More Shallow Grassroots

What happens to the typical 'blog' that supports gun control when the money dries up? The writing stops:

For some time blogging at gunguys.com has rarely been more than a repost of something someone at another group wrote up with little commentary, and recently the blogging frequency has dropped to once a week or so. Now … their last post (at least as of Thursday night) was about SCOTUS nominee Kagan, and is two weeks old.

Back in Nov. of '07, near when I first started this blog (not financed by the gun lobby), I asked Gonzo (Mark Karlin)this question:

If you weren't paid by the Joyce Foundation, would you still run your site?

Guess my question's been answered.

Count up how many independent 'gun control' blogs there are. Then compare them to this list.

A Nation of Riflemen

SIH points to a NYT's piece on Appleseed and gives his own comments.

There definitely seems to be some regional differences in Appleseeds or at least that's the impression the Times article gives in comparison to my own experience. Shooting was never emphasized as a way to 'win a revolution' but as a challenge to your own skills. While many of the anecdotes from the period did involve good marksmanship in lieu of the mass firings which were the standard at the time, what they all involved were personal risk, sacrifice, and involvement in order to defend your beliefs and way of life.

I agree w/ Sebastian. Being able to shoot out to 500m isn't going to win a modern conflict. It's going through the ordeal of learning how to and dealing w/ long, hard, HOT days to do so that gives you a glimmer of what our forefathers went through and how they thought when they forged this nation.

Outside of marksmanship skills, they emphasized a '7th' step:

1)Shoot
2)Recruit
3)Educate
4)Communicate

Get involved. Get other people involved. Contact your representatives. Vote. Talk to people. Educate yourself on the issues.

That was the 'message' that I took away from last weekend.

McDonald on new Chicago Gun Laws

Main Debate: Gun Laws in the City

Otis McDonald, plaintiff in the recent U.S. Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago, will speak out against Chicago gun laws at the Main Debate of the 25th annual Bughouse Square Debates, sponsored in part by the McCormick Foundation and emceed by author and Chicago Tribune writer Rick Kogan. Mr. McDonald will debate Garrett Evans, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

“In keeping with the spirit of the original soapbox debates, the Bughouse Square Committee is dedicated to providing stimulating discourse on timely and, sometimes, controversial topics,” said Newberry Library President David Spadafora. “We’re pleased that Mr. McDonald has agreed to participate in this year’s event, and look forward to a lively debate on gun laws.”

The Main Debate is at 1:30 pm in Washington Square Park, immediately following the presentation of the John Peter Altgeld Freedom of Speech Award.

Via IllinoisCarry

Quality Chinese Materials

I had my Chinese SKS in my car over the weekend as my backup for Appleseed. Didn't need it so it stayed in its sock the whole time.

When I pulled it out of the sock this afternoon (I had brought it back into the house Sat & Sun evening) to put it away, this is what the stock looked like:



The finish had bubbled up on almost the whole thing. Unless someone has a better idea, I'm just going to lightly sand it down to smooth it out since I'm not going to refinish the whole thing anytime soon.

Update: Thank you all for the suggestions. I went with the quick and dirty Linseed Oil/Quad'0' smoothing which seems to have worked fairly well. It will need a full refinishing later so that will be a project for another weekend.

Land lord update

I have a lead on who crawled through my window. I should have more info within a week. If it was my new renter, he'll be homeless once more, but I honestly don't think it was. As stated, his own Mother is my neighbor and will be the wrath of him if he screws up again(I've talked to her). The way I figure it, I'm living next to him either way and have already lived next to him for 12 years now. The whole idea may sound crazy to some, but in these parts, even the scumbags have the common sense to not shit in their own swimming pools. They travel a respectable distance if they want to steal your crap. My town only has 300 people in it and that reality modifies their behavior. I once had some friends invited over for dinner and they had some trouble finding my place. They drove up and down the road looking for my post which had fallen into the weeds. One of my neighbors noticed that they had been tracking back and forth and jumped in his rig and pulled them over. He told them that their vehicle "wasn't from here" and that they should leave. That's small town life in a nutshell. I can sit in my kitchen and identify every car that drives by via sound alone. I know if they're from here or are an interloper. I'd rather rent to my neighbor's son than a total stranger.

It's still complicated, but small town life means we look after each other; even those who screwed up. If we don't, then we small-towners might as well move to the city where we can close our doors and watch TV until the entire concept of community crumbles to dust. Having siad that, there is a limit to our tolerance. Social pressure is the key. They bad guys aren't afraid of the coppers, but when the entire town IDs you as a scumbag, life can become...........somewhat cumbersome.

In the mean time, my summer home has been scrubbed top to bottom, by hand, on the inside and half of the outside. The carpets have been shampooed, firewood stacked, John Deere tuned up(still needs a front tire), 25% of the yard weed-whacked down to stubs, washer and dryer installed, refridgerator cleaned, blinds/drapes replaced and tomorrow they're sweeping the pine needles off the roof, sweeping the stove pipe and hand wahing the rest of the outside. Then the rain gutters replaced at their expense.
I may have to replace the hot water heater, I'll know more tomorrow.

I should have done this years ago.

When you live in a small community, throwing someone to the curb is a tad bit more difficult than when living in the souless environment of a concrete jungle. If I can help him get on his feet, then I will have single-handedly done more to prevent future crime than the Brady Bunch has done in 35 years.

This ain't gonna be easy, but at least I'm willing to attempt; and I'm risking absolutley nothing in which I'm not willing to lose.

I initially had the regret that I didn't have my GrandFather anymore to ask for advice; But then I realized that he taught me long ago the proper path to take.

Whether I change someone's life for the better or learn a serious life lesson by getting burned...

I still win.

Thanks GrandFather.

Henigan's Shallow Grassroots cont.

Back in December, I made a post showing that many of the positive comments for Dennis "I forgot the People' Henigan's (of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership) book 'Lethal Logic' were by professional gun control activists.

Since he's still plugging the book every chance he gets I went back to take a look. There were 5 more 5 star reviews. The trend continues:

M. Ester: Could this be Mary Ester, VP of Communications & Development at Brady Campaign?

Ralph Fascitelli : President of Washington Ceasefire

Again, none acknowledged their connections.

Another gave it 5 stars because he used it to show his kids how little logic gun control actually has.

This is gun control 'grassroots' in action.

We Know the Conclusions Already..

Quinn forms anti-violence commission

CHICAGO — Gov. Pat Quinn announced Sunday that he has formed an anti-violence commission to gather testimony from those affected by violence.

Just like practically every other 'commission' or 'study', it will be loaded w/ anti-gun leaning individuals and/or outright advocates. There will be some token references to improving education, more police, etc. but the majority of it will be about closing 'loopholes', banning 'assault weapons' and other ineffective and unrelated restrictions.

Chicago Roundup

Otis McDonald applied for his handgun permit today.

"The process itself was not bad," said McDonald, who initially plans to buy a .45-caliber handgun for his Morgan Park home. "But the unreasonable thing was the $100 many people will not be able to afford. And that's a shame because they will continue to be vulnerable to the drug dealers and gangbangers."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it took three months in the face of all the difficulties being thrown up to us citizens who are only striving to protect ourselves," said McDonald, 76, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The Chicago Sun Times reports on what the rest of us have known for years. The system is broken. Criminals walk free and victims are terrorized into not cooperating but god help you if you keep some pigeons w/o a license.

Boy, 13, shot in chest in Roseland
Police: PCP and cocaine found in 1-year-old's system
Man robbed and shot in Garfield Park
Man shot, critically wounded in argument on South Side
Garfield Park man dies after being doused in gasoline
Man shot in backside on South Side

You know. The usual weekend in Chi-Town. Best to make it as difficult as possible for Mr. Mcdonald to get that license, right?

Appleseed Day 2

A most excellent day. The weather was a nice 80-85 and partly cloudy. I switched to my Marlin 81 for shooting today. Most other people used Ruger 10/22's in various setups. Seriously, about 3/4 of them were.


Instructor 'Templar223' ( they tend to use their Appleseed Forum handles for identification) showed me the proper way to use the model 1917 sling that I had. That worked very well for me and was much more comfortable than the military or hasty sling positions.

There was lots of one on one instruction especially for the number of youth that were present for both days.





Two methods they used were drills called "Ball or Dummy" and an NPOA drill.

In the 'Ball or Dummy' drill, an instructor loads your rifle for you while you have your eyes closed. It may be a live round or the chamber may be empty, you don't know. They then watch your reaction while firing and correct mistakes you may be making such as blinking, pulling, etc. They had some fun w/ me since faking loading a tube/bolt gun isn't easy. I'm a blinker.

The Natural Point of Aim drill (NPOA) has you determine where the point is that you naturally return to (which should be on the target each time after initial adjustments). They then cover your scope or sight during your breath then take it away when you finish exhaling. You then have three seconds to fire. Ideally you should still be on target.

We then went into some more in-depth instruction on Inches, Minutes, and Clicks. In other words, your grouping distance off target, what that meant in Minutes of Angle (MOA) and how to adjust your firearm for it.


For a change of pace, they demonstrated that .22's are useful well beyond 25m w/ some steel plate shooting at about 85m w/ a target about the size of a hubcap. I bored them by hitting it w/ all 10 rnds.


For some pomp and circumstance, they distributed patches to the number of youth who attended for the entire weekend and ceremoniously burned the cap of an instructor (BobaFett) who went up to being a 'Red Hat'.




We ran through the 'AQT' qualifying test several times. Targets are sized for 4moa at 100-400 meters in standing (100m), sitting (200m) and prone (300m & 400m). Realistically, it's optimal for a semi-auto magazine fed rifle w/ the timed events and positions but they make allowances for other types (like mine).

To tell you the quality of the instruction , I went from shooting 'shotgun' patterns yesterday morning (normal for me off of a benchrest) to not being to far off from qualifying w/ a tube-fed bolt action. One instructor even remarked on how fast I was cycling the bolt and firing during an event. It turned out to be my highest score of the day.

I'll get it next time. With the Marlin.

More information at Appleseedinfo.org and I'll post/link to more photos as I get them.

Update: More photos here

The AAR is available on the Appleseed forum w/ opinions and information from other attendees and instructors.