Behind The Shield

No shooting in today due to honeydoo's but I did get some gaming in this afternoon. The painter came down today for a short session instead of the usual Sunday because he's helping a friend move furniture.

Continuing the 'Keep on the Borderlands' adventure,  the group explored a larder in the Kobold's lair.  I really had to emphasize 'Don't eat the meat' as several bits were recognizably humanoid.  They then backtracked and ran into a room filled w/ diseased rats.  The cleric and dwarf knight both got infected from bites, forcing them to withdraw back to the keep to recover from the intense, negative modifier inducing nausea. Several game time days later, it was decided to go back to the goblin cave.  Following the same route, they quickly dispatched the replacement guards and moved onwards. A fumbled 'prowl' role alerted the rest of the tribe lounging in the common area.  Many cries of 'BREE-YARK' were heard.  FYI, this does NOT mean "I surrender".

During the adventure.  My buddy asked if he could retroactively buy something he forgot to pick up during the recovery time at the keep.  I made him use the 'big die' and roll Save vs GM. He got an 18 so I allowed it.  Damnit.

The daughter also asked me what it's like to GM.  I told her it's like trying to weave a story that gets the players completely involved. The view is a lot different though:

Following the game, I took the spawnlings to the park to burn off some energy.  On the way home, the mail revealed a much wanted DVD, the H&H/N1 movies. 

Maybe tomorrow some shooting can be accomplished around all the usual unpleasant chores like laundry and paying bills. 

'Suspected' Terrorists Bad... 'Actual' Terrorists Deserve Rights

The hypocrisy of anti-gun advocates is amazing.  Recently 'Senate Democrats' blocked a bill authorizing the stripping of citizenship of those who join/actively an organization designated as terrorist citing 'fundamental constitutional issues'.  ThinkProgress declared it a slippery-slope which 'lowers the threshhold' and will open a 'can of worms'.   

 the administration would do well to look at all the possible losses of freedom that could come from passing the Expatriate Terrorist Act into law.

Basically they're saying they don't trust the government not to misuse this authority to strip people of their rights.  And they have a point.

Now from the other fork of the tongue, each and every single one of these politicians and organizations SUPPORT stripping fundamental constitutional rights of those on an arbitrary, error-ridden, and secret gov't watch list.

 According to government data, however, many other known or reasonably suspected terrorists have legally bought weapons since 2004, thanks to the “terror gap” in federal law:

It's just a fundamental right they don't like.  So they're not overly worried about the government misusing this authority to strip people of it. 

I guess cub scouts are 'reasonably suspected terrorists' when it comes to TP but when it comes to people actively running w/ terrorist organizations killing hundreds and thousands, well, that's different.

Hard Hitting Nonsense... I Mean 'Research'

Take some statistics, talk about the ones that make your political point, ignore the rest, then throw in a lot of 'may haves' w/ no evidence whatsoever and you have your typical gun control advocating research paper.

(The CDC data almost certainly understates the true toll of gun violence, the researchers wrote.)

"Almost certainly"... Yeah.

 fell in seven others, as well as in the District of Columbia.

No mention that about half of the 'seven' have 'loose' gun laws. 

The researchers said this could be the result of tough antigun laws, including eight aimed at preventing gun trafficking. They noted that the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence ranked California top among all states for its laws on background checks, waiting periods, restrictions on who may own a gun and consumer and child safety.

"Could Be?"  When were these laws put into place?  Oh right, CA used to have one of the highest even w/ all those laws on the books.  And using Brady Center numbers?  We've seen that their rating has absolutely no value at all when it comes to homicide rates.  Plus LA (and Chicago for that matter) have been found to be intentionally fudging their crime numbers.

Massachusetts also earned high marks from the Brady Center for its gun laws, and firearm ownership there “plummeted” after a 1998 gun control law passed, the researchers wrote. Yet both violent crimes in general and homicides in particular became more common in subsequent years. (The researchers speculated that guns may have flowed into the Bay State from neighboring New Hampshire and Maine, where gun control laws are less stringent.)

'May Have' because that's what the researchers want to believe yet NH and MA saw NO increase according to them.  No explanation there.

“particularly concerning public health problem,”
“substantial, long-term cumulative health burden,”

Talking point alert.

may be explained by the lack of access to firearms or low firearm ownership among Hispanics and other races.

Right.  OK.

Amazing what one can surmise w/ numbers when you have an agenda, isn't it?

Why Legislators Spend Time On Pro-Gun Bills

In one word, Bloomberg.

A PSH 'Editorial' in Philly is lamenting the fact that the PA legislature is spending part of its 10 day session discussing two gun bills.  One banning localities from making stricter laws than the state and the other about allowing teachers to protect their students on campus.  Mostly an attack on the 'paranoid NRA' type rant.  Then this:

Mind you, the kind of laws that we're talking about that cities across the state want to impose aren't laws prohibiting gun sales.

Well that's mighty white of you.  

They're laws that, among other things, require reporting lost and stolen guns, or ban assault weapons, or prohibit guns in parks.

Oh, so 'among other things', the proposed anti-gun laws ARE trying to prohibiting gun sales by banning huge swathes of firearms and adding in every other restriction they think might stick.  All of this funded by Bloomberg and his bought and paid for nannies.

So thank you for showing exactly why the legislature is having to do what they're doing.  If it weren't for groups like Bloombergs and the Brady Campaign, this wouldn't be an issue at all.

Restrictions.... not 'Safety'

The Brady Campaign, in an effort to remain relevant in the gun control discussion, have started a flood of lawsuits attempting to litigate firearm and ammo dealers out of business or, at the very least, force them into accepting settlements designed to makes legal sales as difficult and uncomfortable as possible.

In PA, they're suing a shop for giving the federally required 4473 form to a straw purchaser (who passed federal background checks) and want dealers to interrogate firearm purchasers before a sale. 

They're suing 'Lucky Gunner' ammo, an online dealer (go buy from them), for selling ammo to another individual who passed a federal background check and later went on to murder multiple individuals using ammo commonly available at your local WalMart. The only purpose for this is to cost them money in lawyers and try and get more restrictions for ammo sales. 

There's nothing about 'safety' in any of this.  The only purpose is to restrict firearms.  This is 'gun control' in action.

Guns & Gaming

Apparently the fates realized I needed a stress relieving weekend and not only provided me some trolls but also a day of shooting and some gaming.  My friend wasn't expected to be able to make it but he decided to hell w/ responsibility, fun was needed.

After eating, some medium range toilet shooting.  This was especially fun since this particular commode caused endless grief w/ seals, corrosion, and leaking:

Yugo M48 Mauser took out the top. 

The SAR-1 took out the base:

Leaving the seat up is bad:

CinC et al on the POS .38spec revolver:

Playin' w/ the Mauser against hedge apples:

The last shots of the day, my buddy shot a whole bunch of hedge apples but missed the one that we placed on top of the toilet seat.  I had one loose AK round that I loaded and fired.  It hit the top of the apple which then spiraled around the seat and fell in the hole. If only we had video running.

We then headed up to the house for several hours of gaming.  Continuing the adventure from a few weeks ago at the Keep on the Borderlands, this time w/ daughter included who plays an Elf Wizard and some coin props for fun:

Using the money found in the ogre's cave, the group headed back to the keep to get some additional gear, specifically some ranged weapons which they desperately lacked.  A few crossbows later, a side-adventure hook popped up taking them south to look for a wayward elf.  After a brief encounter w/ some giant spiders, the group located the remains of said elf and returned them to his associates w/ a small reward.  I linked this to a more expanded plot from another PFRPG 1e campaign I play in and is ran by my friend pictured above. Back to the caves we went, this time going to cave 'A', inhabited by kobolds.  A brief fight w/ the entrance guards was made easier by the wizard casting a 'cloud of slumber', knocking most of them out.  The group hogtied them and tossed them into a pit for safekeeping before moving on. That's where we ended it for the day as the spawn started getting squirrely.

Now I'm just waiting for what's going to go monumentally wrong.

Gratuitous sleeping cat pic: