Our independence was bought and paid for with lives and lead. Independence is insured by the Bill of Rights and, in our opinion, the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

According to Mr. Completely, you should “Get Your Registration and Reservations in ASAP.” They have blocked out rooms for Wednesday the 9th, through Sunday the 13th. Damsel and I have already made our hotel reservations and continue to plan the trip. We’re going to drive from the Los Angeles area and plan to make some touristy stops going and coming.

As for the GBR-IV event, we’re looking forward to meeting other attendees, participating in the events and activities, and, of course, winning one or more of the door prize drawings. Ride Fast and Shoot Straight has a rundown on some of the events and prizes.

A quick update to getting a Nevada CCW permit: We won’t have enough time to get through all the hoops required for a permit - however, we think that open carry may be do-able. I’ll continue to do the research, but this is on the OpenCarry.org website:

Nevada is a traditional open carry state with complete state preemption of firearms laws. However, Clark County (Las Vegas) is grandfathered so as to continue a “Deadly Weapons” registration scheme. Fortunately, Nevada law exempts travelers to and through Nevada from these registration requirements for 60 days.

Open carry seems to be allowed in vehicles and on one’s person as long as the weapon is visible. We’ll continue to evaluate this option.

For the last week or so, we have been making arrangements to attend the Gun Blogger Rendezvous which will be at the Silver Legacy Hotel in Reno, Nevada. The event is scheduled for September 10-13, 2009. We’ve sent off our registration and made the hotel reservations, so all we need to do is fill in some details for the trip (we’re driving from the Los Angeles area), like staying near Yosemite NP on the way up and the Owens Valley on the way back. We’re looking forward to going to Reno.

Over the years, we have visited Reno many, many times, enjoying every visit. We’ve been going to Reno ever since it really was “The Biggest Little City in the World.” Don’t get us wrong, we like the bright lights and big hotels in the New Reno, but we’re also quite nostalgic about the way it was.

In August of 2007, we posted about Reno’s famous welcome sign. Here is the original article repeated here:

After reading news accounts about the contribution of pigeon dung to the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, I was reminded about how pigeons similarly factored into the destruction of the famous “RENO - The Biggest little city in the world” sign that spans the entrance to the downtown gambling district. I recall reading a the story in the 1980’s about how the old sign became inhabited by pigeons that roosted or nested in the sign. They got in through gaps in the sign and, of course, pooped while they were in there.

Image right: Reno sign, 1980’s - click to enlarge

Eventually, despite having been evicted several times by the city’s maintenance crews, the pigeon problem persisted until one day there was an electrical short-circuit in the sign. The methane from the dung ignited; there was a minor explosion and a fire afterwards that damaged the sign beyond repair. The sign was removed and subsequently replaced by a newer Vegas-style beauty which electronically beckons visitors to the downtown district. While it’s a beautiful sight, the new sign doesn’t have the old sign’s charm and breaks the promise for a “little city” beyond. Recent visitors to the new Reno, if they knew the old Reno, will know what I mean.

Image left: New Reno sign - click to enlarge

As for pigeons? They’re just rats with wings.

We’re back in California (for the time being) and planning to spend our last day on vacation visiting Joshua Tree National Park. We drove through the park from the south entrance today, so we have our preview of tomorrow’s tour. We’re camped in Twentynine Palms, CA, tonight, and plan to head back to the park in the morning. After the visit to the park, we’re headed back to the grind at home - for now.

We enjoyed our trip and look forward to our upcoming retirement and eventual return to Arizona when we get our affairs in order. While in Arizona, we both enjoyed our 2nd amendment rights to carry in a place that gets it. We can hardly wait to get the freak out of liberal California.

I published a post last February entitled Understanding the Second Amendment. Although I wrote it months ago, I got a comment the other day in which the author decided the second amendment was obsolete and should be repealed:

altrurian said,
April 16, 2009 @ 14:51:18 PDT · Edit

I agree with the irrefutable parsing of the amendment that you have provided. It seems rather straight forward. It just doesn’t have relevance anymore. You can’t make that argument about any of the other amendments in the “Bill”. 320 million folks “bearing” arms is unthinkable. Get real.

Surely even you recognize the ludicracy of the epithet “anti-gun”. Who in their right mine[sic] wouldn’t be against, in the abstract sense, an artifact designed to kill.

Let’s repeal the thing on its face value and get on with it.

I felt that this needed an answer and wrote the following response:

Cap’n Bob said,
April 16, 2009 @ 17:47:51 PDT · Edit

“It just doesn’t have relevance anymore.”

Let me point out that these very arguments were used in the recent D.C. vs. Heller Case before the Supreme court, i.e. the Washington D.C. gun ban. The majority found in favor of the defendant and it is again legal to possess firearms in D.C. for home protection. Think about it and you will find this is a good thing (hint: find out the average response times for 911 calls).

“320 million folks “bearing” arms is unthinkable. Get real.”

For you, perhaps. For me (and millions of other Americans), a person trained in the use and application of firearms who regularly drills and does target practice it’s not “unthinkable.” I have military training and have owned guns for over 45 years. I have a permit to carry a loaded concealed handgun in more than half the states in the union (including Minnesota). My weapons have never leaped into my hands and caused me to do harm to anyone or anything other than taking game and fending off varmints.

“an artifact designed to kill”

My guns are designed for protection, defense, hunting and sport. Any other definition is “an artifact of your perception.” Who “in their right mind” would deprive me (and millions of other Americans) of those purposes?

“Let’s repeal the thing on its face value and get on with it.”

I say that we keep the Bill of Rights intact, and allow those not comfortable with it move north of the 49th parallel, where they don’t have such a pesky artifact. “Get on with it.”

I would have to say that your nom de plume, derived from altruism, a selfless concern for the welfare of others, does not fit your agenda when it comes to personal defense and the protection of liberty.

We’re still working out the details, but in a month, we’re going to head towards Phoenix to attend the NRA Convention and the Second Amendment Blog Bash.

We liked our winter cruise that we took this past December so much, that we decided to rent a motorhome again for this trip. That way, we can do some spring break sightseeing and camping with the convention and Bash as the centerpiece.

There are a few logistical details that still need to be resolved. We’re bringing our dog, ‘Bear,’ with us, so we need to find a kennel to leave her while we’re doing the convention/bash thing. If any Phoenicians out there have any ideas, we would welcome them.

Second, we’re not sure where we can park our RV near the convention center. We have a space reserved in a local RV park, but will have to drive to the convention center each of the two days we plan to attend. I’m sure that there has to be some accommodations for bus/RV traffic, but we just haven’t figured that out yet.

We’re looking forward to the trip and hope to meet many like-minded Second Amendment supporters and firearms enthusiasts. We can hardly wait.

The London Times

. . . it’s usually due to faulty logic.

This is from James Taranto who writes for the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web Today:”

Blighty’s Butterfield

Chris Ayres of London’s Times is puzzled by what seems to him a paradox:

If anything, the recent shootings have inspired more Americans to buy guns, recession or no recession. In fact, all over the country they are stocking up on as many pistols, rifles, and shotguns as possible before the Obama Administration bans or taxes them.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the FBI carried out more than 4.2 million background checks on behalf of gundealers from November to January (a check is required with every sale), up 31 per cent on the same period in the previous year.

Interestingly, however, violent crime rates have at the same time been falling in Los Angeles, New York and other big American cities. The experts are at loss as to explain why this should be happening.

Hmm, could it be because the prospect of armed victims acts as a deterrent? This doesn’t occur to Ayres, but he does offer a theory of his own:

People are buying so many guns that the criminals are simply running out of bullets. Or as one firing instructor explained to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper: “The ammo is being snapped up as soon as it comes in. People are in a frenzy. It’s kind of like that run on Elmo dolls.”

We think our explanation is more likely–but if Ayres’s is true too, so much the better.

Taranto, who does not typically write about guns, gets it. Chris Ayres, writing in the London Times, needs a clue.

UPDATE: Nicki takes Ayres to the woodshed.

Prayers go out for the victims and their families and friends in today’s horrible attack in Binghamton, NY.

Sensible gun owners now anticipate anti-gun organizations and anti-gunners in the media and government to jump on the spilled blood as leverage to eliminate dangerous guns. If there were only a few legitimate CCW permits issued to building occupants, this crime may have been over before a dozen victims were killed.

John Lott posted this sensible analysis on FoxNews.com:

Time after time multiple-victim public shootings occur in “gun free zones” — public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The horrible attack today in Binghamton, New York is no different. Every multiple-victim public shooting that I have studied, where more than three people have been killed, has taken place where guns are banned.

You would think that it would be an important part of the news stories for a simple reason: Gun-free zones are a magnet for these attacks. Extensive discussions of these attacks can be found here and here. We want to keep people safe, but the problem is that it is the law-abiding good citizens, not the criminals, who obey these laws. We end up disarming the potential victims and not the criminals. Rather than making places safe for victims, we unintentionally make them safe for the criminal.

At some point, you would think the media would notice that something is going on here, that these murderers aren’t just picking their targets at random. And this pattern isn’t really too surprising. Most people understand that guns deter criminals. . . . .

So, for the last several weeks, it has been the plan of the Democrats to call out Rush Limbaugh as the ‘de facto’ head of the Republican party. Today, Limbaugh responded by inviting President Obama to come on his program “without staffers, without a teleprompter, without note cards — to debate me on the issues.”

Basically, Rush figures that Obama needs to clear the air with regard to the following talking points:

• Let’s talk about free markets versus government control.
• Let’s talk about nationalizing health care and raising taxes on small business.
• Let’s talk about the New Deal versus Reaganomics.
• Let’s talk about closing Guantanamo Bay.
• Let’s talk about sending $900 million to Hamas.
• Let’s talk about illegal immigration and the lawlessness on the borders.
• Let’s talk about massive deficits and the destroying of opportunities of future generations.
• Let’s talk about ACORN, community agitators, and the unions that represent the government employees which pour millions of dollars into your campaign, President Obama.
• Let’s talk about your elimination of school choice for minority students in the District of Columbia.
• Let’s talk about your efforts to further reduce domestic drilling and refining of oil.
• Let’s talk about your stock market.

To which I would add,

Let’s talk about the true meaning of the Second Amendment and the right of the people to own and carry arms.

Of course, Obama and his ilk would never agree to talking about these things, since they are the cowards that Attorney General Eric Holder spoke of last week.

This nice piece of eye-candy is illegal in California UNLESS OWNED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.

This morning I read a post over at Ballseye’s Boomers where Glenn asks the question, “Is It Something In The Water?” He quotes a soft-headed Californian who wonders “why gun locks couldn’t be enforced in the city – forcing gang members to lock their guns in order to transport them“. My reaction is basically in agreement with Glenn’s observation that people in California are getting more indoctrination than education in the terrible school system here.

That, and the worst (and most ridiculous) gun laws in the USA, none of which make Californians safer. Consider the following generic restrictions on arms in this state; you will probably find most of them laughable:

The Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989, its subsequent augmentation in 1999, and the .50 Caliber BMG Regulation Act of 2004 has led to many restrictions on semi-automatic firearms. In addition to a lengthy list of specific firearms that are banned by name, the following firearms are banned by characteristic:

1. A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of the following:
• A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon.
• A thumbhole stock.
• A folding or telescoping stock.
• A grenade launcher or flare launcher.
• A flash suppressor.
• A forward pistol grip.
2. A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.
3. A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has an overall length of less than 30 inches [762 mm].
4. A semiautomatic pistol that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of the following:
• A threaded barrel, capable of accepting a flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer.
• A second handgrip
• A shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel that allows the bearer to fire the weapon without burning his or her hand, except a slide that encloses the barrel.
• The capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip.
5. A semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that has the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds.
6. A semiautomatic shotgun that has both of the following:
• A folding or telescoping stock.
• A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon, thumbhole stock, or vertical handgrip.
7. A semiautomatic shotgun that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine.
8. Any shotgun with a revolving cylinder.