Let us start with the insanity.
Over the weekend, the Today Show once again repeated the claim that the Arctic would be ice-free in the summer by 2013. I guess the reporting on the boogeyman of "global warming", er "climate change", er "The Earth is going to kill us all!" has slackened off a bit.
That's a way to get me to throw dog toys at the TV on a Saturday morning. The funny thing is, that prediction makes it sound more dire than it actually is. They make it sound like all of the Arctic ice is going to disappear. In reality, the prediction is the Arctic ice will retreat to make the bulk of the Arctic Ocean passable where it previously has not been. This predication has been around since 2007.
Big deal. Shorter shipping routes, Arctic tourist cruises and the like. What's wrong with that?
It was after that announcement that the Today show revealed the agenda for bringing it up because a new "scare and guilt them" program on "global warming", er "climate change", er "The Earth is going to kill us all!" about how if the ice melts we'd all be under 20+ feet of water at the coasts. Of course, leave it to the MSM to conflate two issues. First they talked about the Arctic and then ever so slyly shifted to the Greenland glaciers. Since the average person isn't very knowledgeable about science and, more importantly, geography they may not realize they weren't the same thing. But it creates in the minds of the gullible the notion that if the Arctic melts, we're all going to drown.
Sigh. As much as I despise stupid people, purveyors of lies and deliberate deception like this are far worse. I'd go as far as to call it "evil".
The following day there were into the breathless panic of swine flu. It seems my feelings on that matter are echoed here at work in the form of we are getting seriously annoyed at the panic mongering the MSM is engaging in on this issue of the day. 80 or so deaths in Mexico does not constitute a "pandemic". 20 or so cases here in the US without a single fatality does not allow you to hang that mantra on this.
For a real definition of "pandemic", see Spanish Flu circa 1918 and then get back to me. For the uninitiated, "pan" in "pandemic" means "everywhere". Global. Spot cases here and there and isolated to a few countries even across the ocean is not a pandemic.
So more dog toys got tossed at the TV.
As a result, I needed to work on my anger management in a peaceful fashion so I went to the gun show.
This was more insanity. I can honestly say this trip was mainly entertainment. Since like a lot of shooters I'm sitting on my stockpile, I was observing the behavior of others. I have never seen ammo pallets getting the once over like this since the great Cabbage Patch Doll Christmas panic of 1982. $500 for 1000 rounds of .223 ball ammo? Even more for Lake City SS109. Sorry kids, it ain't worth $600+ per thousand. It was fun to watch others hug the cases to their chest like it was Corrine Marie in her new yellow jumper and low numbered adoption certificate, breathless with Visa in hand.
And yet, by Saturday afternoon the ammo dealers were selling the pallets themselves. Cheaper to sell them at $10 a pop than load them back onto the truck. Ammo tables were mostly stripped bare. By the way, if anyone knows where all the .45ACP has gone, please let me know. Lots of .40S&W and .380 to be found even if at outrageous prices but .45 appears to disappeared off the edge of the world. Same goes for 7.5mm French. I want to find the person who cleaned out my favorite dealer on that stuff. He had several cans of it one day, gone the next.
There's always July and I can wait.
Which brings us to the loophole part. Several interesting rifles presented themselves and next time, I will listen to my instincts and the urgings of my wife to give them money today and go back tomorrow to do the paperwork. A couple of nice Hakims and a very unusual Martini-Henry converted to .303.
Now usually a .303 Martini-Enfield (as such rifles are called) isn't anything to write home about. But this was either a re-arsenal or new build in 1916 which made it a 4473 transfer and the fact, unlike other Martini-Enfields, this one had an SMLE front end on it. My evening research couldn't find any reference to such a conversion which would make it quite a unique addition to the collection. Feed ramp and the gun overall was in great shape. Bluing was intact, probably 90%+. It got my focused attention at $350.
I said it would be there tomorrow if I wanted it. Leave it to me to have permission and then waffle out of guilt. Unfortunately, someone else got the same message and it and its Hakim companion were gone when I returned. A couple of nice Martini-Henrys and a Snider-Enfield tempted me but since there were no Enfield marks on the Snider's lock, I decided I didn't want to take a chance on an unknown rifle.
So I made up for it at the table next door. The only thing nicer than buying guns is buying guns without a background check. There you go anti-rights people! Gun show loophole! Gun show loophole!
I wasn't in the mood for the four hour delay again. As I've said in the past, the whole NICS check makes me feel like a criminal and I hate that feeling. So I'm giving preference to antiques. Guns made in or before 1898 are not considered firearms under Federal law and can be sold cash-and-carry anywhere in the country and even bought and sold mail order.
The dealer had a Steyr Gewehr Model 1888 Commission Rifle. A couple of dents in the barrel shroud but wood was good, bluing was good on the barrel and bore was strong. Made in 1891 and chambered in 8mm Mauser. Next to it was an Italian 1880 Vetterli converted to 6.5mm Carcano with original sling and bayonet. A little back and forth and five minutes later, I'm walking out of the gun show with a rifle under each arm.
Yes, I bought evil, scary 19th century "assault weapons" without a background check! At a gun show! In Virginia as a Maryland resident! Call 20/20! Seriously though, the Vetterli needs some work but the Gewehr 88 just needs a bit of cleaning. I may even actually shoot that one. Both are pretty and sometimes you just need to buy a gun because you like it. Personally, I see old guns as unwanted pets in a shelter: they need to be adopted into a loving home and showered with attention.
Some people may find this disturbing that someone can walk into a gun show and walk out with guns without a background check. You need to understand that at no time were any laws broken. If you are unable or unwilling to at least understand the law as it pertains to transactions involving antique firearms, let alone private transfer laws that apply to modern firearms, don't comment on how such a "loophole" needs to be closed let alone demand legislation by force to do so. You're arguing from a position of profound ignorance and it is frankly getting very tiring.
You also need to understand that on the long timeline of liberty, anonymous firearms ownership is a must. I don't care if you can't see past your prejudices and personal horror that the government may not know who has guns. That's the whole point! As long as there are firearms out there, antique or modern, that cannot be accounted for the possibility of us being pushed too far and fighting back as the Founders intended will always remain.
As a co-worker commented to me, "If someone can buy a gun like that and walk out, what's the point of the background check? Doesn't that go around its purpose?".
Yes, it does. While I am not wholly opposed to background checks and dislike how they are currently applied, he was spot on. Honestly, the point of background checks are mainly for people to feel good that something was done to potentially keep bad people from getting guns. Virtually none of the people who fail the background checks due to being prohibited from owning firearms are ever prosecuted. So have them if you want but don't believe for a second that it prevents gun crime. After all, the Virginia Tech shooter passed two background checks in acquiring his guns and obeyed ever other law in the process except for the felony of lying on ATF Form 4473.
But I will not oppose background checks as long as various means of legal anonymous firearms ownership exist. Private sales, antique arms and building your own guns are all free of government oversight in most states. Including my own. Most people don't get spun up about it. The only ones that do, strangely, are the only ones who know nothing about the laws that exist and think some nefarious activity is taking place.
Somehow, I am not bothered if someone gets their knickers in a knot because I was able to buy a 125 year old piece of history without a government bureaucrat saying it was ok. And just to make sure that knot is good and tight, understand the 125+ year old rifle bought without a background check fires the exact same cartridge that my Yugo M48 Mauser does and was bought with a background check. Assuming the antique is in good condition, it is just as lethal in the wrong hands.
Somehow, I just don't see a drug dealer doing a drive-by with a nearly four foot long, single shot antique no matter how powerful the round. But I'm sure people will be stunned and horrified that this is even possible. And I'm not even a licensed collector!
Most won't even care that in 99.9% or greater of these cases, all these untracked guns will do is hang on a wall or sit in a safe amongst their peers. They're guns and that's all that matters. Logic is the first thing that leaves their brains when that topic is involved.
When all is said and done, I am approaching the glorious "double arsenal" mark. Those of you in the know can figure out how many guns are involved but suffice it to say, a third cabinet is order. They are starting to overflow and getting the guns in and out is like assembling a large wooden puzzle.
I think I can get used to that.
Over the weekend, the Today Show once again repeated the claim that the Arctic would be ice-free in the summer by 2013. I guess the reporting on the boogeyman of "global warming", er "climate change", er "The Earth is going to kill us all!" has slackened off a bit.
That's a way to get me to throw dog toys at the TV on a Saturday morning. The funny thing is, that prediction makes it sound more dire than it actually is. They make it sound like all of the Arctic ice is going to disappear. In reality, the prediction is the Arctic ice will retreat to make the bulk of the Arctic Ocean passable where it previously has not been. This predication has been around since 2007.
Big deal. Shorter shipping routes, Arctic tourist cruises and the like. What's wrong with that?
It was after that announcement that the Today show revealed the agenda for bringing it up because a new "scare and guilt them" program on "global warming", er "climate change", er "The Earth is going to kill us all!" about how if the ice melts we'd all be under 20+ feet of water at the coasts. Of course, leave it to the MSM to conflate two issues. First they talked about the Arctic and then ever so slyly shifted to the Greenland glaciers. Since the average person isn't very knowledgeable about science and, more importantly, geography they may not realize they weren't the same thing. But it creates in the minds of the gullible the notion that if the Arctic melts, we're all going to drown.
Sigh. As much as I despise stupid people, purveyors of lies and deliberate deception like this are far worse. I'd go as far as to call it "evil".
The following day there were into the breathless panic of swine flu. It seems my feelings on that matter are echoed here at work in the form of we are getting seriously annoyed at the panic mongering the MSM is engaging in on this issue of the day. 80 or so deaths in Mexico does not constitute a "pandemic". 20 or so cases here in the US without a single fatality does not allow you to hang that mantra on this.
For a real definition of "pandemic", see Spanish Flu circa 1918 and then get back to me. For the uninitiated, "pan" in "pandemic" means "everywhere". Global. Spot cases here and there and isolated to a few countries even across the ocean is not a pandemic.
So more dog toys got tossed at the TV.
As a result, I needed to work on my anger management in a peaceful fashion so I went to the gun show.
This was more insanity. I can honestly say this trip was mainly entertainment. Since like a lot of shooters I'm sitting on my stockpile, I was observing the behavior of others. I have never seen ammo pallets getting the once over like this since the great Cabbage Patch Doll Christmas panic of 1982. $500 for 1000 rounds of .223 ball ammo? Even more for Lake City SS109. Sorry kids, it ain't worth $600+ per thousand. It was fun to watch others hug the cases to their chest like it was Corrine Marie in her new yellow jumper and low numbered adoption certificate, breathless with Visa in hand.
And yet, by Saturday afternoon the ammo dealers were selling the pallets themselves. Cheaper to sell them at $10 a pop than load them back onto the truck. Ammo tables were mostly stripped bare. By the way, if anyone knows where all the .45ACP has gone, please let me know. Lots of .40S&W and .380 to be found even if at outrageous prices but .45 appears to disappeared off the edge of the world. Same goes for 7.5mm French. I want to find the person who cleaned out my favorite dealer on that stuff. He had several cans of it one day, gone the next.
There's always July and I can wait.
Which brings us to the loophole part. Several interesting rifles presented themselves and next time, I will listen to my instincts and the urgings of my wife to give them money today and go back tomorrow to do the paperwork. A couple of nice Hakims and a very unusual Martini-Henry converted to .303.
Now usually a .303 Martini-Enfield (as such rifles are called) isn't anything to write home about. But this was either a re-arsenal or new build in 1916 which made it a 4473 transfer and the fact, unlike other Martini-Enfields, this one had an SMLE front end on it. My evening research couldn't find any reference to such a conversion which would make it quite a unique addition to the collection. Feed ramp and the gun overall was in great shape. Bluing was intact, probably 90%+. It got my focused attention at $350.
I said it would be there tomorrow if I wanted it. Leave it to me to have permission and then waffle out of guilt. Unfortunately, someone else got the same message and it and its Hakim companion were gone when I returned. A couple of nice Martini-Henrys and a Snider-Enfield tempted me but since there were no Enfield marks on the Snider's lock, I decided I didn't want to take a chance on an unknown rifle.
So I made up for it at the table next door. The only thing nicer than buying guns is buying guns without a background check. There you go anti-rights people! Gun show loophole! Gun show loophole!
I wasn't in the mood for the four hour delay again. As I've said in the past, the whole NICS check makes me feel like a criminal and I hate that feeling. So I'm giving preference to antiques. Guns made in or before 1898 are not considered firearms under Federal law and can be sold cash-and-carry anywhere in the country and even bought and sold mail order.
The dealer had a Steyr Gewehr Model 1888 Commission Rifle. A couple of dents in the barrel shroud but wood was good, bluing was good on the barrel and bore was strong. Made in 1891 and chambered in 8mm Mauser. Next to it was an Italian 1880 Vetterli converted to 6.5mm Carcano with original sling and bayonet. A little back and forth and five minutes later, I'm walking out of the gun show with a rifle under each arm.
Yes, I bought evil, scary 19th century "assault weapons" without a background check! At a gun show! In Virginia as a Maryland resident! Call 20/20! Seriously though, the Vetterli needs some work but the Gewehr 88 just needs a bit of cleaning. I may even actually shoot that one. Both are pretty and sometimes you just need to buy a gun because you like it. Personally, I see old guns as unwanted pets in a shelter: they need to be adopted into a loving home and showered with attention.
Some people may find this disturbing that someone can walk into a gun show and walk out with guns without a background check. You need to understand that at no time were any laws broken. If you are unable or unwilling to at least understand the law as it pertains to transactions involving antique firearms, let alone private transfer laws that apply to modern firearms, don't comment on how such a "loophole" needs to be closed let alone demand legislation by force to do so. You're arguing from a position of profound ignorance and it is frankly getting very tiring.
You also need to understand that on the long timeline of liberty, anonymous firearms ownership is a must. I don't care if you can't see past your prejudices and personal horror that the government may not know who has guns. That's the whole point! As long as there are firearms out there, antique or modern, that cannot be accounted for the possibility of us being pushed too far and fighting back as the Founders intended will always remain.
As a co-worker commented to me, "If someone can buy a gun like that and walk out, what's the point of the background check? Doesn't that go around its purpose?".
Yes, it does. While I am not wholly opposed to background checks and dislike how they are currently applied, he was spot on. Honestly, the point of background checks are mainly for people to feel good that something was done to potentially keep bad people from getting guns. Virtually none of the people who fail the background checks due to being prohibited from owning firearms are ever prosecuted. So have them if you want but don't believe for a second that it prevents gun crime. After all, the Virginia Tech shooter passed two background checks in acquiring his guns and obeyed ever other law in the process except for the felony of lying on ATF Form 4473.
But I will not oppose background checks as long as various means of legal anonymous firearms ownership exist. Private sales, antique arms and building your own guns are all free of government oversight in most states. Including my own. Most people don't get spun up about it. The only ones that do, strangely, are the only ones who know nothing about the laws that exist and think some nefarious activity is taking place.
Somehow, I am not bothered if someone gets their knickers in a knot because I was able to buy a 125 year old piece of history without a government bureaucrat saying it was ok. And just to make sure that knot is good and tight, understand the 125+ year old rifle bought without a background check fires the exact same cartridge that my Yugo M48 Mauser does and was bought with a background check. Assuming the antique is in good condition, it is just as lethal in the wrong hands.
Somehow, I just don't see a drug dealer doing a drive-by with a nearly four foot long, single shot antique no matter how powerful the round. But I'm sure people will be stunned and horrified that this is even possible. And I'm not even a licensed collector!
Most won't even care that in 99.9% or greater of these cases, all these untracked guns will do is hang on a wall or sit in a safe amongst their peers. They're guns and that's all that matters. Logic is the first thing that leaves their brains when that topic is involved.
When all is said and done, I am approaching the glorious "double arsenal" mark. Those of you in the know can figure out how many guns are involved but suffice it to say, a third cabinet is order. They are starting to overflow and getting the guns in and out is like assembling a large wooden puzzle.
I think I can get used to that.
