M70 PAP Update #1

So I purchased a Zastava M70 PAP rifle back in Feb and rehabilitated it back in Sept.

After hunting around for a good deal on some wood for the stock set, the gods at Gunbroker smiled on me late last month and I picked up an almost complete Mitchell Arms take-off stock set for her for $80 plus shipping.

Before

 

 

 After

Now that I've got her dressed, the last thing I have to do is fabricate a piece to cover the angle cut area at the rear of the receiver.  I've also got to get a cleaning rod for her.  Other than that, I'm done.

Learned some new things getting this project done.  First, never underestimate the power of a good dial caliper.  I had all kinds of ideas about how to open up the mag well, I tried to create a template to lay over the mag well, but that didn't go very well.  What I ended up doing was measuring the width of another rifle, in this case the mag well of my M70 AB2 underfolder, and then transferring those measurements over to the Zastava.

Also, never underestimate the need for a good shop vac when using the rotary file on a Dremel tool, especially when using said tool to open up the mag well.  The metal shavings that little tool produces is amazing.  I'm still trying to clean up from it, even after vacuuming them up, cleaning my bench with Fantastic general purpose cleaner, and wiping everything down with a half a roll of paper towels.

So now it's on to the next project:  getting my M92 prepped for when I eventually get the tax stamp I put in for back in early May.  I've already got the barrel assembled, now it's getting the barrel installed in the virgin front trunion and getting it headspaced.

My Delta Elite

 

So in my return from the hinterlands of elk hunting, I was catching up on my reading and saw that Rob Allen had finished his write-up on the Colt Delta Elite.  Good read, and very informative.

 

I was tempted to respond to both the article on Gun Nuts and his site, but I think I'm going to do it here.



 

 

I went about my thing with the 10mm 180 degrees different than he did.  My first 10 was the Delta Elite.

It started out kind of by accident.  3 yrs ago this month, I was looking for a 1911 in a different caliber.  One day, while perusing Gun Broker, I happened across an auction for LNIB Colt Delta Elite 10mm 1911 for the unheard of asking price of $800.  The pistol itself was one of the early ones (low 4-digit DE serial number and all) and came with the old Colt cardboard box instead of the new plastic ones.  So I snatched it up and went about making it comfy for me to use.

What I did was replace the trigger, main spring housing, fire control group, barrel, grip safety, operating rod/spring, and manual safety.  With the exception of the barrel (Clarks Custom), grips (Night Hawk), and trigger (STI), I used Ed Brown parts.

Some would ask why?  Well, being a southpaw, the single manual safety doesn't work for me.  At all.  I have to use an ambi-safety.  Everything else was creature comfort on my part.  Since I shoot with such a high grip, I had to replace the original grip safety with something that wouldn't bite me.  And as Rob pointed out in his review, the stock trigger ain't nothing to write home about.

The barrel was replaced with a Clarks Custom match barrel due to the fact the factory one wouldn't feed hollow points worth a hoot. That, and I tried to make it work and screwed it up. 

Of all the mods I made to this pistol, the only thing I had to send it out for was the barrel.  Everything else you see was done by me, including mounting the beavertail grip safety.

One side note of interest here.  When it was all said and done, I got really good at taking apart a Series 80 pistol and putting it back together again.  When I started, it would take me about 45 minutes to take it down and back.  When I finished, matter of a couple of minutes.  What would always trip me up was the firing pin safety parts in the frame. Gad, what a PITA.

Catching Up

Sorry for the hiatus, I've been down in south central WY attepmting to deplete the population of waputi down there.  (And having zero luck at it, I might add.)

So I get back to civilization last night and set about catching up on all the goings on since I left weekend before last.

The little bit of news I got via satellite radio mentioned some loser walking through a piece of paper and taking out the source of his affection and two other folks in a spa in WI, then saving the taxpayers the hassle of putting his stupid behind on trial by introducing his own gray matter to the outside world.

This has raised howls from the civil rights revocation groups to Do Something.  I'm not sure what they're proposing would have solved anything, but hey.  Like Uncle says, gun control is what you do instead of something.

I also got to listen to the second debacle.  Lot of back and forth, but the one thing that made me stand there slack-jawed and bug-eyed was when Mittens Romney dropped Fast and Furious during the discussion about 'gun control' or as it was supposed to be about, scary looking semi-auto weapons that look scary.

Not in a million years would I have thought something as testy and oft-reported on (NOT!) would find its way into the debate.  Too bad it didn't come up in the third one. I would've loved to have seen Dear Leader try to essplain that one away.  Of course what can he say?  He invoked executive priviledge.  Still, it would've been fun to see.

We're The "Only One" Officer Safety Enough

Borrowing from David Codrea's meme on the "Only Ones" Files, I found this article from Casper, WY rather interesting.  What got me thinking was this post from "Days of Our Trailers" poster Kaveman.

See, it's OK to violate someones rights, as long as it's for 'officer safety'.  Threatening, or in this case, negotiating their way out of a bogus traffic stop by threatening the accused is wrong on a level that boggles the imagination.  "Sure, you're free to go, but we'll keep our guns pointed at you while you leave...just in case."

Wow.

Not Quite A Kool-Aid Drinker...

Yet.

So I finally broke down and bought an AR-pattern rifle.  But not just any old AR.

Not me.  I've resisted buying an AR in any caliber primarily for one reason: the gas system.  I don't like a gun that craps where it eats.  I used to deal with the AR in my day job and after 20+ yrs, I just fell out of lust with it. 

Give me a gun with an operating rod any day.

Sure, when I remember seeing the AR-15/M-16, I thought the gun was totally cool.  That was then.

Give me an AK, or FAL, or M1A, or anything with an operating rod/gas piston system.  As long as it's not a direct impingement system.

And then all these piston driven ARs started hitting the streets.  Primarily chambered in 5.56/.223, I wasn't too keen on those rifles because I'm not a big fan of the round, but not for the reasons you would think.  Yes, it's accurate.  Yes, it can do all kinds of things.  But my thing is, EVERYBODY is shooting it.  It's almost as bad as the .30-06 was back 20-30 yrs ago.  You know the type: If you ain't shooting '06, then you just ain't shooting.

Hogwash.  Turns me right off, right now.

And I don't want to stock a new caliber.  I've got enough to keep me busy as it is.  I don't need to be buying new dies and stuff for my RL550B.

Thus my foray into the AR platform had to be on my terms.  The rifle had to be piston driven, be in a caliber I stock (preferably .30 caliber), and it had to be affordable, under $2,000.

And then they started showing up.  POF-USA has a nice offering, but the price was all wrong.  The ones I saw last year were well north of $2500. LaRue Tactical also offers a .308 piston driven design, but again, price was wayyyyy out of my range.

Enter Sig Sauer and their 716.  .30 caliber?  Check.  Piston driven?  Check again.  Under two grand?  Double check.  So, after much saving and a really good fun show, (and a lot of arguing with the staff at the fun store about why they needed to sell the rifle to somebody else*) I finally have one.

My initial impressions?  This rifle is something to behold.  Weighing in at just a hair over 9 lbs, it's a little heavy, but not much.  Most of the controls are ambidextrous, with the safety/selector and bolt release being standard AR fare.  The four-rail forearm is not really my thing, but it came with the gun, so it stays for now.

Back up irons are nice, and fold down nicely out of the way.  The MagPul stock is comfortable and the six position collapsible stock locks up nicely.  My only complaint is the lock tab doesn't really lock when the lever is squeezed to move the stock on the tube.  Maybe it's not a bug, I don't know.  With all the stuff they've done to the AR in the last 8 yrs, it's hard to keep up with.

The rifle shipped with one 20 rd MagPul SR 25 PMag, I've since bought 4 more because hey, you can never have enough mags, right?  These drop free on release, no sticking or hanging up in the well.  Also shipped with the rifle is the factory 3-point sling.  What's nice is there are 3 (with a fourth stored in the butt stock) attach points for the push-button mounts on each side of the rifle; one on each end of the rail on each side of the gun, and the third near the buffer tube on the back end of each side.

The factory box also contained low-pro rail covers, extra panels for the adjustable pistol grip, and a GI-style cleaning kit.  I've heard and read that some of these came with a hard case, but not mine.

From the picture above, I've added the stubby fore grip you see, and a Sig red dot sight (not pictured).  I"ll know more on the accuracy front tomorrow when I take her out to break in the barrel and check to see how it shoots.

*The argument was basically that they needed to sell the rifle...so I wouldn't have to buy it.  And THAT worked out well, didn't it? ;)

M70 PAP Rebuild

Procrastination is the mother of invention, is she not?

Back in Feb, I bought an M70 PAP single stack with the intention of converting it to standard capacity and making it look a little more "Yugo-ish" than it started out.

So, I've been putting this little project off for the better part of 7 months, trying to get my head around what I needed to do, and then, well actually doing it.

After I bought it, I got caught up in some other projects, like finishing my Franken-Yugo, building an AK for my Dad for his birthday (never thought I'd see the day the Old Man would want one them commie guns), building another FAL (Imbel) to complement my G1, building an AK as a house warming gift for my brother, and working the MG Shoot at the Buffalo Chip Campground.  All this while maintaining a day job and chasing almost 2 YO Hazmat A and B around the countryside (almost a full time job in and of itself!).  Oh, and going under the knife in Apr to repair torn cartilage in my right shoulder that had me down for almost 2 months.

Rereading the paragraph above, man have I been busy!  I didn't realize just how many projects I've had going.  And I've got at least 2 more projects to go!

So, here's where I'm at.

I got the old single-stack trunion out.  Once I did that, boy did I run into a problem.  Seems the barrel is REALLY in the trunion.  I mean bowed-the-legs-on-my-12-ton-press-trying-to-get-it-out-and-no-budge in there.  Finally had to cut the thing to get it out.  That's how stuck it was.

Once I got that done, I had to hog out the mag well to fit a standard mag.  Not wanting to replicate what the monkeys at Century Arms do to their WASR rifles, I really sat and studied the problem; turning it over in my mind how to go about making this happen. (That's where the bulk of the time in this little endeavor went, BTW.)  Since this was my first attempt at this procedure, I wanted to make sure it was done right.  I experimented with making a template out of cardboard.  Yeah, that didn't work.  Tried tracing paper.  Same result as the cardboard.  No workee.  So I finally measured out a standard AK mag-well with a micrometer, laid it out my measurements on the PAP's receiver with a scratch awl and a straightedge, and very careful went to work removing the material necessary with my trusty Dremel.

I also had to remove two tabs that were part of the lower rail assembly.  These tabs actually covered the dimples in the receiver and helped guide the single stack magazines, so without removing them, there was no way to get a standard mag to fit.

I think I did a good job, but I may be a little biased here.

The next thing to do was install the replacement trunion. Since the original front trunion was machined for single stack feed, and I don't own a milling machine, it needed to be replaced.   I found an M70 front piece from a de-milled military rifle on GB late last year, and with the exception of opening up the holes in the receiver to accept the new rivets, it fit perfectly.

Since the front end of the barrel was virgin territory, I had to thread it.  C'mon, it was just begging for it, right?  You can't have an AKM-pattern rifle without having something on the end of the barrel, can you?

As an aside, this was also my first attempt at threading a barrel from scratch.  I've seen it done several times, so it was just a matter of taking my time and making sure I properly oiled everything throughout the process.

So what's left?  Lets see here:  I've got the re-stuff the barrel and check head space, install the plunger pin and spring to retain the newly installed compensator, and fabricate a plate to cover the rear end of the receiver where it angles in.  One of my complaints on this model is the angle cut on the receiver, ala the old angle cut MAK 90s from the '93/'94 time frame.  I've got some ideas on how to go about doing this, mostly related to an old receiver stub from a Romanian kit I built last year that involve JB Weld.  And I've got to do a test fire to make sure everything works.

I've also got to get with Ironwood Designs to get some decent wood to replace the plastic stuff that came with the gun.  I'm thinking Afromosia will get me where I want.

So, that's where I'm at.  It's going to be an interesting rest of the year.  What with finishing this, getting the paperwork back for the virgin M92 kit I'm looking to build, and doing the Egyptian kit I picked up from Classic Arms last week, I'm going to be busy still. Oh, and prepping for Elk Camp, with a new rifle (more on that later!) to dial in. 

Skillet 1, Bad Guy 0

Talk about a complete misread in the victim selection process.

With all the security camera footage out there of brawls and such floating around the Algorian Intertubes, I wish if there was footage of this beat down, someone would post it.

What Did They Think Would Happen?

So, the state of South Dakota, in it's infinite wisdom, sentenced a man convicted of 1st Degree Escape to a minimum security prison in Sioux Falls.

Guess what happened?

I had to re-read that article 3 times before it sunk in. 

Talk about a face-palm moment, eh?

Safety Equipment

Or Why I Now Severely Dislike Non-Ruger Single Action Army Pistols

And Got a New-Found Respect For Shooting Gloves

So there I was, getting a customer ready last Wed (9 Aug) to shoot a Taurus SAA in .357 Mag.  (We had another SAA, a Ruger Vaquero in .45LC.)

One feature of the Taurus is that unlike the Ruger, the cylinder does not unlock when you open the loading gate.  Meaning you have to move the hammer to half-cock in order to load the gun.

Now, I'd been using the same gloves since the previous Sat (4 Aug).  That Wed was going to be the last day for those gloves, as they were loaded with gun oil and other detrious that one accumulates when spending all day for 5 days around machine guns.

Picture this: 

Gun is now loaded. 

All 6 holes in the cylinder are full. 

I've done this countless times all week. 

Pull the hammer back, gently pull the trigger and ride the hammer down into the frame...

BAM!

I felt something hit my right hand hard, like a ball bat or something.  First instinct kicks in and I look down at my right hand expecting to see...nothing out of the ordinary.  Look closer:  No blood.  Thank God.  Rip the glove off...all 5 digits are still there.  Index, middle, and ring fingers are numb; like right after you slap a flat surface hard.  But no blood.  Holy Crap, did that just happen?

The only casualty?  The glove itself.  Fortunately, I'd moved my hand far enough out of the way that what I felt was muzzle blast.  Which is was split the middle finger of my right glove.

Whew!  Replaced the round that damn near blew my middle finger off, got the guy through his shooting, and went and had me a moment.  Grabbed a Gatorade (this was closer to noon than quitting time, or it would've been a beer) sat for a minute to collect my thoughts and composure, cleaned my shorts out, and went back to work.

So what happened?  The best I figure it, with all the oil in my gloves, coupled with the fact the pistol was stainless and smooth as a baby's hind end; that, and one-quarter second of inattention equals a ND that could have had disastrous consequences.

At least they're not calling me Stubby.  The best thing to come out of this was that everyone took safety a lot more serious afterwards.

My advice to you:  Never skimp of safety gear.  Whether it's shooting glasses, hearing protection, or gloves.  Make sure you have replacements for everything.  If it looks like it should be replaced, replace it.  Sooner rather than later.  Eyes, ears, fingers, and even your life cannot be replaced. 

(P.S.  From that point on, I took my sweet time loading that gun.  I figured out how to load it WITHOUT putting the hammer in half-cock.  So I now have a new-found respect for the non-Ruger SAA.  But I still don't like them.)

Been Awhile

Sorry it's been awhile since I put anything up here.  Truth is, life intruded.

My job got real at the beginning of July.  A C-130 ran out of air south of here and bellied in in the southern Black Hills.  Unfortunately, 4 people didn't get to go home for the 4th of July that weekend.  Two people, however did.  So the month of July was pretty much a wash.  14-16 hour days spend trying to coordinate stuff for the crash site and folks who were trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Then, last week was Rally Week.  Which meant that my once a year gig at the Buffalo Chip Machine Gun Shoot was back up and running.  More on that in another post.

So, in my absence, some whack job shot up a movie theater trying to live up to the legend he'd created in his own mind of himself.  Much hay was made of what he used, and the howls from the anti crowd were long on wind, and short on anything in the way of facts.  From everything I read on the subject, the fact that he supposedly used a 100 round drum for his AR probably saved more lives than he eventually took.  Thing is, my wife once asked me when we were headed to a movie a couple of years ago why I felt the need to strap on my piece, just to go to the movies.  Guess what?  She knows why now.

Then some racist nut bag went and shot up a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin.  No word on what HE used, but if it had been some sort of scary looking rifle, the howls would have been even louder from the long on wind, short on facts crowd.

Then, to round it all out, some leftist ass-munch goes and shoots himself up a pro-life joint in DC.  Two things stand out here.  First, how could this happen in DC?  I'm betting this goon forgot to register his shootin' iron with Metro PD.  Second, why is it that we hear about all these supposed 'right wing extremists' that are all ready to get their Second Fort Sumter on, but yet most of these mass shootings have been perpetrated by left-nuts.  Why is that?

So, to leave on a good note, I am now the proud new owner of a Kimber Super Ultra Carry.  Man, this one nice pistol.  I've had the gun for exactly 2 weeks now.  Put 50 rounds through it during some down time at the Shoot.  How does knocking off bowling pins at 30 yds with open sights sound?  I'll have more on this little shooter in the future, but man, is it nice.

Got to say, I love the bobbed frame.  My Dan Wesson 10mm has a bobbed frame and both fit my hand like a glove.

Anyway, I hope to have a recap up of the Shoot sometime this weekend.  Spoiler Alert:  It was a blast!

What About The Other Guys?

So Fast and Furious has literally exploded all over the national stage this week.  The AG has weasel-wormed his way into a corner concerning documents they may or may not have, the Administration is in full on CYA mode by invoking executive privilege, and the political left is screaming bloody murder about a witch hunt over all of this.

With every report I've read over the last 18 or so months, with very few exceptions, the one (and probably most important) aspect that gets overlooked in all this is the complicity of the FBI in all this.

What has not been reported, except in the blogger community, is that the straw buyers at the heart of Fast and Furious were all convicted felons.  Meaning that legally speaking, they could not walk into any gun shop in this country and buy any gun.  Yet that's exactly what they did.  Walked into gun stores all over the Tuscon/Phoenix area and bought semi-auto rifles by the bushel.

Now, anyone who has bought a gun from a gun store in any state knows that before you are allowed to leave the premises with your new purchase, you have to fill out a little paperwork first.  They ask for all kinds of things, like your name, address; to include city, state, AND county of residence, they ask for your race, your SSN, height, weight, and a whole slew of questions about your status like are you the actual buyer, are you a felon, are you in the country illegally, and if you've ever been convicted of domestic violence or drug related crimes.  Lying on this little form will get you in some hot water.

After you've filled out the form, the guy behind the counter takes that form, and goes and makes a phone call to the National Insta-Check System center, run by the FBI.  One of three things will happen by the end of this call.  First, you're cleared and you continue on with your purchase.  Second, your name pops up and they put a 'hold' on your purchase, which if nothing else comes of it, you can come back in 3 days and pick up your purchase.  Lastly, you get a 'do not proceed' and then the fun starts as you can expect a visit from someone with a badge in the near future.

What happened in F&F is that these guys were all given a 'procede' from the NICS operator.  Now, I don't know about you, but when you've got some guys with rap sheets buying guns from licensed dealers without a worry in the world about getting caught, something smells in Denmark.

I've tried, unsuccessfully, for the last 2 days to get through to some of the radio hosts I listen to every day to bring this up.  Eventually, I will get through.  This needs wider attention.  We need answers.  Agent Terry's family deserves answers.

What Is Wrong With These People?

I listen to a fair amount of talk radio on a daily basis, basically the entire lineup on Sirius/XM's Patriot Channel.

What usually has me pounding my steering wheel is 'the liberal caller' who phones in to tell the host how wrong us conservatives are.

The one thing that I that always amazes me, is after all the crap that has gone on in this country over the last 3 or so years, what with a massive health care bill, a massive spending bill, and a checked off 'To Do' list of every liberal/progressive/socialist/marxist/populist wet dream, it's all the Repugnican's fault we're in the mess we're in.

I've got a news flash for these morons.  Yes.  The previous administrations of the last 60 or so years have run debts and deficits.  Some bigger or smaller than others.  What sets this latest one apart is the fact that in a little over 3 years, our debt is twice what it was during the entire 8 years of the previous occupant of the mansion located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

With all this debt and deficit, a looming economic crisis in Europe, and the fact that for the last 2 years, the labor force has hemorrhaged more jobs than naked camp counsellors at Camp Crystal Lake have blood.  Yet we're constantly told this all the fault of the opposition party.  Never mind who controlled the coffers for 4 of the last 6 years.  Never mind that when you give a trillion dollars of money you don't have to all the fools who helped you pull the wool over the eyes of the American electorate, it's all the fault of the Repugnicans.  Nope, nothing to see here, move along...

Nope.  We have to get them evil rich guys.  We have to give jobs we don't have to people who technically don't exist in the tax system.  We can't take any money away from the supposed 99%.  Yet the more you look at who they want to tax the shit out of, the more you find out that the very middle class they claim to support, are the very people they are trying to drive to the poor house.  I'm still trying to figure out how millionaires and billionaires equates to folks making $250K a year.  Maybe I missed that class in public school.  But then again, I was educated at a time when they actually taught something other than the touchy-feely crap they put out now.

I read these letter to the editor telling everyone that if we went back to a more Constitutional foundation, then Granny would be pushed off a cliff or Little Sally would starve because there are no more school lunches.  Or that entire towns would degenerate into a burning chaos because there wouldn't be any firefighters or police.  Special note about the police and fire departments:  They are not federally funded and were never supposed to be that way.  That's what local property taxes are for.  Not federal income taxes.  So to insinuate that if we don't get another stimulus package, then blood will run in the streets and every building in town will burn down is pure-d-bullshit.

Get your fingers out of my wallet.  You didn't work to earn it, you don't get a piece of the action.  You want a new TV or the latest super-computing phone, get your ass a job and go get it yourself.  For those who legitimately unable to work, we can work something out.  For the rest of you lazy asses who can't be bothered, two words I think sum up how I feel on the subject and one of them begins with the F.

A Fast and Furious Update

Just got this via email:

Attorney General Eric Holder: The Case For Contempt

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed in the line of duty on December 15th, 2010.  Two of the weapons found at the scene of Agent Terry’s murder were weapons purchased under surveillance by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) as part of Operation Fast and Furious.  Under this operation, the BATFE allowed purchases to be made by “straw purchasers,” individuals who purchase guns in order to sell them illegally.  These “straw purchasers,” many of whom were ineligible to purchase firearms in the first place, were allowed by BATFE officials to both make the purchases and then transfer the weapons to third parties.

Congress’ investigation, now a year and a half old, has been hampered by the stonewalling of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.  At worst, Mr. Holder has misled the Congress, and at best, he has been negligent in failing to control his subordinates.  It is clear to me that Mr. Holder is not fit to hold the position as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.  My calls and the calls of my colleagues for Mr. Holder’s resignation have fallen on deaf ears as President Obama continues to support his Attorney General.

Throughout the investigation, the Department has made false denials, misdirected investigators, intimidated witnesses, withheld documents, and acknowledged the truth only when confronted with conclusive evidence.  We cannot allow this Administration’s stonewalling to hinder Congress’ constitutional oversight responsibilities, the Terry family’s search for truth, and the public’s right to know what went wrong and which officials knew about it. 

Next week, June 20th, 2012, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will meet to consider whether Attorney General Eric Holder should be held in contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a subpoena related to Operation Fast & Furious.

Despite the thousands of papers Mr. Holder has decided to share in response to the October 12, 2011 subpoena, Mr. Holder has withheld the very documents that could either exonerate his Department or confirm our suspicions that senior officials mishandled Fast and Furious and obstructed Congress’ investigation.  The subpoena targets internal deliberations that pertain to Fast & Furious, retaliation against whistleblowers, and why it took the Department nearly a year to retract false denials of reckless tactics. 

The Justice Department can still stop the process of contempt - a process for enforcing compliance with a lawful subpoena - by delivering the requested documents and letting the truth speak for itself.  If not, the Committee will proceed with consideration of a contempt citation, which will be debatable and amendable by the Committee.  Ultimate approval of the contempt citation will require a majority vote of the Committee.

For more information, please visit: www.fastandfuriousinvestigation.com. To see my remarks on Attorney General Holder’s failure to cooperate with Congress, please visit http://youtu.be/cyfFeav5ofo.

Sincerely,

Cynthia M. Lummis

Member of Congress

Whew!

So it's been awhile since I've put pen to paper so to speak.  For that I blame my shoulder.

Last month I went under the knife to repair some torn cartilage in my right shoulder.  I've spent the last 6 weeks holed up in an immobilizer, trying to get used to doing things one-handed.  Thankfully, I'm left handed, so the slow down didn't really affect me much.

So in the interim, I've got some new projects that are taunting me, laughing while I recuperate.  The weekend after I had surgery, I picked up a matching-numbers Imbel FAL kit from a fun show for five bills.  Got a Coonan Type 3 receiver on the way, and as soon as I get the strength back in my right arm, it's getting built.

A couple of weeks later, I got bit by the tax stamp bug again, and just had to HAVE a Yugo M92.  Me being me, it's both cheaper and more fun to build my own.  So thanks to fine folks at Arms of America, I picked up a virgin M92 kit with an AKbuilder.com chrome lined barrel, a NDS 92 receiver, and a 6-month wait while the taxman decides if I'm worthy enough to have my 5th stamp.

In the 'pisses me off' column, we have the Fast and Furious thing becoming slow and depressing.  Multiple sources are saying that it would be easier to drop the whole thing than actually do something about a government agency that purposely armed the most dangerous criminals in the hemisphere in an attempt to create a 'crisis' they could exploit for more gun control laws.

Also in that column is the tale out of Canada of the father of a 4 YO girl who was arrested, strip-searched, violated, charged with a bogus crime, had his house searched (without a warrant mind you) all because said 4 YO girl drew a picture of her father killing monsters with a gun.  After detaining the mother and sending the other children to Social Services to be 'interviewed' about this so-called gun, After an exhaustive search turned up a clear plastic airsoft piece, the school board expressed their 'concern' by stating that 'as co-parents, it's our responsibility'...Whisky Tango Foxtrot, Over?  Where in the blue hell does any school district or board think they get that right from again?  Were they in the room when the child was conceived?  Did they go through the labor/surgery to birth this child?  Were they there for the first steps/words/bath/insert any one of baby's firsts here?  No.  So back off Dr. Dummassteacher.

Then there's the Martin/Zimmerman thing.  As everyone with a brain said at the time, just wait until the facts come out before running off at the mouth.  Sure enough, it comes out Zimmerman had a broken nose and numerous cuts on the back of his head.  The deceased had busted up knuckles.  Hmmm.  I wonder who the real aggressor was...Not that it matters to the perpetually outraged crew.

Did I mention that today was 6 weeks to the day since I had surgery and I got the stupid immobilizer off?  And that my next appointments are with the physical therapist?  You know, the folks who spend the summer interned with the CIA learning new and exciting ways to elicit confessions?  Funny, the stuff the physical therapists do would be considered cruel and unusual punishment were we not paying them to make us feel better.

Any way, I'm back.  More to follow.

This Will Be Interesting

So George Zimmerman has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder. OK, this means that the onus is now on the court for what will come.

Now for the $64 question: Does anyone honestly believe that with all the media attention this case has received, that Zimmerman will ever be able to get a fair trial in any jurisdiction in the country?

Between doctored tapes, questionable forensic analyses, and the rhetoric of race hustling blowhards, there isn't a man, woman, or child in this country who is untouched by this story.

I wonder though, if the judge in this case decides that Zimmerman's claim of self defense is true, what happens then? On the other hand, if this case is all about making certain groups happy, and he's railroaded into prison, what does that say about the judicial system and those who are supposed to be blind to bias?

Just some questions this inquiring mind wants the answers to.

Being A Judge Doesn't Necessarily Mean You're Smart

I've held off on commenting on the Zimmerman/Martin thing because we don't have all the facts in evidence yet. And I don't know that we ever will.

But that hasn't stopped the anti-gun folks, the media, and the criminally stupid (redundancy alert!) from trying to blame the law, the gun, and the NRA (not in any particular order) for what happened in Sanford, FL.

Case in point, is Judge H. Lee Sarokin over at the Huffington Post. His piece, titled How Do Gun Advocates, and the NRA React to Gun Massacres and Killings? asks just what the title implies. How can I, as a Life Member of the NRA and an avid gun collector and shooter reconcile what he sees as my complicity in mass shootings around the country.

First off, let me answer the overarching question asked in the title. I react the same way most everyone else does. Usually with empathy for the family members of those lost and sadness at said loss. That feeling is usually short-lived as I know, having payed attention to the news, that within a matter of minutes to hours the usual suspects in the anti-gun movement will be out screaming from the tallest roof in the country about 'lax gun laws' and how the evil NRA is responsible for this tragedy or that.

After reading about how this is all my fault for anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of years, my thoughts then turn to the process itself. Much like the Zimmerman/Martin case, I need facts to make up my mind, keeping in mind that news stations, papers, and Internet sites generally have but a fraction of the information (or none at all) concerning the incident they're breathlessly pimping on their respective forms of communication.

So having read the good Judge's piece, one thing struck me as so totally moronic, that it made my brain come to a screeching halt. The Judge actually wrote that without guns, there would be no killing. Seriously. A Judge said that, I'm not making it up. See for yourself, he says it in the second paragraph under the excerpted text. Quote "I know the slogan - 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people', but without a gun present there would be no killing." No sir, I think you've got that all wrong. Without a gun present, there most definitely would be killing. People have been doing so for millenia, with all manner of implements that they have either devised or found handy at the time.

And speaking of 'gun massacres', that shooting the other day...Where did that happen again? Oh, yeah. Oakland. In CA, the poster child for everything the Brady Campaign to Remain Relevant wants for state gun laws. Yet with all those nifty little laws on the books in Cali, a deranged nut job walked into a school with a gun (federal felony-Federal Gun-Free School Zone Act) and killed 7 people (state level felony-murder, the last time I checked, was against the law). I'm not sure if he was prohibited from having said gun, but if he were say a convicted felon or someone adjudicated as mentally defective those would be federal disqualifiers to gun ownership and also felonies for being in possession of gun. I'm also guessing he didn't have a permit from the county sherrif to carry said guns on campus, so he was likely carrying without a permit, also a crime in CA. Since I haven't heard what weaponry he used, I can't comment on whether they were "California Approved!" or not.

So in that one incident we have several state and federal laws being broken. Tell me again why 'one more law' would've stopped this?

Update on Constitutional Carry

So the governor vetoed Constitutional Carry. That much is clear.

But what pissed me off, and this has been worming it's way around my brain since Friday, is what he said.

He didn't want to increase the workload on police.

What??????

Excuse me, just a minute here Governor. I thought that's why we hired cops. They're job is to catch people breaking the law. You know, the criminal element? If that job is too hard, if that job is too taxing, then what does that say about the state of law enforcement and the people who go around creating stupid laws that force police to go around doing stupid shit instead of catching the truly criminal among us?

If they can't do the job, or it's too hard for them, then they need to find something else to do. Period.

Workload my ass. This was a cop-out (pun fully intended), plain and simple. It's not like they don't run a background check when they stop you for crossing the double yellow line. Or when they decide they want to check your ID for no apparent reason other than you were there and so were they. Isn't that why we pay for those dispatch centers? Don't they have that kind of information available at their finger tips?

The Strength Of Their Convictions

So the Governor vetoed Constitutional Carry this morning. Citing difficulties in police determining who can/cannot legally carry, he's put the onus back on the legislature for the override.

Realizing of course that 2/3 vote of both houses is required for the override, we'll see if those state legislators that voted for the bill initially will follow through and vote to override.

This bill passed pretty handily in both houses: 22-11 in the state senate, and 50-18 in the state house. Though I do think there will be one or two state senators that will get squishy and not back up their previous 'yeah' vote.

Should be interesting to see how this turns out next week.

As an interesting aside, I did get a site visit from the state this morning regarding HB 1248:



I find it interesting that the AP posted this story at 10:59 am and I get a visit 30 minutes later.

Things that make you go...Hmmmmmmmm.

I've Got Another Idea

These are the types of columns that really have me scratching my head. The 'I'm a gun owner, but...' article.

We've all read them before. Usually, they all start out with 'I'm a gun owner, I support the second amendment, but...' and then dive into why THEIR gun is wholesome, good and righteous and how everyone elses guns are bad, evil, and destined to be the cause of the next massacre at the corner market.

This one has so much wrong with it, it's really hard to know where to begin. And then there's the last commenter. I'm not sure if what the person is writing is true or satire. I certainly hope it's satire, as the other option is downright scary.

That these two individuals are so flippant about one the most basic of fundamental rights is a testament to how far some will go to see the rest of their countrymen and neighbors left defenseless in the face of criminals and what, at least on the surface anyway, appears to be a growingly Constitutionally hostile government.

For those two, I say bring it. Or in the case of King Leonidas of Sparta, Molon Labe. And to quote Mike Vanderbough, if you try to take our firearms away, we will kill you.

Speaking Of Safety...

Locking your house/car is another aspect of safety.

I think the dumbest thing about this is the fact that people still leave their guns in unlocked cars. This in a town that could almost be called the northernmost suburb of Denver.

Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy.