Out and about today...

If I was inclined to need a tinfoil beanie, I would suspect that the recent drop in gasoline prices is proof of some sort of conspiracy to get us used to higher prices gradually--After peaking locally at about $4.25 a gallon, +/-, I can now get gas for around $3.25 a gallon, with a little shopping and/or a club membership of some sort. The drop of almost a dollar a gallon would mean (according to the conspiracy) that I would be glad to pay the new, "lower" price, which would have been "their" plan all along...
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All the cars I see with drivers talking on cell phones in violation of WA State Law, and most of the ones with egregious violations of other driving laws, rules, or etiquette, seem to have either no bumper stickers, or Obama bumper stickers.

I'm just sayin'...
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Went to the WAC Gun Show today. October's show is usually one of, if not the, biggest; there is no show at the Puyallup Fairgrounds in September, so everyone who does not get out for the opening of Deer Season makes the show, instead. Finally picked up a lower parts kit and a collapsible stock (with buffer tube, spring, and carbine buffer) to build my AR15.com Washington Hometown Forum Evil Black Rifle. (The State Hometown Forums--fora?--are the biggest reason I started hanging out at "ARFCOM" instead of The Firing Line or The High Road. For some reason, Washington's Hometown Forum is the most active of them all.)

Building your own does not necessarily save any money--you can get a brand-new no-frills AR15 for about $500-600.

It may save you money in the long run, as you can skip replacing a plain-Jane M16-style stock with a fancy collapsing job, or maybe an even fancier Magpull hyper-adjustable sniper-style one. And so forth. You can also think of it as a less stressful version of a layaway plan; you can buy a piece or two each month, or stretch it out longer, if you wish. (Or need to pay for Tommy's braces, or maybe for Ratbane's trip to the vet, in case he won another fight but wound up with another infected bite...)

A complete upper receiver (with barrel, bolt, foregrips, etc.) will also run about $500. But that complete upper will probably be built from "premium" parts, and have features the $500 "plain Jane" AR15 does not, like equipment rails, a high end barrel. So I'm debating now whether I want to build my upper, or buy one, complete. Dollar-wise, it's a wash, in the long run.
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One of the neat things about the AR15 is that is pretty near a modular rifle: The same lower receiver can be combined with a near infinitude of uppers in a wide variety of calibers for as wide a variety of purposes--home defense, varmint or big game hunting, long range target shooting... There have even been (single shot) uppers that fired the .50 BMG round, and at least on muzzle-loader AR15 upper!

You can even build a pistol out of it, although my understanding of the relevant Federal regulations--or the ATFE's interpretation of same--says that a lower used for a pistol can only be used for a pistol. And that it can never have been used for anything else. I suspect the ATFE believes that guns are black magic, or something...
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Several tables at "the fun show" had military surplus radio gear. Many PRC77s, of course, a few PRC68s, a satcom unit, and one table was selling PRC127s--which operate on the 2 meter band, and go up high enough to use the MARS 2 meter band.

Gee, maybe Congress will give me a bailout so I can buy toys...
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Much fear "out there" of new and improved gun bans and other assorted repression if Obama wins the election. In a way, I'm glad to hear that folks don't seem to be taking his no policy of appeasing the bitter gun clingers seriously, although it is doubtful that, if he wins, the Second Amendment will be repealed on January 21st, 2009.

OTOH, gun bans are part of the Democratic National Committee's platform, election year equivocation or not, and there is a reason I finally decided to start buying the parts I need now...
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