Libertarians

They want to take over and leave you alone!

Great bumper sticker philosophy.  Too bad that many of the people who would be attracted by it would be repulsed by the corollary:

Libertarians:  We want to take over and make you leave the other guy alone!

even if most Libertarians, or ("small 'l'") libertarians, would do so by moral suasion, and making sure "the other guy" was able to defend himself, as opposed to actually, you know, somehow forcing you to mind your own damned business.

In my previous post I made a joking reference to the fact that the Libertarian Party  is commonly viewed as the Party of Legalization of Drugs, and little else more.  I really do think they should start emphasizing the economic liberty aspects of libertarianism, and let the whole "Declare victory in the War on Drugs and go home" thing wait until they have the ability to do more about it than debate esoteric points of political philosophy...

Speaking of which...

The AnarchAngel : Two libertarians walk into a bar...

Aretae's lovely wife ran out of steam just around the time we (just barely) started talking about compatibilism, utilitarianism, determinism, associationism, the veil of ignorance, the social contract, and the fundamental nature of rights.

See, we barely know Chris and Mel, other than by their blog, although I did enjoy swapping war stories with Chris, and Mrs. Drang talked spinning and other crafty stuff with Mel, at Gun Blogger Rendezvous IV.  I can just imagine him rubbing his hands in anticipation at being able to have that kind of discussion with fresh meat a new victim friend.

Me, my eyes glaze over just reading about it.  So that's another thing: Go ahead and debate those esoteric political philosophical points all you want with each other, but know your audience.

Some Gun Blogger Rendezvous Memories

Some more-or-less random pics from GBR IV and V.

Me shooting the Springfield 1911 I didn't win in the raffle...

Me shooting Kevin's S&W Model 25

Bea--True Blue Sam's mom

Chuck with Project Valour IT laptop

Swag

Quick Cal demonstrates Cowboy Fast Draw

Rick's from Texas, can you tell?

Molly and Keewee.

GG with Derek's AR

Allen,with Rick's KRIS

Rick let me shoot his Thompson!

GG with Kevin's 1911

GG with my S&W 625

Lori checks out the competition...

This one is "real"--full auto and everything...

 

Dirt Crashr's Krag--I think that thing's longer than a Mosin!

I never did get all my video from last year's Cowboy Fast Draw sorted out, maybe in my copious free time...

Gun Blogger Rendezvous VI is coming!

But I'm not going.  Mrs. Drang says we have to go to Kauai for her birthday.  Darn.

Anyway.

As part of house "blogkeeping" I have consolidated my GBR V entries in the sidebar into the two previous posts, and then added them to what was the GBR IV item there, and is now just GBR. All the information should still be there. (This of course negates this post from lat year: New Blogroll--Update.)

Mr. Completely sent this message out:

...Pre-registrations are coming in, but we need to encourage a lot more folks to attend to make it all worth the effort and to be able to continue to attract sponsors, and in the end, raise money for Project Valour-IT.

We will have at least three guns to give away in the raffle, and possibly four, plus other cool stuff too. The NRA is buying us Breakfast on Friday morning, GunUp is going to buy us dinner on Friday Night, and NSSF is buying us pizza on Saturday night. Registration is still only $30 per person, so you make that back just in free food, even before the door prizes!

You do NOT need to be a Blogger to attend! Especially on Saturday night, lots of folks who are more-or-less local show up to eat the National Shooting Sports Foundation's pizza and win sweet schwag in the raffle--note the "three or four guns" in Mr. C's message above...

Although, obviously, being there the whole weekend and eating the NRA's breakfast Friday morning and GunUp's BBQ Friday night would be cool, too.  And, hey, since you're there, why not let a teenage girl out-shoot you, too?

GBR-IV Recap

As I go through photos and videos from Gun Blogger Rendezvous V, here is a list of the posts I made last year from GBR-IV:

• Bloggers at GBR-IV
• GBR-IV Friends and Sponsors

 (The rest are in order posted)

• GBR-IV, Post 1
• GBR-IV Schwag
• GBR-IV, Post 2 UPDATE (Includes my summary of Alan Gura's talk of Heller, and pre-MacDonald.)
• GBR IV: Skin That Smoke Wagon!
• GBR-IV Miscellany (Includes my write-up of Soldiers Angels-Project Valour IT & Major Chuck Ziegenfuss.)
• Son of "GBR-IV: Skin That Smoke Wagon!" (Links to The Packing Rats photos.)
• DOOOOOOD! UPDATE! W00t! ("The Take" for Project Valour IT.) 
• GBR Tunage

Bloggers at GBR-IV

• Aiming for Accuracy
• Anarchangel
• Anthroblogology
• Bearcat's Spin
• Cap'n Bob and Damsel
• Cheaper than Dirt
• The Clue Meter
• Engineering Johnson
• From My Position…On The Way!
• KeeWee’s Corner
• The Molly Minute
• Mr. Completely
• The Packing Rat
• Random Nuclear Strikes
• Reasonable Nut
• Ride Fast & Shoot Straight
• Say Uncle
• Smallest Minority
• Snowflakes in Hell
• Traction Control
• Wandering Minstrel

PS: please let me know if I missed anyone!

Or if any of these links are bad; I've already found a couple...

GBR-IV Friends and Sponsors

List of Sponsors/"Friends" of Gun Blogger Rendezvous IV:

• Para USA
• Hi Point Firearms
• GLOCK
• Dillon Precision
• Lucky Gunner Ammo (Sponsor/Survivor)
• Silver Legacy - Reno
• Brownell's (Sponsor/Survivor)
• Natchez Shooter's Supply
• Midway USA
• Remington
• Nosler Bullets
• Circus Circus - Reno
• Crimson Trace
• Springfield Armory
• The Cowboy Fast Draw Association
• Cheaper Than Dirt (Sponsor/Survivor)
• Bison Armory (Sponsor/Survivor)

Plus, of course,

• Alan Gura
• National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action
• National Shooting Sports Foundation

And, as always, a special shout-out for Soldiers Angels and Project Valour-IT.

DOOOOOOD! UPDATE! W00t!

Major Chuck says the Gun Blogger's Rendezvous raised over $8000 for Project Valour IT!

PS: PayPal still sucks.

UPDATE:

Mr. C reports that the full amount was $8243.80; plus, NSSF kicked in an additional $1000.00 at the last minute.

Son of "GBR-IV: Skin That Smoke Wagon!"

Packin' Rat has videos and pics of the Cowboy Fast Draw event, and pics of the day at Virginia City.

GBR-IV Miscellany

Saturday morning we decided to sleep in and take it easy rather than go to the range and shoot Steel Challenge. Sounds like a great time was had by all, but we don't get to sleep in and spend a day together often enough. We needed this.

That afternoon we made it to the Hospitality Suite before the appointed hour for the beginning of the evening's festivities, kicked off by Rachel Parsons, Media Liaison from the NRA-ILA, then Bill Brassard of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, followed by the All You Can Eat Pizza Feast--paid for by the NSSF--and the raffle, the results of which I blogged that night before passing out.

I wasn't taking notes, but Rachel spoke mostly about Bloggers and the NRA-ILA working together. She spoke a little bit about how oftentimes there are things that NRA is doing "behind the scenes" which can't be discussed; during the question and answer period we made a few suggestions about how the NRA can better use "social networking media"--i.e., blogs, FaceSpace, Twitter--to keep the public informed.

Bill mostly talked about the same sorts of things; it sounds like NSSF may be making better use of "Web 2.0", AKA social networking media, to keep folks informed. Of course, if folks don't know it's there...

NSSF picked up the tab for the "all you can eat pizza feast"; NRA had paid for munchies the night before. Other than the use of the Hospitality Suite and the pizza feast, GBR was pay-as-you-go for attendees, so almost every dime on the attendees' registration fees and of raffle ticket sales went to Soldiers' Angels - Project Valour-IT, founded by Major Chuck Ziegenfuss to provide laptop computers with voice-activated software, Wii gaming systems, and handheld GPS' to military personnel recovering from traumatic injuries.

I'm not generally in the habit of praising officers, but Chuck's talk Saturday night--and, in fact, his company throughout the event--was very entertaining. From his description of the nature and extent of his wounds, he could very easily have simply descended into a perpetual self-pity party, or have given up and died. Instead, with the help of his wife and his personally-assigned Soldiers Angel, the first "adaptive laptop for the wounded"; a laptop was loaded with Dragon Naturally Speaking software, so he could use it while in Walter Reed Army Hospital with both arms in casts, and he was only able to type with one finger. Now he could surf the web and write emails while in the hospital; to him, the most important aspect was that he could stay in touch with "his guys", the soldiers in his unit. (His full story is told on pages 18-20 of the September '09 Soldiers' Angels Newsletter.) (That entire document seems to be loaded with some sort of electronic hay fever, better have some tissues handy...)

From Project Valour-IT's website:

Technology supplied includes:

• Voice-controlled Laptops - Operated by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, they allow the wounded to maintain connections with the rest of the world during recovery.
  
• Wii Video Game Systems - Whole-body game systems increase motivation and speed recovery when used under the guidance of physical therapists in therapy sessions (donated only to medical facilities).
• Personal GPS - Handheld GPS devices build self-confidence and independence by compensating for short-term memory loss and organizational challenges related to severe TBI and severe PTSD.

ADDED: I managed to send my photos of Chuck's talk to a black hole, but DirtCrashr has one here.

After the dust from the raffle settled--except I'm not sure it's finished settling yet--Gun Blogger Rendezvous IV brought in over $5000 for Soldier's Angels/Project Valour-IT, perhaps as much as $7000. Being part of that definately made up for the 13-14 hour drives both ways, gas prices in excess of $3.00 a gallon, and, for Mrs. Drang, spending her birthday doing somehting I wanted to do instead of what she wanted to do.

(See my post GBR-IV Schwag for what Mrs. Drang and I brought home.)

Other stuff: GBR-IV was officially over after the Cowboy Fast Draw. I think most folks left that afternoon; we stayed over a day, and drove home Monday. We took the route I-80 eastbound, then US 95 northbound from Winnemucca, getting on I82 westbound just west of Boise. We then picked up I84 west of Pendleton, turning west again on I90 at Ellensburg. Google maps had told us to expect a 14+ hour drive taking this route, but I believe we could have trimmed an hour of that, what with the speed limit in Nevada being 75 on the interstate and 70 on two-lane back roads, and 70 in Washington outside of built-up areas. If it hadn't been for construction in Oregon and Washington... (At last in Washington there was work going on; in Oregon, once again, it looked as if they had the lane changes laid out but were doing no work...)

It occurred to us late in the stay that we could probably have used our time share's travel agency to book a room at the Silver Legacy, using our points; it might have cost more points, but we used the kitchenette in the time-share so little that food costs would not have been significantly higher. We may try that compromise next year. It would also be nice to be able to get enough time off to be able to be down there earlier, but that is too situation-dependent.

All in all this was a great experience, new friends were made, and a great time was had by all. We hope to be able to be there next year.

GBR IV: Skin That Smoke Wagon!

Sunday morning started with breakfast at 730, with a much diminished crowd--it looks like most folks could get Friday, or Thursday and Friday, off, but not Monday as well. We all crammed into two vehicles and made our way to Virginia City, for Cowboy Fast Draw at the Camel Races. (And, no, I don't know why they have camel races in Virginia City, NV, and we didn't stay to watch.)

Cowboy Fast Draw is a present-day evolution of the fast draw fad of the 1950s, which also spawned several other "action shooting" disciplines/sports. In this format, two shooters armed with single-action revolvers loaded with cartridges that consist of wax projectiles powered by shotgun primers (no other powder!) stand side by side, facing two targets. The targets are 24" metal disks, with a light in the middle; it is coated with lithium grease for conductivity. When the wax "bullet" strikes the disk, the hit is registered.

The timer gives the command "Shooters, set", which tells the shooters that the timer has started; after a random interval (2-5 seconds, unknown in advance to anyone) the lights go on, at which point the shooters, shoot. Assuming both shooters hit the targets, the light for the target hit first starts blinking. The targets are wired to record the time interval between the light going on and the bullets' strike, to the thousandths of seconds.

We ran a modified tournament format, each of us shooting three times, each relay being best three out of however many shots it took.

I was pretty fast, when I hit the target--instinctive shooting is not my style, and it was nearly always self-defeating to bring the pistol up to try and aim, taking a few extra tenths of a second, which can make a difference.

DIGRESSION:

As I mentioned, Cowboy Fast Draw evolved from the fast Draw fad of the 50s. In it's present incarnation, according to "Cody", the president of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association, who talked to us before the event started, it began around the beginning of the millennium, with the Cowboy Fast Draw Association being formed in 2002.

In fact, that fast draw fad led to most of today's action shooting sports: Jeff Cooper speaks of "Leather Slap Days at Big Bear", which led to his development of the "Modern Technique of the Pistol"; Leather Slap also led to the establishment of the International Practical Shooting Confederation/United States Practical Shooting Association
, and, in what may best be described as a schism, International Defensive Pistol Association. (USPSA is also the "home" of the Steel Challenge Shooting Association; I skipped the Steel Challenge shooting Saturday AM.)

IPSC/IDPA in turn developed into Cowboy Action Shooting (Single Action Shooting Society), which further evolved--or perhaps "devolved" is a better word--in Cowboy Fast Draw.

Now, for years there had been something of a philosophical feud between LTC Jeff Cooper, USMCR (RET) and LTC Rex Applegate, USA (RET.) Cooper (pbuh) had, as I mentioned above, developed the Modern Technique of the Pistol, which called for a two-handed firing stance and the use of the sights. Applegate (pbuh) developed his system of point shooting while working with the OSS in WWII; it calls for developing your kinesthetic response to the point (pun not intended!) that you can instinctively shoot at and hit your target without use of the sights at all. The shot is almost always taken as soon as one draws from the holster, and is sometimes called "hip shooting".

END DIGRESSION

I think the problem I was having was that most of my pistol shooting has been done using the Modern technique, and I am simply not used to Point Shooting. Possibly LTC Cooper (pbuh) had a point (pun really not intended this time!)--assuming a two-handed firing position and getting a "flash sight picture" only takes a few thousandths of a second more, and results in a lot more (and more effective) hits, so maybe this style of shooting is more effective. I have long suspected that Point Shooting is very difficult, if not nearly impossible, for some to learn, or at least to0 master, and that for the general population, the Modern Technique may be superior.

My own experience at Cowboy Fast Draw is hardly conclusive.

*

US Citizen of Traction Control dressed for the event; being from Texas, this may be the way he dresses all the time...

He placed third overall, among the Gun Bloggers.

Note that, despite the fact that this is supposed to be instinctive shooting, we are both bringing the pistol up to eye level--the really good times (sub .8 seconds) were brought in by shooters who were "hip shooting", as LTC Applegate would have advocated. I forget who said "Make haste, slowly", it might have been Wyatt Earp, but Earp did say "Be accurate, fast!"

*

Here's me missing--again.

Good shot of the targets, although you might not be able to really make it out, the center is about a three inch diameter clear section. The slathering of the target with white lithium grease somewhat obscures it. Still, you can see the light through the grease, to now when it's OK to miss.

Most of my shots were going high. The Colt Model P "Peacemaker" is supposed to be a well-pointing gun, but if you are not used to shooting in that manner, it can still take some getting used to.

All in all, this was a lot of fun, but I don't know if I will invest in yet another shooting sport...

GBR-IV, Post 2 UPDATE

UPDATED TO ADD PHOTOS
We'll see if I can get through this post with fewer typos...

Friday, the first full day of the Gun Blogger's Rendezvous, started off with 25 of us descending on one of the many restaurants in the complex (Circus Circus, the Silver legacy, and I'm not sure what else) for breakfast.

Breakfast buffet.

Bacon. Mmmmm, bacon...

Sorry, got distracted...

Then we all trooped out to the Washoe County Regional Shooting Facility, for a day of sun in the fun in the sun. Fortunately, the firing line was under cover. Mrs. Drang decided not to do any shooting, but had taken her spinning wheel. Alas, a part seems to have disappeared from the wheel, so it was useless. Couldn't find the missing part--we assume it has become a cat toy, hopefully we'll find it when we get home.

The view downrange. There is a 40-position high-power range just off to the right, looks like a GI-style range.

Got a lot of shooting in, myself. Mrs. Drang's new Kel-Tec PF9 seems to shoot low, although, since I was mostly shooting bargain ammo, that might have been the problem--I did put one magazine of Magtech hollow points through it, and they seemed to do better. Also, despite being so small and light, it does not, in fact, kick too badly.

Speaking of Kel-Tec, a couple of folks tried out my Sub2000 carbine in 9mm. This is a handy little thing that folds in half; I added the KT picatinney rail, and, since that sits out at the front of the fore-end, a Yankee Hill Machine rail extension, so I could hang a folding vertical fore-grip as well as a light to it. All in all, like I said, a handy little home defense and/or "trunk" gun.

Did better with her Firestar .40; since they run a cold range (i.e., no "shooting from the draw"), and it was pretty darned crowded, I did not spend a lot of time trying out the holster that one of the guys from the Washington State Hometown Forum on AR15.com made for her. We watched the whole proces, which seemed to disconcert him, at first, but it was a good thing we did: He's about as tall as I am, and had never made a holster for a 5'1" woman before, so there was a lot of fitting and adjusting to be done. The process took about three hours instead of his more usual one.

Also (finally!) fired the AR15 I put together, and it did fine. It's a flat-top upper, so I added a Magpul back-up rear sight, and also mounted a Sightmark holo sight. The Sightmark is really an "air-soft" sighting system, but I was (frankly) being cheap. I was astonished to find that the Magpul rear sight in conjunction with the standard front sight was close enough to "right on target" to need no adjustments--at least when you shoot like me.


The holo-sight was way off, though, a little low and on the next target to the right, that it needed about 100 clicks to bring it in. Mrs. Drang was trying to get some pictures, and was afraid she was going to use up the batteries waiting while I adjusted...

Also got to fire the Para-Ordnance .45 that I am winning is being raffled off tonight. And a Smith & Wesson Model 25. (Kevin's I think...)

A 1911 with sights I can see! How novel!

Back to the hotel--Mrs. Drang ate lunch while I took a shower--then we mosied back to the Silver Legacy hospitality suite for Show and Tell. Lots of neat toys got shown off.

Then to Gecko's Smokin' BBQ for dinner; it being her birthday, Mrs. Drang kinda splurged, but we both skipped desert.

OTOH, back in the hospitality suite, we opened a bottle of Icicle Ridge Asian Pear desert wine, to go with the Viking Cheese we brought. (Viking Cheese is from the Washington State University School of Agriculture Creamery, home of the justly-famous "Cougar Gold" cheddar. Viking is a semi-soft white cheese with basil. Mmmmm...)

Someone asked "gun lawyer" Alan Gura, of Heller Decision fame, to "give a little talk" about upcoming cases such as the review of Nordyke, and "the Chicago Case." That was at about 8:15-ish, and he allowed as how, since we were a pretty knowledgable group, he would shorten his usual talk to 20 minutes or so and then we could ask him a few questions...

(I know that others were blogging about this as it went on, so I won't try and review it from memory.) (Being cheap again, I decided not to pay the Silver Legacy for use of their wi-fi. I assume those who were paying for a room got it free.)

One thing that came up was "People want to help, how can they?" Apparently some folks have tried to send Alan money, and he has refused it. He suggested making donations to the Second Amendment Foundation.

He also denied the rumors that he owns no guns, but he wouldn't go into any details, which makes sense to me, as he wants to avoid making "The Cause" about him instead of, well, The Cause.

Alan having said that he would just give a brief talk, I think he was a bit relieved when Silver Legacy staff came in at 11:00 PM and ran us off so they could clean up...

This morning is Steel Challenge Shooting, which I have decided to skip, as doing so allowed me to sleep in and spend the morning with Mrs. Drang, something we don't get to do enough. Back to the Silver Legacy this afternoon to meet with Rachel from the NRA, and Bill from NSSF.

And now I need more coffee... (Decaf: yuck!)

GBR-IV Schwag

So here's what Mrs. Drang and I are taking home:

• 3 t-shirts, 2 from Crimson Trace, and 1 from Springfield Armory
• 1 cap, Crimson Trace
• 1 "Unorganized Militia, Signal Corps" patch
• JB Bore Cleaning Compound (Courtesy Brownells)
• 1 Springfield XD can cozy
• Springfield Armory patch
• Steel Challenge Shooting Association patch

From The Clue Meter

and...

From The Clue Meter

Alan Gura-autographed "Heller Kitty" t-shirt.

Yeah, I'd've liked one lof the Para-Ordnance pistols, but wotthehell?

UPDATE: Last estimate I heard was that Gun Blogger Renezvous IV raised enough money to allow Soldiers Angels/ Valor-IT to buy 30 or more laptop computers with voice recognition software. Major Chuck demonstrated how this works Saturday night--after showing off his scars--and it's pretty nifty.

GBR-IV, Post 1

So we made it into Reno for the Gun Bloggers' Rendezvous yesterday evening, checked in at about 1900, which was pretty close to my estimated 14 hour drive time. (Google Maps said 13 hours and a few minutes, but I figured that didn't include pit stops, fuel stops, or lunch.)

Didn't hit any traffic until we were about two hours out, in the thriving metropolis of Susanville, CA: Construction on the way in, and an accident on the way out. And, as in previous trips south of the Columbia, gasoline is still cheaper at home. (Although only by a few cents a gallon in Oregon, it is fifty cents a gallon more in California.)

Also, the dreaded California Fruit and Flora Fascists were pretty much uninterested in my answer, the guy wasn't even looking when he asked me "Any fruits or plants?" (The sign says "Agricultural Commodities"--do a few apples in my cooler count as a "commodity?")

Anyway, got unpacked and more-or-less settled in to our time-share, and walked the three blocks to the Silver Legacy. Managed to find Silver Baron Ballroom "B"--the Hospitality Suite for the GBR.

(Note: If you can stay in the even hotel for something like this, do so, but don't rule out taking advantage of off-site opportunities if "going cheaper" is your best option. The time-share is effectively paid for, and we would have had to dip into savings in order to stay in the 'Legacy. Would have been more convenient, but would not have been there...)

Hung out at Hospitality and chatted for a bit, then went in search of dinner. Came back to the room, took a shower, and then died for the night. We were even more exhausted than we realized! Now puttering around the room, in preparation for the day, and--sigh--cataloging stuff we didn't think to bring.

Time to start hauling stuff to car.

More later!

GBR-IV Weather

For anyone else attending the Gun Bloggers' Rendezvous, or just those who are interested, I added a link to the Weather Underground page for Reno, NV, to my sidebar, with the links to Gun Bloggers and to my Google Calendar for the GBR.

Looks like high 80s and low 90s for the duration.

Blech.