The notations in the video are from one of the members of ArfCom.  (Link to AR15.com thread.)  The only person in this video who shows anything like safe gun handling is the one woman in the video.  Look like her only mistake is hanging out with these dipshits.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again.  The Four Rules ARE NOT OPTIONAL.

RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED

RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY

RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET

RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND EVERYTHING THAT IS BEYOND IT

These rules were codified in the above format by one of the greatest shottists and gun writers in history, Colonel Jeff Cooper. I can’t decide whether it’s sad or fitting that I’d be posting a video with such aggregious violations of the rules on the anniversary of his passing.  In addition to the Four Rules as listed above, Colonel Cooper gave us the Modern Technique of pistol shooting, the concept of the Scout Rifle, and a large body of work that encompasses some of the finest writing on firearms in history.  The shooting community is truly worse for having lost him, but infinitely better for having had him amongst our ranks.

It’s truly a pity that some firearms owners have either never heard of Cooper’s Four Rules or choose to willfully disregard them.

The Four Rules.  They’re not hard, but they are critical:

RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED

RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY

RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET

RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND EVERYTHING THAT IS BEYOND IT.

These rules should be burned indelibly into the minds of ANYONE who touches a firearm. Period. No exceptions. Not even for the hip, fashionable, and “ironic”.

EDITED TO ADD: JaneC, in comments, pointed me to this post which is way worse than than the Rule 3 violations included here.  Hope this family will like their impending .22 inch skylight and I seriously hope that no one is hurt by their cavalier stupidity.

Go go gadget 0-based list!

0.)  So this blog’s been faltering largely because I’ve been focusing on Other Things.  Work’s taken up epic amounts of time. When I haven’t been working, I’ve been trying to get a thesis done and to study for my comps.  I WILL finish this M. Phil.  I will.  Period.  And so between Thesis stuff and work and daily chores and errands and such, time’s been scant of late.

1.)    And when I haven’t been working or thesising or studying for comps or doing chores and errands or sleeping, I’ve been totally addicted to Red Faction: Guerrilla on the XBox 360.  The single player campaign’s pretty decent.  Story holds no surprises for people who played the first two of the series.  (Other, of course, than the “what? I already freed Mars.  I have to do it again?” factor.  Seriously, guys, three revolutions is enough.  Let’s try to make this one stick, alright?)

What’s been particularly addictive, however, is the multiplayer.  The game-modes that make use of the destructive buildings make for a fun, variable game play experience.  The deathmatch modes are fun, but not particularly new.  Some of the maps have some balance issues (one, in particular, is a “first one to rocket launcher wins” sort of map), and some of the weapons are either useless or too powerful.  But really, the gameplay in all of the multiplayer modes is at least solid, and in some cases (Siege, in particular) pretty damned awesome.

2.)  Shooting’s flagging.  I don’t have the time or the money to be as competitive as I’d like, so I’ve scaled from “practicing for competition” schedule back to the “maintain high competency” schedule.  A couple hundred rounds twice a month.  I’m not going to win the Bianchi Cup, but I can keep them in the 10 ring at conversational distances just fine.

On that note, I’m going to be scaling my armory down a bit.  I now have one pistol (my XD 45) I can use for carry and the occasional competition.  And while I LOVE my CZ-75, I shoot the XD more accurately and not much slower than the CZ.  So while the CZ was originally going to be my competition gun, I think I might sell it off.  Similarly, I think my Heritage Arms .22 revolver may get sold.  It has been a lot of fun, but it was essentially an impulse buy.  I’d never shot a 22mag before, so I got it, shot it, liked it reasonably well.  Now it’s just sitting in the top of my closet.

Heck, I’m even considering selling off my Walther P22, which is a good little piece, save for the fact that it was accursed straight from the factory with sloppy sights and a magazine disconnect “safety”.

My Mosin’s down for the count with a crack in the chamber.  (And actually a piece of it missing that came flying out on extraction of a round.)  So I’ll probably break it down to parts, clean it up, and give it to my buddy Paul who has a Mosin.

Of course, if I get rid of all that iron, I’ll probably wind up immediately buying one of those new T/C Ventures in 30-06.  Seriously, those rifles are so sexy it hurts.  And they’re priced at just $500!  That is, if I can find one.

All of that would leave me with every piece I’ve thought might make up a well-stocked gun safe.  I’d have a good, reliable shotgun (Mossberg 590A), a carry pistol (Springfield XD .45), a militia rifle (Sig 556), a full power bolt action rifle (T/C Venture 30-06), and a .22 of some kind (Marlin Model 60).

3.)  Politics, politics, politics.  The health care debate is unfortunate in that it’s hiding some bigger debates we need to have in this country.  Many of them the sorts of procedural, metagovernance that gets ignored too often in favor of rabid, vapid DoSomething-ism.

Honestly, I’d like to give you an incisive, well-thought out rebuttal to the actual material of the bill as proposed.  But, like much of Congress, I haven’t read it.  I haven’t time.  Of course I have the excuse that I have a job.  That IS their job.  Of course, it’s not like they have time.  These days legislation is about DOING SOMETHING NOW NOW NOW OR WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE JUST FUCKING PASS SOMETHING ALREADY.

“Do something, even if it’s wrong” is all fine and good in one’s personal life, but it’s a shitty way to run a government.

So anyway, I’ll just leave you with two thoughts, one practical and one principled, on socialized medicine in general.  First, the inimitable P. J. O’Rourke who quips: “Think healthcare is expensive now?  Just wait ’til you see what it costs when it’s free.”  And on the principled side of things, I’ll turn the proverbial mic over to Marko Kloos:

“Health care is great, and I wouldn’t want to be without access to it.

But a “human right”?  Hippie, please.

I have no doubt that the owner of the thusly-stickered car considers him- or herself to be educated, informed, and thoroughly on top of things.  By proclaiming health care a “right”, however, he or she demonstrates a rather galling unfamiliarity with the nature of rights.

Let’s get the most obvious point out of the way first.  You cannot have a right to something that necessitates a financial obligation on someone else’s part. “

4.) I’m becoming increasingly fond of the topical blog format. I’m also becoming somewhat sick of my chosen-in-the-spur-of-the-moment blog title. I doubt I’ll split the blogs again, because really, if that’s the case, then where will it stop? I mean, I could easily have a music blog, a politics blog, a gun blog, a science/geekery blog, and a blog for everything else. And that thought annoys even me, and I love my own writing.

I think I’ll probably just play with the way I use this blog first. Probably rename it, probably start on the stylistic changes that have been LONG overdue. I’m currently in arears to my graphic designer, so I won’t be asking for any new graphics until I pay her what I owe her. Or until she agrees that me helping her haul her furniture into her new 3rd-floor walkup was sufficient payment.

5.) And now, off to Thesis work. I’m 60 pages in, with lots of material left on the cutting room floor, as it were. It’s depressing to think that I’ve got probably another 20 pages to go knowing that I very well might have cut that much, if not more, out. Still. Them’s the breaks I guess.

I leave you with this video of an absurdly awesome cigarette trick courtesy of a crazy old juggler:

Updated 2009.7.7: Somehow WordPress managed to eat the link to Marko Kloos’ blog post.  Fixed.

“Oh Lord of Hosts, who guided my namesake David’s hand so that he could put a rock right through Goliath’s pre-frontal lobes even though he played the harp in his spare time, I thank Thee that the readers didn’t see me do that.”

This got me thinking that it’s interesting to me that a media, namely blogs, that have long been associated with personal spleen-venting, are increasingly becoming sources for polished, focused commentary.  Some of the work (e.g. Kevin Baker’s uberposts) being done on them is downright scholarly.  We’ve reached a point in the development of blogs where expert writers such as Petzal and his coblogger Phil Bourjaily are using a blog as their primary means of communication with their readership.  Gone are the days (if such days ever existed outside stereotypes and media prejudice) where blogs were primarily the purview of personal screeds and mopes.

Blogging has entered the age where it’s become a legitimate channel for informed, expert communication.  What’s more, the experts are understanding their audience not solely as the readers of their books, articles, or columns, but as the readership of their blogs as well.

What does this mean for the Internet in general and blogging in particular?  I have to confess that I’m not entirely sure.  But I do think that it’s Real Damn Interesting.

But that’s okay.  Because once every kitchen in the UK is equipped with Stab-Proof Knives, I’m sure those numbers will go down.  Er, well, except for the simple assaults.  For those someone will have to invent punch-proof fists.

I’m sure they’re hard at work on it.

1.) Clothes that are good for concealment can be decidedly ungood for working with a competition rig.  My baggy t-shirt kept snagging my mags and getting between my gun and my holster.

2.) The double action to single action transition on my CZ-75 that I thought I was never going to get used to?  It helps to practice it.  Helps a lot.  As in, I no longer recall why it bugged me in the first place.

3.) Firearm + lots of ammo run through it – time to cool down = SOME PARTS ARE HOT!  EXERCISE CAUTION!  (Doubt it will blister, hopefully my finger will forgive me.  Again, this is not the first and likely not the last time I’ll learn this lesson.)

When I was a student in England, during our orientation, we were briefed by a very distinguished former police officer.  When asked, he told us that, while we had a right to defend ourselves under British law, we were “best not to use that right.”  Even if the tools of personal defense were available, it seems unlikely to me that British subjects would be safe in using them.  Of course, I’d rather be judged by twelve than carried by six, as the saying goes, but I wonder how many Brits feel the same way.

In this regard, I think Kevin Baker’s piece is well-researched, cogent, and topical, and I highly recommend it.  One thing I appreciated most about it was that it lacked the condescension towards the situation that I’ve seen in a lot of other articles.  The legal situation in the UK isn’t simply one which outlaws firearms, but one which essentially outlaws self-defense in any form.  This is not something to sneer at, as it winds up putting good men and women behind bars for the “crime” of meeting force with force when no other option was available.

Given that climate, what the British people need isn’t derision, but whatever support we, as outsiders, can give them in changing their laws if they so choose.  I think articles like Kevin Baker’s are a fantastic way to do this.  They demonstrate that, far from reducing crime, the criminalization of self-defense and the effective tools therefore are correlated with rising crime in the UK.  The opposite situation, roughly  shown by the increase in Right-to-Carry legislation in the US, has correlated with a steady decrease in violent crime here in the states.¹ In short, they demonstrate that there is another way.

Of course, the UK isn’t my country.  I have no claim on its laws, and it’s presumptuous of me to try and say how the country SHOULD go.  Still, if the subjects of the British Crown decide that they want to rally and win back their right to defend themselves and their loved ones, then those efforts should be accompanied by our wholehearted support and not with sneers of “I told you so.”

In closing, I offer the following poster with no further commentary:

Image taken from NRA-ILA. http://nraila.org/

¹ – Correlation is not the same as causation. Your legislative mileage may vary. Offer not valid in Wisconsin, Illinois, or Washington D. C. Some restrictions apply.

In the meantime, here’s the new best thing I’ve discovered on the internet in ages.  (Includes vulgar language and occasional soda-out-nose levels of funny.)

Also a few bits of news I’ve been meaning to comment on, but haven’t had a chance.

So the Lon Horiuchi/H-S Precision thing.  I’m just kind of impressed how short-sighted and stupid the company was in this case.  How can you be a firearms manufacturer and just not know that most gunnies have a raging hate-on for Horiuchi?

For non-gunnies in the audience, Lon Horiuchi was the man who shot and killed Vicky Weaver (unarmed and holding her 10-month-old child at the time) at Ruby Ridge.  He was, at best, criminally wreckless.  At worst he’s an out-and-out murderer.  I mean, it’s detestable that H-S Precision would use Horiuchi’s testimonial, but aside from that it’s just so impressively stupid.  I almost want to applaud them for exploring new and interesting ways to be ignorant douchebags.  I mean, it’s truly ground-breaking work in the area of tacky numbskullery.

In other depressing news (and this is the topic of a long and getting longer follow-up post to this one here): a teenager was shot by Greek cops, there was (and still is) rioting, and now Europe’s on fire.

In African news, Mugabe is still an evil, ignorant asshole.

On a more interesting and less horrible note, scientists have found a whole mess of new kinds of critters in the Mekong.  Of course yet another species of spider “the size of a dinner plate” is EXACTLY what my nightmares needed…

In personal news, my new job is going fantastically well.  I finally got around to selling out and taking a salaried position, and it was a great decision.  For the first time in my professional career I like the people I work with and the work that I do.  I actually don’t mind going to work anymore!

Thesis is coming along.  Comps aren’t yet, but since I’m not allowed to take paid time off for another couple of months, I have a built-in excuse for not taking them yet.

That’s about the news.  Like I said, I have a few posts started on various topics.  If I haven’t lost all my readers, please stick around and watch this space and, work and motivation willing, I’ll get those up in the next few days.

“The Vermont Supreme Court has ruled that a hunter who shoots and injures someone because he or she didn’t properly identify the target can face an aggravated assault charge.

In a case arising out of Lamoille County, the court upheld the aggravated assault conviction of Eric Patch, who was out partridge hunting in November of 2006 when he saw movement in a tree, fired his 12-gauge shotgun and hit a deer hunter.”

This is as it should be.  When a person discharges a firearm, they are responsible for its projectiles until they come to rest.  Rule 4: Know your target and what is beyond it.  Don’t shoot at noises, shadows, or a confirmed target against an unknown backdrop.

“A report of shots fired at 19th and Eye streets came in to police and responding officers found evidence that a shooting had in fact taken place. A call came in soon after from San Joaquin Hospital reporting a gunshot victim, police said.

Hasley was uncooperative when officers tried to interview him, police said. He may have been putting a gun in his waistband when it went off.”

Also: crammed in your waistband is NOT the way to carry.  Get yourself a holster that fits your weapon, has strong retention, and completely covers the trigger.