad, sad panda.  You didn’t win the election.  Barack Obama ran so far away from the gun control issue that they created a fake pro-gun group for him so that he could pretend to be pro-gun and have exactly nothing to do with you and your buddies.  I mean, honestly, how many radio commercials did you air with Obama in them?  Zero?  Meanwhile, the fake pro-gun group AHSA had a commerical with Obama in it, saying he’d defend our right to keep and bear arms.

It must hurt to be jilted like that.  Especially when on a national and statewide scale, NRA endorsed candidates had a much, much higher victory rate than Brady Campaign endorsed candidates, and NRA endorsed about 5 or 6 times as many candidates as the Brady Campaign.  It’s okay, Paul.  We understand you’ve got an agenda to push, and that you’re feeling marginalized as the country runs away from gun control, but it’s starting to get sad.