Restaurant Carry Lives Again

The restaurant carry bills have returned to the Ohio legislature. This time they separated the part of the bill that would allow people who had committed certain minor drug related crimes to eventually get their second amendment rights returned. I think it was a wise move to separate them.

Details at http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/7654.

Restaurant Carry: HB45, SB17
Restoration of Rights: HB54, SB61

I fully support, encourage, and desire restaurant carry. I encourage all how read this to support it as well.

I am less certain on the restoration of rights to misdemeanor drug offenders. I'd much rather we make up our minds as to whether using things like marijuana are really crimes or not. Treating it as half a crime isn't good for anyone. As it is, I'm torn. Important human right restored, or less-than-totally-responsible person with gun. I'd love to see a video of debate on HB54/SB61. I'd love to see some stats showing drug users aren't overwhelmingly total dumbasses and failures at life before deciding. I haven't met enough to know.

21 Foot Rule

21 feet is often considered the distance at which the advantage of having a holstered gun is about even with that of having a knife. This is a popular topic of debate among the those who think a lot about self defense. However when discussing such things it is important not to come off like a lunatic that has lost all perspective.

Take this guy for instance... He manages to come off a little creepy.

Video 1 (Watch first)


Thankfully you can always count on another clever Internet user to present an alternate point of view.

Video 2 (Watch second)

H.R. 308, the "Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act."

The bill to limit gun magazines 10 rounds has been introduced. Details can be found here. I haven't been able to find the bill text just yet. Supposedly, it lacks protection for existing property that original 90s assault weapons ban had.

(Updated) Bill text and other details can be found here.

Register at PopVox to make your opinion known. https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr308

John Lott Weighs in on Post-Arizona Gun Control

In the wake of the Tucson, Arizona shooting there have been a many comments from scared politicians hoping to make everyone feel better by passing new laws to limit access to guns or gun accessories. While their hearts might be in the right place, it is sometimes helpful to apply some math instead fear based random brainstorming to solve a problem.

Here is an opinion piece by John R. Lott Jr. outlining his thoughts on the subject. He is a statistician, author, and in general very smart man. I also recommend his book "More Guns, Less Crime," particularly if you enjoy math. The even if you happen to somehow not agree with his conclusions the raw crime statistics are fascinating.



Again I encourage you read Mr. Lott's opinion. With that said, here is my opinion.

One of the more popular ideas is to ban "high capacity" gun magazines. While I don't think 30+ round magazines for handguns are particularly practical, I very much disagree with banning the sale of items that are not in and of themselves unreasonably dangerous. I also very much disagree with their threshold for what constitutes "high capacity." Ten rounds is generally the number thrown around. Most full sized semi-automatic handguns come standard with 15-17 round magazines, so 10 would hardly be considered the norm. It doesn't make sense to pass a law that would limit such a common item.

Every law has a costs. Costs to pass, costs to document, costs to enforce, costs to prosecute, and perhaps most importantly costs legal credibility.

Each law passed subtracts credibility from all the laws that came before it. The human mind can only hold so many rules. If there are too many laws with so little obvious application to public safety, it becomes difficult to take any of them seriously. If every day a citizen lives is a minefield of seeming trivial rules and regulations, eventually they must resign themselves to the impossibility of living totally within the law.

Due to the sheer number of laws in the US it is hard to imagine that during a lifetime any citizen could get by without breaking some law, probably many, without even knowing it. If there are too many laws they become a burden on society instead of value. All citizens become potential victims of political or personality driven selective enforcement, and basic rights suffer because of it. Iran is good example of this. Everyone there ignores all the little laws and live de facto free lives--which is fine until they say something someone in power doesn't like and law enforcement comes by with their magnifying glass looking for a way to make them disappear. We need real freedom, not de facto freedom created by lax law enforcement.

I beg legislators to consider a few things when deciding to add new a law:
1. Does the law really solve the problem? Can you prove it?
2. Is it already covered under existing law? Or can the same thing be accomplished by removing language from existing laws or making minor modifications?
3. Is reasonable for a citizen to comply with the law? Would they need knowledge or tools that aren't likely to be accessible in order to comply? Is it common sense that there would even be a regulation about the thing or action being controlled?
4. Can the law be practically enforced?
5. Is the law worth enforcing consistently, all of the time, even if it means other laws get less attention?
6. Is whatever problem this law might solve worth the negative affect on daily life the law may have multiplied by the total population? For instance, would reducing the chance of 1 person being injured be worth 1 hour of 300 million peoples lives?
7. Remember that MANY people have given their lives to keep this country free. Perhaps if they thought freedom our was worth near certain death for themselves, we can concede that it is also worth a 0.0001% increased probability of death for ourselves.

Tomorrow's Vote

For my friends who could use some help tomorrow. Here are my voting plans for tomorrow. The list mostly reflects the NRA recommended list. This is a particularly important time for 2nd Amendment rights in the state of Ohio. So Governor, Supreme Court, Attorney General and State House and State Senate are particularly critical choices.

The most important ones are in orange.

Governor - Ted Strickland (D)
Lieutenant Governor - Mary Taylor (R)
Attorney General - Richard Cordray (D)
Secretary of State - Jon Husted (R)
Auditor - Dave Yost (R)
Treasurer - Josh Mandel (R)
Chief Justice of Ohio Supreme Court - Maureen O'Connor (R)
Justice of Ohio Supreme Court - Judith Ann Lanzinger (R)
State Senate - Frank LaRose (R)
State House - Lynn Slaby (R)
US Senate - Rob Portman (R)
US House - Steve LaTourette (R)

For auditor the Democratic opponent didn't seem bad either. Both were pro-gun (not that it matters for an auditor). The Republican was endorsed by CPAs and the Democrat was endorsed by mostly newspapers. I think I'll side with the accountants.

There is also a school levy I think I'm going to vote for. It sounds like they have been trying to be frugal.

Punderson State Park - Recon

I saw online that Punderson State Park has an archery range--an unattended range. I was expecting perhaps some land set aside with signs and maybe some marked boxes on the ground showing where to stand and where to put the targets you brought with you.

I was curious and decided to go check it out since I was in the area. What I found was much more impressive than I expected.







They have a range going out to at least 50 yards with actual target backstops already in place.

Here's one from a distance. Notice there are also grooves for sledding on the hill in winter.



In addition to the fairly standard looking range, they also have something like an archery golf course back through the woods. You move from station to station and shoot.







Some additional random notes about Punderson:

• There is pretty decent tennis court at the top of the hill.
  
• There is a golf course and a Frisbee golf course.
  
• Restroom facilities range from not very good to actual hole in ground. Take some sanitizer.
  

Yum! - Perch sandwich

It is always difficult to find a good fish sandwich in Ohio. We aren't really known for seafood. Still I had an excellent fried perch sandwich today at Blazin Bills. Blazin, because it is a barbecue place in case there was a doubt.



Unfortunately, I didn't think of taking a picture until I had eaten half of it and fished of fresh baked bread they brought before it. It was delicious! It is a long way from my house, but I think I'll try to find some more excuses to drive out that way.

Range Report

Today's trip to the range was primary to get used to shooting my new Ruger 10/22 with iron sights. It seems to be shooting about 3 inches high and 5 inches left. I should be able to adjust the sights compensate but stupidly forgot to bring the necessary tools to the range.

Below are some of my later targets at 50 yards after I tried to manually compensate. I have some work to do on my accuracy.




Below is also at 50 yards with my Savage 17HMR with 3-9x40mm scope and bipod. 1 shot per target. It is very good gun. I seriously believe the only reason they aren't all bulls-eyes at that here is only my level of skill. It is sighted for 100 yards. I was having a hard time forcing my self to aim low enough.

Ohio Senate Bill 239 Passes - Restaurant Carry

A modification to the rules for concealed firearm carry passed the Ohio Senate Thursday. The Columbus Dispatch has the most detailed article I could find.

The Ohio Senate Bill, SB 239, like its House counterpart, HB 203, would allow CCW permit holders to exercise their permit in restaurants that serve alcohol just like they are allowed to already in any other store or restaurant, so long as they themselves do not drink.

I prefer the language of the Senate Bill to that of the House Bill because it actually removes words from the law and is easier to read. I don't really want to have to know about the different classes of liquor licenses to determine which buildings I can walk into.

SB 239 goes beyond the House Bill in that it also removes restrictions on how firearms may be carried in cars. The current law has some somewhat confusing language about closed containers and such which might be easy to violate accidentally or that may be unevenly enforced by officers. I personally consider this part of the revision far less important than the restaurant carry modification. There is some wisdom in at least requiring that that the weapon be holstered and in some way restrained so that it is not allowed to freely float around the car's interior. That said, I welcome simplification of the law. Hopefully that safety issue can be addressed just as effectively in training classes and the Ohio CCW handbook without requiring the force of law.

I would like to thank the Ohio Senators who voted for this bill and encourage the Ohio House members to act swiftly to pass it there as well. This is one of the few Ohio laws that affects my daily routine and I would very much like to see it adopted. It would certainly make going to Chipotle easier.

Good use of a slow motion camera.

This guy makes fine use of a slow motion camera. The part around 2:09 is particularly good.

Tom Knapp in Ohio, Aftermath

As I guessed it was indeed well worth the drive to see Tom Knapp. Nearly as impressive as his skill as a shooter was his skill as a showman and salesman. Benelli is very fortunate to have him on their team.

Below is just a small sample of what I saw in the show.

Tom Knapp in Ohio

Tom Knapp the exhibition shooter for Benelli is coming to Ashland, Ohio next weekend for 3 shows at Fin Feather and Fur. I'm told there is no charge.

It should be well worth the drive to see him in person. He was recently featured on the History Channel's Extreme Marksmen and More Extreme Marksmen.

Forgive the hokey music but here's a vid up on youtube of some of his stuff.

Oldie but goodie

Here is a clip telling about Talking to the Police by Professor James Duane. Or more accurately, about why you shouldn't talk to the police. Worth a look, even if you think you'll always be innocent.

Range report

A while ago I posted the story of how my purchase of a rifle scope off ebay went horribly wrong. I did eventually get the scope I wanted from another vendor and got it attached to a shiny new rifle. So I thought I would share my results. Here are the results on my last 2 targets at 100 yard.



These were shot using a Savage Arms Model 12 Varminter Low Profile in .308 Win with an Osprey 6-24x50mm scope off a Harris bench rest bipod on a wooden bench. The ammunition was military surplus 7.62x51 NATO FMJ boat tails made in Lithuania.

Being fairly new to shooting rifles as powerful as a .308 Win, it took me most of my range time to get used to dealing with the recoil. The Savage 2 stage accutrigger system helps a lot, but it can't negate the shooter flinching in anticipation of recoil.

The point of this post is just to say again what many already know... Savage makes extremely accurate rifles. It will be some time until I can use this one to its full potential. I am very impressed with the rifle and the scope. I'm sure there are better scopes in existence, but for the price I think you would have a hard time beating the Osprey.

Memorial Day Fun

A bit of a repeat, but Tannerite never seems to grow old.

Gregory J Knox for President!

Wow, I just got done reading a letter from Gregory Knox, an automotive parts supplier in Ohio, addressed to General Motors. It was a breath of fresh air. It was inspiring, much like Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech. There may still be hope.

I keep hearing on the news that Rush Limbaugh may be "the voice" of the new republican party. This saddens me. If the Republican party is going to survive, if is going to matter, they don't need Rush Limbaugh. They need people like Gregory Knox. We need a party that does not exist to just to oppose the Democrats and protect the rich. We need a party that promotes moral and financial responsibility at all levels and protects all of our personal rights. Allow people to profit from wise and correct choices and to learn from poor ones. Allow every choice to make this country stronger and better.

How did we get into this mess?

Here's a good visualization of the credit crisis.

http://www.crisisofcredit.com/

Or on YouTube in 2 parts:
Part 1
Part 2

The YouTube version seems to load more reliably.

The Forest Grows

CNN has recently reported that with soon-to-be-President Obama's 800 billion dollar stimulus package the total cost of America's economic bailout will likely reach 8 trillion dollars. Using the calculations from my last post that would be 143 square miles of money tree forest.

To put that in perspective, that could be a forest 2 miles wide and more than 70 miles long of dense money trees. You could start out on edge of the forest in the early morning and run until the sun goes down never seeing beyond the forest.

Again, the forest in red:

If money grew on trees...

2008 has been a rough year for the US financial system. Our political leaders have been trying everything they can think of restore our crippled economy. Primarily their efforts have involved the government loaning or giving away lots of money it does not have. Some of the more conservative estimates say the cost of various bailouts is now 1.2 trillion dollars with some saying at high as 7.7 trillion (let's not think about that number). 1.2 trillion is a very big number. It is so big it is hard to wrap the mind around. This got me thinking.

If money grew on trees, how big a forest would be necessary to save us?

Let us assume a money tree is about the size of good sized sugar maple and that each leaf is a 1 dollar bill. Let us also assume that an adult tree has about 200,000 leaves. Figuring that a large tree needs about 10 feet of spacing we can fit 436 large money trees per acre. That's 87.2 million dollars per an acre of money tree forest. So to come up with the 1.2 trillion dollars that have been used too keep our economy afloat so far, the government would need to harvest every leaf from every tree in 13,761 acres or 21.5 square miles of lush money tree forest.

As a visual aid. Imagine our money forest is the red area sitting on top of one of Northeast Ohio's largest parks.



I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE USED SO THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS UNDERSTANDING..

As most everyone knows there is risk involved purchasing anything from E-Bay. It had been long time since I've gotten anything there, but Microsoft live.com's Cash Back partnership program with E-Bay promised to save me about $30 on a new scope. The potential savings lured me back and reminded me why I haven't shopped there in a while.

The item I was attempting to purchase is an Osprey International rifle scope. The seller had it listed for $20 less than the cheapest retail store I'd found and with the $30 from MS, I stood to save about $50. That bit of motivation is what got me into the following email chain. I chose Buy It Now and paid with PayPal. I knew I was in trouble from my first communication with the seller. Messages are edited slightly for anonymity and language.

Seller [9:24 pm]:

THIS IS A BRAND NEW OSPREY SCOPE--NEW IN BOX--DO YOU MIND LEAVING POSITIVE FEEDBACK SO PAY-PAL WILL RELEASE YOU PAYMENT--I WILL POST IN THE MORNING--PRIORITY MAIL--THIS NEW POLICY IS A BUNCH OF S***..

Apparently, Pay-Pal has a new policy that requires "risky" seller's money to be held until feedback is given, delivery is confirmed, or 21 days pass. On E-Bay, feedback is the only thing that keeps sellers honest, so asking for feedback in advance is a giant red flag. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I responded.

Me [10:48 pm]:

I will be happy to leave you feedback as soon as I receive the product in promised condition. E-Bay's feedback system is designed to allow buyers and sellers to evaluate quality of service. It would be dishonest leave feedback regarding future events.

Thank you for your prompt response. I look forward to leaving positive feedback.

Seller [6:41 am]:

I SUGGEST YOU CONTACT EBAY OR PAY-PAL AND REQUEST A REFUND--I DO NOT HAVE A FINANCE PLAN AND THIS IS NOT AARON,S RENTS!! THE POLICIES ARE DESIGNED TO SCREW PEOPLE THAT SELL AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE..YOUR MONEY WILL BE FROZEN FOR 21 DAY,S SO THE ONLY ONE TO BLAME IS PAY-PAL--I,M NOT SENDING A G*D-D**N THING TO ANYONE--NOTHING PERSONAL

Seller [7:52 am]:

I,M SORRY BUT I HAVE NOTIFIED PAY-PAL & EBAY THAT I "WILL NOT SHIP" THIS ITEM--IF YOU WILL LOOK ON SPORTSMANGUIDE.COM--ITEM# WX2-140288 THIS IS THE SAME OSPREY SCOPE AS I OWN--SORRY--IF YOU WILL LOOK AT MY FEEDBACK IT IS 100%--EBAY,S POLICY IS NOT ASSURANCE IT EXTORTION--I RETIRED FROM THE GA. LAW ENFORCE ASSOCIATION AND THIS IS EXTORTION--JUST LIKE KID-NAPPING AND I FULLY INTEND ON FOLLOWING UP ON THESE BLOOD SUCKING PARASITES--I HAD (3)NON-PAYING BIDDERS THAT HELD MY PRODUCTS UP FOR WEEKS AND EBAY WOULD NOT DO A D**N THING--DOUBLE-STANDARD OR PROFILEING--REGARDS

At this point I still wanted my scope, but was getting very tired of the swearing and capital letters. Though he wasn't swearing at me (yes at E-Bay/Pal-Pal), it was in my general direction. Also, there was no visible indication to me of the "will not ship" status. It should be noted that he and I both had only small amounts of only positive E-Bay feedback. Nothing bad, but not a lot of transactions to build confidence. My response was, I felt, very measured--except maybe at the end.

Me [9:12 AM]:

Mr. ########,

I think you're exaggerating just a bit. I am happy to leave you feedback as soon as I receive the product, which believe will release your money fairly quickly.
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/securitycenter/sell/SaferPayments-outside

I will deal with attempting to get a refund tonight if unless I hear that you've shipped the product. I would ask that if you do reconsider and decide to ship at this point that you make use of the delivery confirmation number option from USPS and provide me with that number so that I may track that it has shipped and you may determine when it is received.

Please reconsider. If you do your part, you WILL be paid. If you don't, then it will be a pain for me and you will receive negative feedback.

Thank you,
-#######

PS. On the left hand side of your keyboard below the tab key is a button called Caps Lock. If you tap it once, your text will no longer appear in all capital letters.

I tried to tell myself the PS was actually meant to educate, but who am I fooling.

Seller [10:52 am]:

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADVISE IN ADVANCE BUT I WILL NOT RE-CONSIDER FOR ANY REASON--EBAY POLICIES ARE GOOD FOR EBAY ONLY--NOT THE MEMBERS--I HAVE DEALT WITH THESE PEOPLE BEFORE--OUESTION--LETS SAY 250,000 SELLERS PAYMENTS ARE PUT ON HOLD EVERY DAY--ESCROW ACCOUNTS--THAT PAD EBAYS POCKETS WHILE THE SELLERS HAVE TO WAIT AND EBAY LAUGHS ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK--I,M SORRY BUT MY DECISION IS FINAL--VERY BEST REGARDS

Seller[10:54 am]:

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE USED SO THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS UNDERSTANDING..

Hahahahaha! Really? Capital letters are the key to writing clearly? I would have thought that spelling and punctuation might go further. My grammar and spelling are far from perfect, but I understand their value. It is probably like talking to foreigners. If you speak English really slowly and loudly that's just as good has having a translator, isn't it. :-)

At this point I had been told firmly, twice, that I would not be getting my merchandise. I didn't have my Pay-Pal login info handy so I figured I would take care of filing a dispute later. In the mean time I still needed a scope, so I ordered the one for $50 more at a legitimate online store. But uh-o what's this?

Seller [3:41 pm]:

I would not want you to think i would take your money and not give in return, besides i couldn,t punish you because of something i dont like--anyway i have your scope ready to ship--priority mail--and will post at 8:45 est in the morning--you can count on it-----( SIMPER FI )

It looks like someone got their medication. That seemed civil and even used the shift key, but I don't need 2 scopes. Luckily, communications were reasonable from there.

Me [3:48 pm]:

Please don't ship it. Since you're firm refusal to ship in your last correspondence I've since bought it from someone else, and I don't need 2 of them. Just return the money and we'll go our separate ways. Please acknowledge.

Yes, I know. "You're" is different than "Your." Care to lay odds as to whether he noticed?

Seller [3:55 pm]:

THAT,S FINE..

After that, I got a refund notice from Pay-Pal. That is, sort of, a happy ending to the story. Now I just have decide what kind of feedback, if any, to leave. I didn't get my stuff, but I did get my money back. I would consider that a negative experience. "Probably not a criminal", isn't a ringing endorsement. Negative, neutral, or none?