We’re Headed for the Rocks

•06 November 2012 • 1 Comment

Imagine this scenario:

You are at the helm of a boat in coastal waters. Suddenly, the boat stops answering the helm. The course cannot be changed, and a quick look at your charts shows dangerous rocks just ahead. If you continue at the same course and speed, you will pile up on those rocks in five minutes. The wind and current are both toward the rocks.

One of the crew reports, “Skipper, the rudder cables are fouled up and damaged. We can fix it, but it will take about 20 minutes.”

“Ok,” you say, “our only choice is to reverse course.” You try to reverse the propeller, but the transmission won’t change gears. The boat still chugs towards the rocks.

A crew member says, “If we shut down the engine, our speed will drop, and with the speed of our drift, we can probably gain enough time to fix the steering and alter course enough to miss the rocks.”

“NO!” you shout, ” The only solution is to change to the right course! We will not shut down the engine, instead, we will put all of our effort into fixing the steering. It means we will hit the rocks, but it is the right thing to do!”

Does this sound like a reasonable strategy? Probably about as reasonable as voting for a third party candidate in this election.

Obama Mask Scares Child

Mommy! Stop this boat!

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Voting in the Right Direction

•06 November 2012 • 5 Comments

I am going to get a bit personal in this post.

A while back I saw a video of Obama giving a speech. He said very clearly that if you own a company, you didn’t build it. Someone else built it for you. He made it clear that he feels that the benevolence of the government is what builds businesses, and has shown hostility toward the owners of businesses. It is more than that, though. His statement showed a glimpse of who he really is, and what he truly believes.

He is a man who believes that he is an elite who should have the right to make choices for the rest of us. He thinks that he is above the law, and often seems shocked when people, even other politicians, don’t follow him blindly. Based on his actions and attitudes during his presidency, I would have to assume that if he were in a country with fewer checks on his power, he would be a dictator in many ways.

His statement about building businesses angered me, and my resentment against that statement continues. You see, I have built two businesses at different times in my life, and had a lead role in building others. Obama ridiculed the idea that people are successful because the work hard. He seems to think government handouts are better than hard work. I guess many of the companies that received “stimulus” money agreed, since so many took the money and never  worked, never built real companies, just spent the money and declared bankruptcy.

I understand a bit about work. I was injured in Iraq. When I returned, I was not able to do the things I was good at anymore. I found myself out of the military, out of money, and basically unemployable in many ways. I started looking for something I could do, and decided that if I were to work, I would have to build myself a job.

No one helped me. There were no government handouts. Companies I expected to be interested in working with me tried to put me out of business to protect their larger customers. We spent years rarely knowing how we would pay for the next meal. We never knew where the money for the mortgage was going to come from. A customer would pay us $50 and my wife would jump in the car and buy something for the kids to eat. I worked from early morning to past midnight most days, apart from the times I could not work. My wife did, too. I learned how it felt when my one-year-old daughter cried for food all day and we had nothing – not a bit of food – in the house. If you’ve been through that, you know what desperation is. I went to get financial advice. I was told my only option was to declare bankruptcy. To me, this was not an option – if I owe someone, I will find a way to pay it. So we kept working, and wondering how we would find the money for our next meal. I will never know how my wife did it, but she did.

Everything we have, everything we have built, we did without assistance from the government. No employees worked for us then – we built nothing on anyone else’s work. I did not use food stamps, or welfare. Everything we bought was with money we earned, and today, as I write this after midnight, after working until three in the morning last night, I can say that nothing but hard work built my company. Oh, and our customers, who have been patient when I missed deadlines because I could not work, sometimes for a day, sometimes for several days in a row. Customers who were willing to trust us back when we were working off of our kitchen table in a tiny house. Some of you who who are reading this now probably never knew what you business meant to us then, when a $50 check from one of you meant we could just survive another week.

Today the company is paying the bills. It isn’t making us rich, but it might someday. If it does, Obama has a clear plan for us – redistribute our wealth. He wants to redistribute wealth because he feels that it is unfair for one person to work hard and to get ahead, while another person does not. So as a true socialist, he believes that those who are willing to work should work to provide for those who are not.

He will take my income and use it to pay for other people’s food, their housing, and even their healthcare. I know what this is like. I lived and worked in a semi-socialist country, where healthcare was free, when it was available. Since availability was limited because socialized healthcare is so financially inefficient, many people died because they could not get adequate treatment. Many people there were paying over a third of their income in taxes to support this system. If my work will help someone else, I should make that choice, not the government. It is not that I am stingy – We give much more to charity voluntarily than we pay in takes every year, and not for any kind of tax advantage, but because we believe in what we are giving to.

I can see the future that Obama wants for our country, and if you are honest, you can too.

Despite all this, I will not be voting for the right candidate. The candidate that I have decided to vote for is not popular with many of my friends. I disagree with him in many areas. But I will still vote for him.

I cannot vote for the right candidate, because the right candidate is not running. No one out there agrees with my political views, values, morals, faith, etc. right down the line. No candidate ever will. Still, in this election, I would have liked to see a better choice than what we have.

Since I cannot vote for the right candidate, I must vote in the right direction.

Politics like many other things in life requires strategy. As conservatives, we are at a disadvantage here. We tend to have strong, even absolute values. We see things in terms of right and wrong. We view the Constitution as the absolute law of the land, and believe in following it to the letter. We know we are right, and we want all or nothing. This means that liberals have the advantage in politics. They tend to be subversive by nature and will give what they have to and take what they can get. They may have an absolute goal of socialism, or complete disarmament of the populace, or government control of industry, things which may sound extreme even to many liberals, but they are willing to take a little bit here and a little bit there. They are willing to advance in stages. They are willing to take less than they wanted to gain a toehold, while we say, “Take it all the way or don’t move at all.”

Some of my friends will be writing in a candidate. Some are refusing to vote. I have heard lots of lofty rhetoric about voting your conscience, and I agree. We need to vote our conscience. We need to make our voice heard. We need to get people into position who will take our country in the right direction. And the place for that is in local elections. It is in primaries. It is in state elections. I live in the state that Sarah Palin is from. How did she end up on the ballot for vice president of the United States? She was elected to the school board in her hometown. She became a mayor. If you are going to be heard, if your vote is going to make great changes, this is where it will happen. What have you done in local politics? What have you done to make sure the right people are elected in your town, borough, county, state? What have you done to influence the Republican or Democrat party? Because it is these things that can determine who will be running for president in the future. It frustrates me to hear people whine about our choice of candidates who did not even bother to vote in the primaries. I know people who talk about voting their conscience who only vote in national elections. This is where real change is made. This is the place for voting your conscience.

But now all that is past. We now have a choice to make. Do we take our toys and go home, or do we make the best of the options we have?

We are in a war for our country. In war, you weigh you options and use the best strategy possible. Sometimes, you can win a great victory. Sometimes, you can hold what you have and wait for reinforcements. Sometimes, all you can do is slow the enemy’s advance to buy time. But you never say, “We can’t win a big victory, so we are going home. Let the enemy take what he wants.”

In this war, there are two possible outcomes. When the polls close tomorrow and the votes are counted, one of two men will be president of the United States. Either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama will win this election. As conservatives, we have a clear choice. Our strategy is obvious. We must elect Mitt Romney, or we will only accelerate on the course that Obama has had us on for the last four years. A vote for any other candidate, or a refusal to vote, is very poor strategy.

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Nothing Pretty Ever Comes Out of a Bottle.

•26 October 2012 • 4 Comments

“Nothing pretty ever comes out of a bottle.” That is what my friend said to me when he called from Anchorage. He had flown there to claim the body of a young man that was like a son to him. This young man had lived  in his home with his family for years and recently moved into an attached apartment.

One night he was drinking with a buddy. He swung out the cylinder of his .44 magnum, dumped the rounds, and snapped it shut. He placed the pistol against his head and squeezed the trigger. The first time the hammer clicked. The second time it fired. It wasn’t pretty.

Why is it that an otherwise safe, responsible firearm owner feels that it is necessary to put a pistol against his head and squeeze the trigger once he gets enough alcohol in his body? We hear about it all the time – remember the Navy SEAL who shot himself in the head in an alcoholic demonstration that his pistol was unloaded? Within days of learning about the death of my friend’s young friend, I heard of two others in other parts of the country who shot themselves in the same way.

“Drink responsibly!” That is the message that we hear repeated so often, but is it possible to be responsible when you are drinking? I will argue that it is not. Becoming impaired physically and mentally is not really the most responsible thing to do. When people become intoxicated, they lose the ability to act responsibly. I have seen people sit down in the middle of bonfires. I have seen a guy in a t-shirt spend 15 minutes in twenty below weather trying to catch the windshield wipers on his car, because he wanted them stopped. I have had friends who would never make a decision when they were sober to drive drunk who got DWIs because once they were drinking, they could not make a responsible decision. I once bought a watch from a soldier who got drunk and emptied his checking and saving accounts (several thousand dollars) at a strip bar and returned to the barracks without enough gas to drive home to his wife.

So we have established that the act of becoming intoxicated is irresponsible in itself, and the more a person drinks, the less responsible and rational he or she becomes. Since this is the case, people who are drinking should never have access to a firearm, just as they should never have access to a vehicle, or fly an airplane, or any other activity that requires concentration and awareness.

If you are going to be using firearms, don’t drink. Don’t drink when you are shooting, don’t drink when you are hunting. Don’t drink at the gunshow or when you are working on firearms or reloading ammo. Don’t drink while concealed carrying. I will go a step further, and say that people need to stop with photos and videos that mix alcohol with guns. I know that many shooters like to drink, but promoting an association between alcohol and firearms should be left to the ATFE. Otherwise it can encourage unsafe firearm use and promote anti-gun stereotypes.

If you are going to drink, make sure you don’t have access to your firearm. Treat it just as you would treat your car keys, because once you are drinking, you may not have the capacity to make the right decision. And no, you are not the exception.

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Delays in completing finishes

•19 August 2012 • 6 Comments

This year has been a strange year for us, as far as finishing firearms goes. We have had several firearms with issues that took a long time to resolve, the manufacturer of the template we use was out of stock for some time, people let us know after getting their firearms to us that they had a deadline that we did not expect; moving out of state, birthdays, etc. We also moved to a different town and had to wait for the ATFE to change our license. All of these things pushed the finishes out much longer than we are used to, and despite long nights trying to get caught up, we ran out of time before I needed to go out on a remote job.

As a result, some of our customers have been waiting for their firearms to be finished for a long time, much longer than we (or they) expected. Most have been far more understanding than we expected them to be. Some have not. I appreciate those who have been understanding, and for those who have not been understanding, I can completely understand your frustration. I do ask however, that when you call and a lady answers the phone, that you be polite and do not give her a hard time. It is not her fault, it is mine. I coat firearms, I made the decision to move our company’s location, I have been out of town, I was the one who did not realize that we were running out of template material.

Now I have to ask you to be patient again. The work I have been doing has run longer than expected due to difficulty getting repair parts into bush Alaska. I was hoping to take a break for a week or two to get some firearms finished, but stormy weather and fog on the island I am on has resulted in few planes getting in, and worse, even if I did get out to Nome, emergency repairs to the Nome airport have left hundreds stranded in Nome or in Anchorage trying to get to Nome, making the possibility of travel almost impossible for me, short of chartering a plane.

We have made some changes to our policies and are doing some things different to prevent a backlog like this from occurring again, and once our new facilities are fully set up, we will be able to finish firearms faster than ever. In the mean time, we are accepting no new work until our current customer’s work is completed.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience we have caused the few of you whose firearms we have not yet completed.

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Think you can’t afford real ivory revolver or pistol grips? Think again . . .

•17 August 2012 • Leave a Comment

Be sure to check out the secret behind these ivory grips. You may be surprised to find out how affordable they can be . . .

Real Ivory Revolver Grips – click here

Affordable ivory revolver grips

Real ivory grips on a Ruger Vaquero: beautiful and affordable.

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Shooting with the Gestapo – Don’t be a range Nazi!

•01 June 2012 • 6 Comments

I was recently in another state after attending a gunwriter’s event waiting for a flight back to Alaska. I was with a friend who, in addition to other training, offers private shooting lessons. We headed to a range where he was meeting a student, while he explained that the range we were heading to was a great little range, not too busy, great for teaching students.

We arrived at the range, met his students, and were there only a few minutes before some interesting folks showed up. You could’t miss them. There were only four people shooting at the range when they arrived. They wore black tactical pants, pistols and magazines in tactical thigh rigs, black military patrol caps with CRSO embroidered in bright yellow across the front and back, and bright yellow long-sleeved shirts with Safety Officer down the sleeves and NRA Certified Range Safety Officer marked on the front and back of each shirt. They also wore their arrogance for all to see.

The person who owned the range introduced them and said that they were making changes and would have trained volunteer range safeties on site at all times. So far, it sounded pretty good. The RSOs immediately began strutting around making loud, abusive corrections to every shooter.

My friend immediately found that it was impossible for him to continue training his student effectively. Every drill he attempted to teach was stopped by the RSOs who said that the drills were unsafe and questioned where he had ever learned to be an instructor, and most importantly, was he an NRA certified instructor. Now my friend has more real-world experience fighting terrorists in a very elite military unit than most instructors even dream of. He has instructor certifications from several governments and degrees in counter-terrorism and security operations. Next to all of that, an NRA instructor certificate (which he also has) seems superfluous.

The RSOs then began hassling an elderly shooter that was having multiple jams with his pistol. He seemed to be trying to determine whether it was a magazine problem or an ammunition problem, but never discovered the issue because the Range Nazis told him his pistol was unsafe and he was about to be kicked off of the range for shooting it.

About this time, another one of my friend’s students showed up. He was a very new shooter (his first time on a live range), and my friend asked me to instruct him. We had just started working when the RSOs pounced.

First, as he began to place his empty, slide-locked-back pistol on the shooting bench, the barrel began wandering to the left. I immediately controlled the muzzle direction before it was an issue and respectfully reminded him to keep his pistol pointed downrange. Suddenly, from my elbow, a range safety was loudly correcting both of us. We continued and the student showed signs of making the same mistake again. Again I immediately corrected him. Again a range safety was yelling, telling me that he would kick me off of his range. They questioned whether I was fit to instruct at all and kept stressing NRA certification. As we continued after the interruption, he was struggling with putting it all together for the first time – drawing, firing, hitting the target, and reholstering, as inexperienced shooters will. There were no safety issues – just a bit of noticeable uncertainty in his actions. The RSO vultures were circling again. This time, they let us know that his reholstering was not smooth enough to be safe, and wanted to know if his belt was a certified holster belt. He said no, it was just a plain leather belt that he wore with his jeans. Not good. No one could shoot on “their” range without a made and advertised for the purpose holster belt, they informed us. We would have to leave the range. I took off my belt, gave it to him, and continued instructing with one hand holding my pants up. Sometime later, one of the RSOs came up and expressed his sympathy for me, saying that he had students just like that guy. Of course, he said it loud enough for the student to hear.

I can say positively that I would never take a new shooter (or anyone else) to that range.

Every instructor and range safety officer in America should have good training. The NRA instructor courses and RSO courses are a standard, and every RSO should take one of these courses. For instructors, further instructor training is recommended, but the NRA courses are a measurable standard and form an excellent base. An NRA training certificate does not make you better than anyone else, though. The student I was instructing that day was a very skilled doctor. He had raised several children to adulthood, and they now had professional careers and children of their own. He is intelligent and affable, and it angered me to hear a younger person disrespect him because he was not yet skilled with a firearm.

If we treat others with arrogance and disrespect, we will wreck their shooting experience and alienate them from shooting activities. Here are some things to think about if you have an opportunity to act as a range safety or instructor, or simply help others to learn to shoot safely:

We don’t need to be drill sergeants. Don’t yell at people unless it is absolutely necessary to stop an immediate serious safety risk. Don’t treat people like they are stupid or worthless. On a civilian shooting range, we encounter a wide variety of people, from new shooters who are looking for advice to experienced shooting industry members. Treat them all with respect. People don’t respond well to being bullied.

I was once shooting on a military qualification range, and saw a young soldier trying repeatedly to qualify with his weapon. On a practice qualification he shot about 18 out of 40. This lead to attention from one of his NCOs, who began to yell at him and berate him as he tried again and again. His next score was maybe 15, and then progressively down from there. When he finally hit only 6 targets, shooting while his NCO knelt next to him and yelled at him each time he missed, I approached his Platoon leader and requested permission to work with him. The NCO was not happy, but I received permission to work with him for the rest of the day and to let him shoot the qualification the next day with another platoon. I got him calmed down and then started diagnosing his problems and addressing each one. The next morning he qualified with 34 hits out of 40.

Don’t assume that your shooting skill or some training certificate makes you better than someone else. I remember when I first went to college, there were a large group of students who spent their spare time playing the video game Mortal Kombat. I had little interest in video games, and better things to do with my time. Therefore, I was beneath their notice. I soon realized that they based their social standings and their opinion of and respect for others solely on their skill playing that video game. Ridiculous? Sure, but no more so than a guy who thinks he can treat a doctor like an imbecile simply because the guy happens to have a certificate and a cool tactical RSO uniform.

Help new shooters enjoy their experience. The number one reason new women shooters give me for being hesitant to go to a range (or a gun store) is the fear of being ridiculed by more experienced male shooters. While very few shooters will actually ridicule a new shooter, there are, unfortunately, a few who do. If inexperienced shooters already have this fear, how do you think they will react to being yelled at by an RSO? Instead of yelling or throwing your weight around, how about helping them learn both safety and shooting techniques?

Range owners or managers also need to think about how the attitude of their personnel, whether employed or volunteers, impacts their reputation.

I live very close to a very nice range facility. I never shoot there. I drive at least 45 minutes away to shoot at different facilities. The last time (several years back) that I shot at the nearby range, I was testing a customer’s pistol-caliber AR upper. I had no sights on it, since i was only testing function, and I was testing several magazines with it. When I began rapid-firing it (necessary to check function of both action and magazines), the guys running the range called cease fire over the loudspeakers and descended upon me in force. I explained that I was test firing an upper, but apparently this was too much for them to comprehend. I was informed several things about myself that were revelations to me. The long version included many words and phrases unfit for publishing, so I will just hit the main points.

• I was a punk who didn’t care about skill. I just wanted to blow money and send rounds downrange as fast as I could pull the trigger. I didn’t even have sights on the rifle or targets set up.
• I was the kind of person who causes guns to be banned by giving gun owners a bad name.
• I was a wannabe who disrespected real soldiers and marines who fought for my freedoms, which I was throwing away by being a punk  who blasted ammo downrange with total disregard for the way I was wrecking the image of gun owners. If I had ever actually been in the military or fought for my country, I would know why my kind of video-game wanabe soldier personality type was so offensive to real soldiers. Maybe I was the type who did drugs and drive-by shootings.
•I was not the kind of person that they wanted on their range. I should go away and never come back, and tell my punk friends not to come back either. I should join the Marine Corps, learn how real men shoot rifles and defend their country, and then I might be welcome on their range again.

There were a lot of things that I wanted to say to them. I wanted to tell them that because of my combat injuries, I was forced to change careers, my children were out of food, and I did not even have the fuel to drive to a more distant range. I desperately needed to get this upper back to a customer so I could get paid and buy some food. I wanted to say that if they had a problem with the way I shot, maybe they should take it up with certain Army sniper instructors who trained me. I wanted to tell them I have never touched drugs, and while I may have been involved in some drive-by shootings, they weren’t in American cities. I wanted to tell them that I spent enough time in hard training of one kind or another that I did not really care to be belittled by some old guys on a range trying to live in their past glory as former Marines. I did not tell them that though, because they are former Marines (I think – they had USMC hats, anyway) they did serve their country, and by their age I would assume were most likely Korean or Vietnam War veterans. They are also older than I am and I have no idea what they have experienced, accomplished, or learned in their lives. Therefore, I treated them with respect and took their advice. I have never returned to that range, and have since advised hundreds of other shooters to avoid that range. In talking to others, I find that my story is not unique and most others try to avoid shooting on that range when possible.

Think about that story the next time you are tempted to allow the Gestapo to occupy your range.

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Scary experience with HSM ammo

•30 May 2012 • 7 Comments

See update at bottom.

I was at a machine gun shoot over the weekend. I took my 1886 Winchester to zero after installing the Providence Tool Company sight. I plan to have Scalisi Shooting Specialties custom load some ammo for me for that rifle, but in the mean time I planned to zero it with some 400 gr soft-point HSM loads that I picked up a while back from Wild West Guns. I figured it would give me a chance to burn up that ammo.

The range was a little over 300 yards with a 20 foot tall berm at the end. After the event ended for the day, I set up a target at 175 yards and began to zero, with someone spotting rounds for me. I fired a couple rounds and got it zeroed in close, then fired one that was just over the target. The spotter couldn’t quite tell how far over that one hit, so I fired again with no adjustment. This round fell short, but I was confident in my sight placement on both shots. Recoil on all rounds fired so far seemed slightly inconsistent.

I told my spotter that I was confident in my shots and that I would fire another round. When the trigger broke the rifle slammed my shoulder with substantially more recoil than I had ever experienced with a .45-70. It seemed like double the recoil of previous shots. The lever smashed into my fingers. The round struck the berm (over 300 yards out) about 10 to 15 feet up. I don’t know what kind of velocity increase it takes to cause a 400 grain .45-70 bullet to shoot that much flatter, but it must be substantial. The shooters on each side of me turned to me and said, “What was that!?” After my heart slowed, I put that ammo away, checked the rifle,  and finished my zero with a few rounds of Winchester ammo I had left, which shot very consistently.

It is fortunate that I was shooting an ’86 Winchester, which is the strongest traditional lever-action design. Had it been a Marlin, which cannot handle the pressures that the Winchester can, or another type of rifle, results could have been worse.

I will be contacting HSM about this and will report the results, but it will take a lot for me to ever be comfortable shooting their ammo again.

UPDATE:
It has been over two weeks, and I have not received any response or acknowledgement from HSM. I am beginning to feel that they may care no more about me than about the safety of their ammo . . .

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Open Carry Activism

•21 April 2012 • 2 Comments

I live in a state in which open carry of a firearm has always been legal. All my life I have seen people carrying pistols on their belts. It is as normal as carrying a wallet. While almost every state in the US now has some provision to allow the concealed carry of a pistol by citizens, some states restrict the open (unconcealed) carry of pistols.

In many of these states, there are activist groups who promote the open carry of firearms. Even in states that allow open carry, there are open carry groups that promote expanded open carry freedom. I am glad that there are people who will stand for the basic human right to armed self-defense as affirmed by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. However, I am increasingly seeing a tone among open carry activists that is of concern to me.

I believe in human rights, liberty, and freedom. I strongly support any law abiding citizen’s right to openly carry a pistol. My personal choice, however, is to carry concealed when I am in town. I have several reasons for this. The most important is that concealing the pistol gives me an element of surprise and can prevent a criminal from approaching with the intent of neutralizing the weapon or making me a primary target. Another reason that I usually conceal my pistol is to prevent offending people. Many people are intimidated by the presence of a weapon. Modern entertainment and education has caused many people to develop an unfounded fear of firearms. The person who feels uncomfortable when seeing me openly carrying a firearm may be transformed from being largely unconcerned about firearms to an anti-gun activist. However, I will not tell others how to carry and would never oppose anyone’s right to openly carry a firearm.

I would like to see all those who carry firearms to be considerate and respectful, though. I think that most who carry understand that being respectful goes hand-in-hand with being armed. Unfortunately, there seems to be a small but growing number of open carry activists who feel that a belligerent, in-your-face approach is the best approach for promoting open carry rights. These groups or individuals often oppose pro-carry legislation if they feel that it is not strong enough in promoting open carry rights. Many of these groups are actively opposing national reciprocity legislation because it does not protect their right to open carry anywhere in the country without a permit. They are not willing to take steps toward the reinstatement of constitutionally-protected rights, but will be satisfied only with a giant leap.

I do not think that it serves our purposes to go out looking for a fight. The anti-gun segment of society expects those who carry weapons to be belligerent and confrontational – it fits their stereotype. We have spent many years since the advance of carry rights in most states proving them wrong. Let’s not let the open carry issue become the ammunition that they have been looking for.

I have been reading reports for some time about a self-styled open carry activist who has been carrying an AK pistol (Draco). He carries it on a sling and often with a tactical vest. He has painted the flash hider orange to look like an airsoft gun, and he carries it in a manner and in places to ensure a confrontation with law enforcement officers. He has also performed other publicity stunts involving the carry of firearms. He is doing far more harm than good to the public image of gun owners. Unfortunately, others are following his lead and the lead of others like him. A search of youtube finds a number of videos posted by those who venture out with a video camera and a firearm with the intent of baiting law enforcement or business owners into a confrontation. This only serves to turn public opinion against firearm owners. Here are some ideas for etiquette when carrying openly or concealed:

1. Don’t be confrontational, especially with law enforcement officers. Officers have a lot to deal with. Some are more professional than others, but most are actually strong supporters of our right to be armed for self-protection. Some may be restricted from outwardly showing that support while on duty by the policies of their organizations. Still, whether they are pro-carry or anti-gun, knowledgeable or ignorant of gun laws, friendly or hostile, the law-abiding gun owner should look to law enforcement as allies, not as enemies. By interacting with law enforcement in a positive way, we are reaffirming the fact that an armed citizenry is not a threat to law enforcement.

2. Be respectful of business and property owners. In my state, most businesses may not make their business off-limits to the legal carry of firearms, with some obvious exceptions (for instance, it is unlawful for anyone to be in possession of a firearm while drinking alcohol anywhere). Some businesses still post “No Guns” signs, even though they cannot legally stop the legal carry of firearms in their business. Some post nothing but will ask you to leave if they see you with a firearm. I will not argue with a business owner over my right to carry. From a legal standpoint, I know I have the right to carry there. From a personal standpoint, I recognize that that person owns the property that I am on and since he is the owner, I will respect his wishes. I will simply leave. To me, while I know my rights, it is about respect. Personal property is simple here – in this state no one may enter another person’s home without informing that person that he is armed and requesting permission to be armed in that person’s home. To me this just makes sense – it is something I do even in states that do not have this requirement.

3. Write letters. I encourage everyone to write letters to those in their communities who oppose the lawful carry of firearms, open or concealed. If a business does not allow firearms in their facility, a polite, well-written letter is in order. You will need to present yourself well, so have someone with the proper skills check your rough draft for style, grammar, and spelling. Contact others who carry and suggest that they also write letters to the business owner. It is essential that all such communication be respectful and professional. A bullying or condescending tone will do more harm than good, which brings us to our next point.

4. Many people who would restrict the legal carry of firearms have never really thought about it. They think that people should not carry guns in their business, or in public places, because they have a general vague feeling that this is the way it should be – often fostered by a lifetime of influence from the media. These people may be anywhere in the political spectrum, but tend to be solid, rational citizens – the kind of people that you would like to have next door. They don’t have an agenda, they don’t want to take away your rights, they just never really thought about the issue before. We have an opportunity with them to convert them to a position of respecting the basic human right to self-defense, or we can convert them to anti-gun activists. It all depends on our actions and how we present ourselves. I grew up in a frontier village, where firearms were a part of daily life. We had no electricity, almost no violent crime, and no store. What we had as far as fresh meat had to be hunted or fished. Bears were prevalent and while generally posed no problem, they could be a threat at any time. I grew up with friends whose families were politically extremely liberal, who all hunted and kept firearms for self-defense. My wife grew up in a very conservative family, with mainly very conservative friends. When we began dating in college, I gave her a rifle. When we were about to get married, her parents said they needed to sit down with us for a serious talk. They told us that they were happy with everything about our upcoming marriage, except for one thing – they did not want any future grandchildren growing up in a house with guns. Her parents were not anti-gun – they had both grown up with firearms in their homes, they had just never really considered the issue beyond taking some of the anti-gun hype at face value. They had also spent many years living an a country with very restrictive gun laws. We were polite and respected their concerns and talked about it, and today, both of my wife’s parents carry firearms daily for personal protection and each have an AR-15 for recreational shooting. They are the first to suggest that we pack up their grandchildren and take them to the range. We had to make a choice about how to handle that situation. The choice we made built a stronger relationship, when a different approach could have destroyed the relationships.

5. Be the one who is level-headed. Be the one who uses logic. Be the one who must be respected for the way you handle yourself, even by those who disagree with you. The anti-gun and anti-self-defense arguments are, by nature, emotional and illogical. True anti-gun activists will not be dissuaded from their arguments by mere truth or facts. Because their position is already irrational, and approaches a religious-like devotion, there is not much hope to change the minds of many of these most rabidly anti-gun people. However, the vast majority of people, even those who consider themselves to be anti-gun, need only to be exposed to shooting, the the true concept of armed self-defense, and to shooters themselves to realize that firearms in the hands of responsible citizens are an advantage in any society. These people are rational, and when calmly presented with factual information by polite, respectful gun owners, will easily recognize the truth. If we approach people with a belligerent, arrogant, or emotional argument, we will get nowhere but to alienate them.

Lets take care to conduct ourselves in a way that presents a good image to the public and gives anti-gun activists no ammunition to use against us. We need to think about how we present ourselves and then help other shooters to understand how best to present themselves. If people start suggesting that our actions are damaging our image, then it is something to heed.

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Anchorage, Alaska Gun Shop refuses to hand over customer info to ATFE

•11 April 2012 • 1 Comment

We have been getting questions from our customers around the country about the situation with the Anchorage gun store Great Northern Guns and the ATFE. An ATFE inspector requested that Great Northern Guns turn over their bound books dating from 2007 to be taken offsite and copied in their entirety. The ATFE inspector indicated that several other area gun shops have turned their records over to the ATFE for duplication.

Great Northern Guns refused the request, as they have a legal right to do. While the ATFE does have the right to inspect these records, without a warrant for certain purposes (compliance inspections or actual criminal investigations of persons other than the licensee, as well as traces of firearms used in crimes) and with a warrant for other purposes, The do not have the right to seize the records in their entirety except in extreme cases, usually involving a criminal investigation into the licensee or employees of the shop itself, and would normally require a warrant. The ATFE os also restricted by federal law from creating or maintaining a registry of firearm purchases, which the copying of a dealer’s records would create.

There are many rumors flying around the internet about this situation right now, and some people seem to be making a lot of assumptions. I have not yet spoken to either the ATFE or Great Northern Guns about this, but I am familiar with the situation, and with both parties involved, and have some concerns about it.

There seems to be some assumption that the ATFE’s request must have been sparked by some illegal action on the part of Great Northern Guns. I cannot be 100% sure that Great Northern Guns always stays within the law, since I don’t work there, I can say that if you told me a gun store in Alaska purposely did something shady, Great Northern Guns would be one of the last that I would suspect. The guys at Great Northern Guns have always given me an impression of being conscientious in following both the letter and the intent of the law. In fact, I can remember two occasions when I was in the shop and saw them refuse a sale that was maybe not totally illegal, but fishy enough that the salesman refused the sale. Both were sales that a less conscientious dealer may have gone through with.

Great Northern Guns has a reputation for dealing with their customers with honesty and integrity. When a company makes this the pattern of their business dealings, it tends to permeate every part of their business.

I also know from speaking with them that Great Northern Guns has a friendly relationship with the local ATFE inspectors. They are not the type of outfit that would go out looking to pick a fight.

Great Northern Guns is one of my favorite gun shops in Anchorage. It is an old-fashioned gun store with a great variety of firearms, from new modern firearms to antiques. The atmosphere is friendly and the store is always full of people. The guys working there will go far out of their way to help a customer, and have insisted on helping me install things that I bought there was willing to install myself. Sitting here at my computer, I am looking at a Model 71 Winchester on my wall. If you have read the article on this site about the Model 71, you know where I bought it.

I would be shocked if we find that Great Northern Guns has done anything to warrant a seizure of their records. I expect that we will find that they were simply following what is clearly written in the law and looking out for their customers and for gun owners throughout the nation.

Others feel that the ATFE in Alaska must be jack-booted thugs that are devising their own gun registration scheme up here. I have been involved with the ATFE office in Anchorage for many years, first in the explosives industry, and now also in the firearms industry. I know all of the inspectors personally, and have spoken to many of their other staff on several occasions. None of the inspectors in Alaska are personally anti-gun, and we have always had a good working relationship with them. They have been more than willing to help with any questions we have had. They don’t have a personal agenda of any kind against firearms.

According to Great Northern Guns, the ATFE inspector was polite, respectful, and did not press the issue, possibly even thanking the owner for refusing the request.

This leads me to my main concern. If we can be reasonably certain that Great Northern Guns is a upstanding gun shop that operates within the law to the best of their ability, and we can be reasonably sure that the ATFE personnel in Alaska have no rouge agenda of their own, then we have to question whether the request to copy the records came from a higher level. Is the ATFE making this request to dealers around the country? Is it something that they are testing in Alaska? Was it just an error?

We need to make sure that dealers know the law, and know what they can and cannot be required to do with the records they keep. It surprises me to hear how little some dealers know about the law, not when it comes to who they can or cannot sell a firearm to (though many are mistakenly more restrictive than the law requires) but in what protection the law gives them and their customers.

Do your part by talking to your local dealers about this issue. If there is a national attempt by leadership at the ATFE to bypass the laws, then informed dealers will make all of the difference.

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Perfect just the way Kalashnikov designed it!

•19 March 2012 • 1 Comment

I recently attended an event with several manufacturers or importers of AK rifles or AK accessories. Several expressed frustration over the increasing hostility of AK shooters toward any attempt to improve or modernize the AK platform.

American shooters tend to make firearm decisions based on emotion over reason. I am no different – I have many firearms that may not be the most practical for the purpose, or that really have no practical purpose for me outside of the enjoyment of collecting and shooting them. For some reason though, the AK seems to give rise to very strong emotions among shooters and the result can be some pretty ugly confrontations. Many AK shooters tend to believe strongly that any change from the basic AK configuration destroys the weapons usefulness.

The AK was designed in the mid 1940s, borrowing and combining concepts from firearms designed in the 1930s, 1940s, and earlier. It was designed for a certain type of combat based around the Soviet military doctrine of the time. It is a dated design, just as many of the other weapons of the time (MAS 49, FN49, SKS, etc.) are now considered dated designs and are no longer seen in common military use. However,  the AK had certain advantages that not only kept it in use far past most contemporary weapons, but, boosted by Cold War political climates, made it one of the most successful small arms in history in terms of worldwide military popularity. The AK has become the icon of third world conflict, and the image of a battered AK wielded by a tattered youth with a hollow stare has been burned into our consciousness. This is the AK.

We need only to consider the most common military use of the AK platform to realize that vast numbers does not equate modern effectiveness. The AK is, above all, inexpensive, plentiful, and accessible. It is also simple and reliable. The AK was forced upon many nations by the Soviet Union. It was poured into others as the Soviets sought to expand and consolidate their influence around the world. Still other nations fount that they could purchase or produce several AK rifles for the price of one competing rifle – a compelling reason for poor nations to arm themselves with the AK.

The AK was updated during this time, but remained visually the same. During this time the American service rifle also went through a series of updates. As we reach modern times, we see similarities in how the AK and the M16/M4 platforms are being updated for military use. Both weapons are evolving for use in modern tactics developed over the years in a thousand small conflicts in hot, dirty corners of the world. Modern military weapons of all types have suddenly sprouted optics, collapsible stocks, better pistol grips, tactical lights, and more effective controls.

Here in America, though, a funny thing has happened. While foreign governments are working hard to modernize their military AKs, American shooters seem to feel that they need to protect the AK from any change. They argue that the AK is the ideal weapon and should not be altered or accessorized. Do they have a valid point?

Lets have a look at the arguments:

1. The AK was perfect the way it was designed and should be kept and used as Kalashnikov intended.

The AK-47 was designed a long time ago. Fighting methods have changed since then. Troops are receiving better training. Advances have been made in technology. Optics are in widespread use by the common soldier. Training that was formerly reserved for special units is now available to the infantryman. The infantryman’s weapon should be able to support the newer methods, tactics, and technology, or it will soon be obsolete.

The M16 was also designed a long time ago. In its original configuration, it would now be considered obsolete for military purposes. It has evolved to reflect changing tactics, missions, and technology. Military M4 carbines now sport rail systems, better collapsible stocks, better pistol grips, optics, foregrips, lasers, lights, tactical slings, and other upgrades, depending on the mission.

The same guy who is in favor of accessorizing an AR-15 with these types of accessories, for some reason feels that it is heresy to even mention adding one of the same accessories to an AK. Why? Because our perception of the AK is different than that of people who live in countries that field the AK as their service weapon. We are used to seeing modernized M4s in the hands of our troops on our evening news,  just as they are becoming familiar with modernized AKs in the hands of their troops. In America, we don’t see modern troops armed with modernized AK rifles. Remember the battle-hardened youth with the battered AK? That is still our perception of the AK. That is still the face of many of our enemies.

To insist that American shooters should always keep their AKs configured like some of our insurgent enemies do, out of some misplaced nostalgia, is ludicrous. A weapon should be configured to work best for the intended purpose. (Of course, if that purpose is just recreational shooting or collecting, then it should be configured in whatever way the owner prefers – it is not critical.)

2. I don’t want to change my AK because I want to be able to pick up any AK and run it.

People configure their AR-15s in many different ways. I have a preference, but I can pick up any AR and run it if I need to. I could also pick up an M1 Carbine, an 1892 Winchester, or an AK and fight with it if I needed to. If I was running an AK in combat, there are certain improvements I would want to make to the weapon in order to help me to be effective as possible. These improvements will not prevent me from being able to use any other AK,  but would help me to be more effective in using my own weapon. Let’s face it; I would very rarely need to use an enemy weapon, if ever.

3. You are just trying to replace training with gizmos.

So many times we do try to replace training with devices. I am a strong believer in investing more money in people than in complicated gear. I would rather be well trained with a simple weapon than some kind of poorly trained robo-cop-type who is helpless when my batteries die.

On the other hand, a lot of training with the AK involves workarounds for a less than ideal configuration. If I can make a few simple changes to the configuration that allow me to fight with the weapon more quickly and positively, I will do it. I will make the weapon more effective to use and then train to use it effectively. I will always do all I can to make a weapon fit the way I use it, and I will still train, because I am not replacing training with a device – I am making my training more effective. Be sure, though, that you think about the benefits of any accessory or device you place on a weapon. Add only what will help you and make sure it is a sound concept.

The bottom line is this: if you are building a fighting AK, keep it as simple as possible, while including those things that will help you to be more effective with the weapon. Use a comfortable stock with the right length of pull and a good cheek weld. Add an optic and a better pistol grip. Improve the safety selector lever. Make the weapon fit your need and don’t worry about the purists.

Please be sure to comment on this post and discuss your thoughts on this issue. I will follow up soon with a short list of accessories and upgrades that I think are a good idea for a fighting AK rifle.

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